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What a couple of days.

Bangalore, er, Bengalooru Habba was one super Beja Fry. 4pm afternoon, bright sunny day, an audience that was mostly post-modern plastic. Sivamani’s ginomous drum set-up (everything and the kitchen sink, dish antennas, power windows – a cymbal of excess, but fun I’m sure) dwarfed our little Orangeade kit. We were just plugging in when we hear that it was time for his sound check.. but he wanted to move his whole set up (!) off the drum riser and on to front of stage. So we carried on with our check and launched off into our set.

Through the first coupla songs, Sivamani’s roadies (a half-dozen of them, at least) started lugging all his bits, bells and bongos down off the riser and our effervescent manager PG had to step in, shout, and get a couple of poor maroons to hold a big Radio Indigo sign in front of all the (Habb)ub. Distracting to say the least. We carried on, however, with aplomb, and pulled off a decent set I thought. Heard some good things from the people who were there. Mike Herting (kickass piano/keyboard player, German, plays a lot with Charlie Mariano and others)was watching from backstage. Was good to have him there! He liked our set too… I was fortunate to do a gig with him in another part of the Habba, and that’s a different tale.

JNC was a different kind of trip. You know how it is, girl’s college and all… Our most eligible bachelor, M’sieu Nate Linkon, actually postponed a trip to London to be there! There were some initial worries about sound – we heard scary things about archestra (sic)-style horn speakers, Velumurugan Amplifiers and Gurumurthy Mics. Last minute frantic phone calls got a gent called Francis to do sound. Decent gear.

By the time we got on after Galeej, lots of belles were heading off, probably hostelward, wardens be bell’d. The ones that hung around seemed to be having a blast. Lots of screaming, jumping etc. Fun! We shook some booty on stage and they did too. Wonderwall was nice, so was Sanity, Look at Me and How Can I Get Your Groove.

Good weekend! More to come…