"Ah yet another weekend, yet another gig".. longing for the day I can actually pull that one off but for now, it'll have to be, "Yet another weekend and yet another gig to cover". And this past week I was at the Absolut Launch Party at Kyra with the band Mood Logic, who were called upon quite literally to set the mood at this rock themed event.

The concert which was supposed to start at 730 in true Rock fashion started fashionably late at around 10 after the band members had their fill of food and alcohol and after giving their fair share of interviews for the event, ah such is the life of a band. Speaking of band members the band Mood Logic consists of an ever playful Timmy on lead vocals, a wily Naveen Thomas on lead guitar, Britto providing solid rhythm guitar, a very energetic Wilfred Demoz on the drums, Bryan providing the platform with the bass and a person I have already complimented enough Jason on the Keys.

I was there early, or un-fashionably on time, at 730 and had a chance to hear the band sound check and I must be honest I had a few concerns regarding Kyra's acoustics. But once the first note was hit I must say all those premonitions were laid to waste. Yes the acoustics of the theater weren't that great but a great band, sounding really tight, playing high tempo classic rock numbers, will make you over look that and get you dancing or head banging in seconds.

For this night, Mood Logic played classic rock covers that ranged from Pink Floyd to Deep Purple to Maroon 5. The set list included hits like "Rock you like a Hurricane", "This Love", the Beatles classic "Come Together", a very jammy "Roadhouse Blues", Deep Purple's "Burn", "Another Brick in the Wall" etc. Timmy was completely playing to the crowd getting the crowd involved as and when possible, to the extent that during their rendition Pink Floyd's Wall rather than playing to the crowd, he instead played in the crowd getting into the mix to get people more involved. Naveen Thomas dug into his usual bag of tricks and provided some really sweet sounding solo's mixed in with a few tricks and quirks like playing from either side of the neck etc. Britto was also really on the money providing rhythm guitar and really came to the fore in what I consider the bands high point of the night with Burn by Deep Purple. He hit that riff with pin point accuracy and really made the song jump. In a live performance the little things are what make the difference between good and great and in this case it was solid backing vocals from both Bryan on the bass and Jason on the keys. On songs like Burn backing vocals play a major part and can cause a song to fall apart when not done well but that wasn't the case this time and they also filed in during the start when the crowd was only slowly "getting into the mood". Jason showed his prowess on songs like Roadhouse Blues where he performed a solo and in also in some keys centric songs like Final Countdown. It wouldn't be right if I left out the drums with Wilfred in all this, but I'll simply state the fact that a band can never sound great with just an average drummer, and Wilfred was anything but average.

High points sadly can't exist without there being relative lows and that came about when the band went into romance mode for "Bed of Roses" by Bon Jovi. But then again a band must play to its crowd and I'm sure all those with wives, girlfriends or significant others wouldn't consider that too much of a low. But the band from then on steered clear of anything else low tempo and just concentrated on keeping the energy sky high. They ended the night with a special encore request (by the organizers) of surprisingly, Queen's "Crazy little thing called Love". And Jason threw in a little Mario (the game) jingle right at the end just for kicks, to sign things off.

All things considered, its hard to go wrong with a mix of private concert, free Absolut and great music and this night was no different. For a music lover this was another great night in the book, or in this case the Blog. Until next time adios.

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There are but a few near perfect places in Bangalore, and in my opinion the Hard Rock Cafe Bangalore has always been one of them. Nestled in quite literally the heart of the city on St Marks Road, on the MG road intersection it's placed in a quaint yet lavish stone Cottage (formerly the St Marks Barista), with its high wooden roof and smoky feel (just the feel theres no smoking allowed inside) it really is the perfect location for the world famous chain. On top of that, like all Hard Rock Cafe's around the world, it's laden with priceless rock memorabilia including Eric Clapton's guitar, The Doors drum, a great picture of Metal legends Black Sabbath, Dave Grohl's guitar and the list goes on and on, coupled with a playlist of the genres best numbers and the place is almost perfect. Add to that the food and drinks served in humongous quantities in true Americana fashion, and it becomes a must visit to all Bangaloreans or visitors to Bangalore with even a faint inclination towards Rock. It truly is a little piece of Rock heaven in our own Bangalore.

You might have noticed that I mentioned the place was "almost" perfect and there is a good reason for that, you see all Hard Rock Cafe's around the world are known for their live music where local bands have the opportunity to come to the fore in truly legendary surroundings and that was the missing piece of this master piece. For a long while they didn't have live bands playing at Hard Rock and started doing gigs at the place a little while ago. Most of these concerts have always one way or the other eluded me. Until Now.

