June 2006 - Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ)Monthly Archive

Back. And loving it. Missed the family.

Decent gig in Delhi, at Le Royale Mirage (which, despite the Frenchie monicker, has egyptian motifs at the entrance, and very plush, slightly massage-in-a-brothel decor on the inside). Cool place, looked packed.

Dunno what it was, but it wasn’t the best gig we played – started real late, around midnight, and I don’t know if it was general tiredness/jet lag/whatever, but energy wasn’t all the way like it usually is. Rajeev was very unhappy, poor chappie, all sorts of things going wrong with the kit. His pedal was off the floor or something, his hi-hats stopped working, the snare was spinning on the stand (!) and so on. Still pulled it all off tho. Really good crowd – a lot of them probably heard us for the first time and were really appreciative of our stuff. Felt good.

The Nice n’Sleazy gig was the definitely the best on the tour. A good bit of the crowd were repeats – they’d seen us at the Govan festival, and brought their friends along! Was really really great to see them tripping, and even singing along with some songs – they’d bought the cd, and I guess they’d been listening! We played really well, I thought, good energy, no dodgy spots, just ON. One of those life-affirming gigs.

But here’s the real icing on the tour cake – we were waiting at Delhi airport when we got a call from Capt. Nagaraj (an airline pilot, musician, all round great guy) – we’d played a real chill gig for his birthday recently. Told him we were flying back to Blore, and he said, hang on, he’ll call us back. Didn’t know what he had in mind. Anyway, got on the plane, settled into our seats, and an announcement comes on over the cabin PA – there’s a call for Rudy. Rudy comes back beaming – we’d just been promoted to business class! You know, those super wide seats, miles of legroom, three-course meal, obsequious attendants.. aaah. One numbers goood sleep also happened, very needed. Thank you O Captain, my Captain!

Back to the grind. Off to Delhi again soon – another gig there on the 30th. Thassit for now.

Well. We made it into the National Dailies. Check this link.

The Herald

Little Tony Das, dreaming of his lass (babe? naaah, his Tele, silly), sits in the hall shredding away on his yet-unsold (sigh) Ibanez. The Guzuru man is busy doing some brisk, expletive-laden kitchen magic. Rajeev is somewhere en route from London to Glasgow, plane, taxi, whatever. Rudy probably in Exeter or Newcastle, should make it in tomorrow. And I sit on Guzuru’s beat up old chair, tapping away blithely on his beat-up old laptop.

The Govan Festival gig, the Sketch, was one of those special ones. Some venues can do that – this one was the auditorium of the Pierce Institute in Govan, a mid-sized, vault-ceilinged, woody affair, with an enormous pipe organ presiding over the main stage. A bit run down with age, but still a beaut. Sound check went completely according to plan – both guitar amps (Marshalls too) breathed their last, Tony and I had to go D.I. with just two monitor mixes, and other such exciting stuff. Anyway. Went on the #3 slot. Sound wasn’t the greatest, but ’twas a really good gig. Booties were shaken, yells were heard, and CDs were lapped up with gusto. Autographs were signed on… well, I’ll leave that to your imagination.

Packed up into our tour bus – what a tour bus. Apparently used by REM, Greenday, System Of A Down, Feeder, Anthrax, and many others on their European tours, it was a little piece of history – and wore all its years on its vaguely cream-ish skin rather well. Belted off down the motorway with Guru at the helm, making it to London in 9+ hours. Pile into Narayan’s place (poor man) for a bit of R&R before soundcheck at the Doctor’s Tonic. {Special mention: throughout this trip, TAAQ has been able to do what it does best thanks to a few large-hearted folks who let us into their worlds with great love. Guru, Prasanna, Sandeep, Vijaya, Hemanth, Ram, Rinku, Shantanu, Sonia, Omie, Sagar, Narayan – we couldn’t have done this without you guys. And I must stop now before something gets in me eye.}

The Doctor’s tonic soundcheck was very pro – Dave was our sound engineer for the day (also happens to be Narayan’s guitar guru in London). Used his looovely Hughes & Kettner amp. Played at #2, after Shotgun Suicide, a local act. Good gig overall, but our fatigue showed a bit, I guess. Just how are we going to get used to this back-to-back touring that grandaddies like the Rolling Stones do as a matter of course? Shucks. Rayner, Merwyn, and a whole bunch of Bangalore buddies, along with various long-lost relatives of band members were in attendance. Felt like, well, home! Super.

