It’s hard, walking in to see your favorite band play with a changed lineup. Tons of questions await answering in your head. Most importantly – Will I relate to them as I did before? You quieten these voices, and a little while before the band plays, you have prepared yourself to watch them devour a small furry animal, live, and still not judge.

I walked into the Alliance Auditorium at 7:30. I noticed the new guy, Prakash. My eyes strained, I size him up. The aforementioned animal calls for pity in my head. First song on, comes bass solo #1, some slick runs/slapping, and in no time, Bruce’s shouts of “Give him what he wants, give him whatever he wants“, finds a willing choir on this side of the audience.

Bruce’s “No!” to passionate cries for Paper Puli means I will listen to a new setlist today. Not bad, really. Mighty Strange, ever-so-groovy, about IT and such-like phenomena drifts by. Then, a bluesy Where the state has no name about the frivolity of name-calling. Next, my favorite song of the evening — Ordinary Affair. A beautiful progression, meandering only so much, with that sweet riff to start it all over again. Ah! Whatte beauty! Classic TAAQ songwriting as well, this one credited to Rajeev:

“Some folks never get hitched
Some get a few along the way”

So simple, no? Like “This is it, our time is up” OR “Shut up and vote” OR just, “I’m drunk” OR like the fifty other songwriting sparkles they got — beautifully pithy.

Then, a true “what the…huh?” moment. We stood gasping at the sheer brilliance that was TAAQ’s cover of ‘Hey Jude‘. Jazz / Funk / whatever it was, just made it an absolute privilege to be in the midst of it all. And as if to convince us they were no Martians, Bruce goofing up the lyrics to flash an impish grin. Charming!

Finally, ‘Surrender‘, with its catchy – Should I should I should I should I surrender to round off a perfect evening of music and cheer.

We had surrendered. To the awesomeness.

Some things remain unchanged. Bruce still can carry off those bright red pants. His extraordinary singing/guitar playing, still makes for AMAZING. Rajeev still makes that hi-hat ring in the deepest section of your ear and surprises you with his creative intricacies. But IMHO, I can’t say they sound the same. Simply because, Rzhude and Prakash are about as different as can be! Imagine a John Entwistle replacing Flea, if you will! It will take getting used to. But that said, he is a SOLID replacement and his bass playing is skillfully cogent.

In parts, the band sounds like a splendid cover of their older self and in parts a whole new dimension. You love them anyway! And if they wanted to, they could still devour a small furry animal, live.

The post Cariappa C K reviews Sunday's Alliance gig appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

For some people it was a lonely Valentine’s Day. And this goes out especially to them.

When we played in Pune last year we decided we weren’t going back without cake and cookies from the famous German Bakery. Enjoying them in Bangalore the next day, we didn’t foresee having to reflect on that simple pleasure like this.

Terror could have struck then as it did on the night of February 13, 2010. But we lived to write this. And we shall make the most of the life and joy granted to us.

It is somewhat edifying that we were able to reach out to Pune on February 14. Opus Pune webcast the One Small Love concert live to its patrons.

Thank you for turning up (and turning down your other Valentine’s Day engagements) and for your support and encouragement right through this initiative.

Foremost, our thanks go to the fabulous folks at Trumpit and Opus – Carlton, Shonali, Priyanka, Venkat, Adrian and all the staff whose names fail us but whose smiling faces fill our minds when we recollect that lovely evening. Thank you for event support, your gracious hospitality and for making our artists and guests feel at home at Opus in the Creek, such a tranquil setting with its giant Buddha and tippling fish.

Thank you Konarak Reddy, Gerard Machado, Ravichandra Kulur, Alwyn Fernandes, Gaurav Vaz and Karan Joseph for your soul-stirring performances. A special thanks to Vasu, Varun, Jishnu, Montry, Pavan and Sanjeev, the awesome musicians of Swarathma, for playing a pulse-quickening show. In a market where live performances can hardly pay the bills, these wonderful people unquestioningly played for love.

For making the One Small Love concert a resounding success we thank Niranjan, the man at the soundboard whose admirable patience with the tantrums of rock stars is legend.

Thanks to Saswati Chakravarty, C K Meena, Prakash Belawadi and Harish Bijoor for articulating their special messages to our audience because rock stars (with the notable exception of Gaurav Vaz) are so pathetic at making speeches.

For his time-saving and completely impromptu comic interlude, a whopper of a thank-you goes out to our friendly neighbourhood Bollywood star-in-the-making Rajeev Ravindranathan.

Thanks to Merwyn Rodrigues of JumpMedia, Dubai, who accepted a brief that few designers would, and delivered a poster and profile image for our Facebook page in just a few hours.

We thank Smita and the very talented and even-tempered folks at Kieon for online support and web design.

Thanks to Kartik Iyer, Praveen Das and the beautiful minds at Happy Creative Services for dreaming up the original One Small Love music video. Special thanks also to Ashvin Naidu of Avakkai Films.

Thank you, PG Santhosh and his colleagues at MIPL-GraphicsAllAround, for the One Small Love giveaway stickers and for the big yellow smiley that graced the stage throughout the show.

Thank you, Gaurav Manchanda, for being Ayrton Senna to our guests when the cab guys ditched us at the eleventh hour.

We thank Dean Umesh PN, professors Srijayanth and Ananth and research fellow Bindu of the TAAQ Roadie Institute of Technology (RIT) for running the show like a smoothie, and especially for committing themselves to the odious task of filming people drawing smileys under hot lights.

We are immensely grateful to Facebook and WordPress for their fabulous (and free) online products, which make social messaging and online publishing look ridiculously easy. Ten years ago, we would have struggled to drum up opt-in support for an event like this. This year, we didn’t phone a single journalist.

In the same breath, we thank Facebook evangelists such as Martin D’Souza for spreading the message of One Small Love to their networks. Thanks also to the 1,300+ fans of the One Small Love page for your endorsement of this movement. You have a lot to look forward to.

We have had many managers and we love and respect all of them. But no one merits a bigger ovation than Divya Joseph, who deserves a lifetime royalty from Adidas for living the slogan ‘Impossible is Nothing’. The list of things she deserves to be thanked for cannot be accommodated here, so let just it be said that she was the smile on the face of One Small Love.

Thanks to Velu Shankar, a long-time friend, philosopher and guide of Thermal And A Quarter, for his advice and encouragement.

One Small Love begins at home. Our families deserve our utmost love and gratitude for their support and suffering in the face of our absences, late nights and many missed dinners. Since this suffering, and our solicitations for support, are not about to stop in the near future, we thank you in advance.

The show must go on, no matter what threats loom up to stop us. And we will do everything in our power as musicians and artists to fight violence and hate with messages of love, tolerance and freedom. To paraphrase Harry Belafonte: “You can cage the singer but not the song.”

The concert is only the beginning. In the future that is about to unfold, One Small Love will reach out to the world in many ways and touch many lives.

Let’s draw the line each day.

The post One Big Thankyou appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

His mantra: Live and let live. Be free. Let music help you share and give.

Join him and other musicians, artists and concerned citizens at ‘One Small Love – Bangalore for Mangalore’ on Feb 14 at Opus in the Creek, Bangalore to respect and celebrate the differences that make us unique and interesting to each other.

Draw the line. Spread the love.

The post One Small Love – Alwyn Fernandes draws the line appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).