A friend of mine once said that if you take all the Mallus (all in good spirit…: D) out of Bangalore, you’re not gonna be left with a single band in the whole city. So when you have three and a quarter (well, not anymore though) of them coming together to make music, you are bound to be transported to a whole new world of eclectic music.

Hyderabad had its tryst with the Bangalore (yes, no Bengaluru for me) Power Trio Thermal and a Quarter on September 7.

The venue… er, well let’s not talk about that. The “Only Couple Entries” sign is not very welcoming to a rock audience and I had to sorta impose the situation on my friend Priyanka (Thank you so much)… Yes, I was not going to miss this for anything in the world!

Bruce in his shades, Rajeev in his ‘Chainese’ beard and Prakash in his HUUUGE hat were finally hereee…. Beautiful bass lines, excellent control over the solos and some slick runs all along the fret board; yes the new kid on the block had announced his arrival in the TAAQwagon. The level of proficiency Prakash showed with the other two on the songs would amaze any bass player – hats off to you! (no puns intended..: P)…

Rajeev was as usual at his brilliant best with the chops and the rolls and complimenting on all the varieties of songs that the band has in their repertoire…

Bruce Lee Mani, which is he better at exactly – singing or guitaring??… Tight throughout as usual, TAAQ provided a brilliant ambience to an otherwise below average pub. Be it the bluesy new number Grab Me “a Boost in the mug with no happy encore”, a teetotaler’s delectable intrigue against the upbeat “I’m drunk… I’m stoned… I’m high… I’m done” or the groovy Mighty Strange speaking about the heavily dependent IT world or their ever-popular song, the jazzy funky Paper Puli, they were all excellently textured to satisfy us all.

“We come from Bengaluru, earlier known as Bangalore. You guys come from Andhra Pradesh and you don’t know what it’s gonna be called very soon… This is something you should have done a year back”…oh yes, it was time to Shut Up and Vote. The latter part saw Where The State Has No Name, a grim reminder of the political hullabaloo in the state. Oh, and of course, we were also entertained to the ‘Thermalised’ versions of Hey Jude, Wonderwall and Hoedown.

Wonderwall came out all jazzy, fresh and new-born, bearing little or no resemblance to the original Oasis version. Hey Jude was AWE-TAAQ-SOME. Bruce’s guitar patch had a lovely orchestra-chorus vibe to it that left you wondering “How the hell did three guys just manage that shit !” – something that has been provoked very often by the works of Rush, Cream, The Police, ELP et al. The crowd happily sang along to the surging reeves of the coda as Bruce broke out on Vocal Mumbo-Jumbo… …

“You think Paul would’ve liked that??”…Ya right, ‘like’… what an understatement!! And along came the most awaited song of the evening… people following them on Youtube and Bookface (.. ) greeted it quite enthusiastically… Kickbackistan speaking all about the travailed ‘common wealth’ flowing into political pockets. The song truly had all the flavours of a musical hit and people were seen leaving the pub humming along to “Let the Games begin. Let the shame begin.”

Well, our thirst was quenched by the Thermal range of the music… for here before us stood a band which has championed the cause of original music when the whole country was still reeling under the shades and tunes of repetitive covers and also went ahead to make a mark supporting various social causes and to put the icing on the cake, came up with the stunning world class TAAQADEMY.

So next time when these True Messiahs of Indian Rock decide to drop in your city be sure to fix an appointment and taste the sparkling shot of TAAQuila!!

P.S. Word around the pub was that the number of Bruce Lee jokes had exceeded those of Rajnikanth and Chuck Norris…Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a new hero!!!

Photo: Anish Banerjee. View his gig album here

The post Anish Banerjee reviews the Hyderabad 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).

In our small, tired world, there’s too little space for anything. And then we cram in terrorism, recession, traffic jams, politicians, elections, pink slips, pink chaddis, climate change, crop failure…

Where do we draw the line?

Stop, for one small moment…
Think one small thought…
Do one small deed…
Say one small word…

Draw the line. And put the smile back on the face of your day.

Change your Facebook profile to the smiley for today. And then download the song off www.bangalorerock.com. Let’s see how far you can spread the love.

One Small Love was performed and recorded by Thermal And A Quarter. Thanks to Happy (www.thinkhappy.biz) for the creative on the video and director Ashvin Naidu of Avakkai Films. Great work, guys!

The post One Small Love – the video appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).