And so it came to be that with an over expectant heart I went to see Thermal And A Quarter (TAAQ) playing live at Hard Rock. TAAQ to me, from even what little I had heard of them before the concert, has always been in my book one of the best bands ever to be produced by this city and possibly even this country. Their classic rock numbers heavily influenced by supremely contagious blues guitar, with stand out vocals from the bands lead Bruce Lee Mani and the never-a step-out-of-place drumming from Rajeev and the peppy bass lines from the ever smiling Rzhude (Rudy), have always been great catchy funky numbers that never fail to put a wistful smile on your face. And for this concert at HRC they were joined by the uber talented Jason Zachariah on the keys.

The stage at the HRC is another thing that adds to the allure of the place, its placed right on top of the bar, the place is almost made with live music in mind and thats always a good thing. So with these long list of expectation I went to see TAAQ play live and lets get one thing straight right off the bat it was amazing. The vibe at the place was spot on the crowd was amazing, the music was sublime. TAAQ played a bunch of their own compositions and a couple of covers the highlight of which in my book was a funky version of Hey Jude a crowd pleaser like that is always good to have in the set list. Bruce (aka the Guitar Doctor) was inspirational, his bluesy style play and smooth vocals are hard not to love. Rajeev was performing pretty much from the background as behind a huge drum kit and on the back of the stage, on top of the bar you kind of have to crane your neck to see him. But he really was on the money with some great drumming. As far as Rudy goes well if a smile is contagious he probably infected the whole crowd, it never left his face as he kept putting out those beautiful bass lines. TAAQ's songs are rather guitar centric so Jason was just providing support for the most part but when his number was called up he doled out his impeccable signature style keys solo that we've all come to expect of him.During the break the waiters at Hard Rock also surprised us with a sudden performance of the Village People's legendary song YMCA. I'm not that big a fan of the song but when performed (seemingly) impromptu and on a bar top its hard to dislike.

Sadly soon after their little intermission work beckoned me to leave and cut the fabulous night a wee bit shorter than i would've liked. But that was the only small downside to what was a fabulous night which will not soon, if ever, be forgotten. If anyone from TAAQ, or Jason, actually ends up reading this, great show guys, you rule.

P.S: Haven't got the pics of the Gig yet will put em up as soon as I get them.

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Music is kinda like your veggies, now before you come at me pelting stones and out to break cymbals over my head, let me explain. We were all most likely force fed them as a kid and never took it up and when we grow older we realize they were actually important and now its "too late" to take it up again. Everyone with even a faint interest in music in general has always housed that dream of learning the art well enough to rock the stage. And these hidden desires often show face be it, singing in the shower, drumming at the table or shredding furiously at a guitar only you can see.

So why don't people take the plunge and actually get involved with music and try to live the dream? Everyone seems to have their own little list of the reasons why they can't do something that will actually enrich their lives and chief among the list of usual contenders has always been . . . Time. But now a bunch of upstarts from my own backyard of Bangalore seem to have come up with the answer with what they call "Music Method" (can't you just hear the raspy voiced movie promo guy going Music Method).

In this age of quick solutions ranging from ready to eat food, to crash course studies they claim they can train you in music (in vocal, keyboard, bass, guitar or drums) and in 9 weeks you can be good enough to be put on stage. And thats not just a tag line this time around, that is the actual end result of the course, you and few other students form a band and play at an event. And with this dream of bringing music to the masses was born the Nathaniel school of music (NSM) headed by the mother and son team of Lillian Zachariah and Jason Zachariah. The faculty includes the who's who of the Indian music scene, headed by a Jason himself, a man who is regarded by many (including myself) as one of the best keyboardists in the country today. Add to that bass heavy weight Dwight Patterson (who has played in as big a stage as Wembley no less) and guitar maestro Naveen Thomas and it does have the makings of an all star cast.

Now while I agree most "fast short cut methods" have the tendency of feeling a bit incomplete, what NSM is offering is more of German Drill than a Crash course. Their course spans for 75 hours over 9 weeks with periodic assessments, state of the art equipment and software. And with music, after a point, there is only so much you can do, its like strapping a pair of training wheels and giving you a push on a bike, how far you pedal after that is really your call.

If you haven't figured it out by now I am quite impressed with these guys and what they have to offer, more so after a visit to their site (www.nathanielschool.com) and talking to them about their course and other plans. Visit their site and choose your own method to keep abreast of all the happening at NSM through their Facebook Group or using Twitter or follow this blog (yes I've finally bit the bullet and added the Follow feature to my blogs). Seeing these things really gives me hope that Bangalore is still the music capital of the country and I intend to use this blog to let the world know.

And to further make my point I've actually signed on to join NSM once the courses officially start on Nov 16. If you haven't, then now that Time is out, whats your excuse?

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