TAAQ kicks off the Shut Up And Vote Tour at IIT-Madras, Chennai

The heat. The dust. The burden of the beast… Chennai is a true ‘Look At Me’ situation. Love it!

IIT OAT – the last time we played here was at least eight on nine years ago – when the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior was docked in Chennai’s port, sounding a clarion call for ‘No More Bhopals’. Was a great gig then (will always remember this one moment: everyone in the crowd was given a candle and asked to light it at the same time… never seen so many stars in the audience like that before – it was stunning); and last night was no less.

Rzhude on bass at IIT-Madras, Chennai

Soundcheck doesn’t quite go according to plan; there’s some conference going on and the Dean keeps ringing us to say ‘Oldein’ (travelers on B’lore buses will know that distinctive sound). But it’s all looking good… the backdrop, the lights, the stage.

Chennai band Greyshack open the gig and get the crowd going with a high-energy medley. We get on after a quick AV and intro; start with Shut Up And Vote and crowd is already roaring. Nice!

Rajeev on drums at IIT-Madras, Chennai

Saw a few Walkie-Taaqies in front singing along to Paper Puli, Look At Me, etc. One Small Love was one of the highlights; used good friend Angshuman’s Taylor acoustic (need more work on getting it to sound right, though) and played the video on the AV screen. Happy lads, kudos! Every pair of hands in the audience spontaneously came together when Rzhude drew that smile on… It was a great moment.

Bruce on guitars and vocals at IIT-Madras, Chennai

Wrap up with Humpty Dumpty, Chameleon and finally, Motorbyckle, complete with sound effects.

Good Gig! Hope we got folks to at least start thinking about the message. Make a date with us – the tour is coming to your city, or at least close!

On to Kolkata now.

Ciao!

TAAQ performs at the Shut Up and Vote tour at IIT-Madras, Chennai

The post The Shut Up and Vote Tour Diary – 1 appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

The Shut Up and Vote Tour

You have already previewed ‘Shut Up and Vote’ on YouTube. Now, coming soon to your city, or a city near you, is the ‘Shut Up and Vote’ tour, part of the Jaago Re One Billion Votes campaign. This is an initiative of Janaagraha and Tata Tea.

We will play in five cities to get the youth together to stand up, shut up and… vote!

It’s interesting how some good folks in the blogosphere are already dishing out their cynicism and quasi-intellectual gibber about the campaign and its effectiveness. They yap about India and China, about the economy and their parsimony, about the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, about Padma Shrees and Padma Laxmi. But hey, just for a minute, get off that high horse and do something, people.

And well, about our song.

Some of the comments on the music video made a big deal about language: some viewers thought the song ought to have been sung in Hindi. Heh, we’ve heard that one even before most of you started to Rock On! Our piece of advice: Try that in Chennai, my friend, and you’ll spend the rest of your years picking splinters out of your rear.

But seriously, language is a non-issue. If you have English newspapers and magazines, English TV news channels, and English theatre, if you can fill your bank application form in English, and sign your name in English, why Bollywood-ise our world?

Go to the neglected Northeast (we have) – English works there better than the officialese of Hindi. And then, we have always maintained that English – thought, written and spoken our way – is an Indian language, and that stays.

For those who haven’t heard us before, we urge you to listen to our songs a little more carefully. Potatoe Junkie, Humpty Dumpty, Cynical World, Galactiqua, Sevenish, The Steal, Chameleon… scratch the surface of these songs and you’ll get to the heart of the messages we have been spreading for the last 13 years. To that list, Shut Up and Vote is one more addition.

So, come and watch the concert. It’s the first step you can take before you use your index finger to make a difference.

And while you’re at it, we’ll practice what we preach.

Here’s the schedule:

MARCH 20: Open Air Theatre, IIT Madras, Chennai

MARCH 23: Presidency College, Kolkata

MARCH 25: Pragati Maidan, Lal Chowk, Delhi

MARCH 27: D.Y. Patil College, Mumbai

MARCH 28: St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore

Be there!

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