Btw, Big Macs are better than BK Cheeseburgers, but not as good as Whoppers.

Spent all of Sunday wandering around Tottenham Court Road, Denmark St., (where all the music stores are, terribly boring aren’t we just). Walked past the Astoria, the Dominion, all those fabled places where our musical heroes have reigned.. Good trip. Guru and some of the boys left Sunday night, I stayed on for another day. Did all the touristy stuff – Hyde Park (or should I say Hyde Beach; it was hot yesterday and apart from the water and the sand, it was a beach all right), Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, Big Behn, etc etc. Saw some cool buskers. Smita, our drummer’s better half, was my tour guide for the evening. The tube is cool too. Massive underground maze, that.

Caught the cramped megabus back. Was bloody hot in London. Glasgow back to being cool today. And with that weather report, shall sign off for now. Ciao folks.

Another good gig last night, at the Hold, Admiral Bar, Waterloo St., Glasgow. Played alongside four bands this time, and the first, called Wakeover, was the most interesting. Some good energy, nice Marshall amp, and Tony was drooling all over the guitar player’s Tele as usual (for those who came in late, Tony is veering away from standard shred axes like the Ibanez PGM he now plays. Btw, the PGM is up for sale on Ebay here, and Tony is hoping like hell somebody buys it so he can buy a Tele from a local store). Coming back to Wakeover, somehow felt the vocalist wasn’t cutting it, but anyway, they were fun to watch.

By the time we got on, the crowd had thinned a bit – we got the last slot close to midnight. Went ahead and did a reasonably tight 40 minute set, no repeats from the last few gigs, except for the encore, Brigade st. Sound wasn’t the greatest… Used a nice Fender Hot Rod DeVille amp, thanks very much to the Virolas (band that played before us) for that. Tony had a tiny 15 w Marshall, but got a decent sound. Chainese Item was a bit of ‘Mixed Fried Rice’ as Guru put it later…

Three down, three to go.

Ah yes, we tootled off to Edinburgh on the weekend. Pretty city. Old old buildings, castle. All the usual tourists. Hilly place, walked up ‘The Royal Mile’ to the castle, past scores of tartan shops hawking scottish memoirs if not Scotch. Met up with an old pal of Tony’s, Oscar. Walked down again looking for grub and all the pubs offered only a liquid diet till 6pm. Ended up at (sheesh) Burger King. Learning: if you’re ever at this homogenised, characterless, cheerless, mindlessly American joint, don’t even think of ordering any other burger but the Whopper. I took Guru’s advice (smart, eh?), checked out the deliciously photographed board-menu, and went for a double cheeseburger meal. Which turned out to be a burger that will fit comfortably inside a penny black, with two patties inside from a clearly starved cow, and a couple of floppy cheese slices. That’s it. Ah yes, there are the fries, which I can never get through, and the watered down drink. The Whopper, on the other hand, (David was wise enough to order it) is much more respectable and actually (hallelujah) has a few bits of green sticking around. Veggies! Wow! And even some mayo! So listen up, folks. If ever you’re down enough on your luck to hit a Burger King, you know what to do. Have it your way.

Hung around the park near the railway station, beside a Walter Scott memorial thing that looked disturbingly like Stephen King’s Dark Tower. Nice.

Seagulls look beautiful when they’re flying, but sort of stuffy and stupid when they’re standing around.