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Gig Alert – Hard Rock Cafe, July 23

Allwyn Fernandes, bassist, carlton braganza, guitars, indian rock music, shows, TAAQ and the Divas, valentine's day, world music day | July 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

It’s official. Barring such events as the much-anticipated delivery of a package from Stork Celestial Logistics to the Manis, the gig at Hard Rock Cafe, Bangalore stands scheduled for Thursday, July 23.

Thermal And A Quarter decrees that you spend a windy Thursday night with our brand new originals – Simply Be, Mighty Strange, De-Arranged, Grab Me, Surrender… and sing-along favourites from This Is It and the albums hitherto. Served hot.

For those who want only covers, come play the guessing game. Let’s see how many you get.

Bruce, Rajeev and Rzhude will be joined by special guests Tony Das (guitars), Jason Zachariah (keyboards), Divya Joseph (vox) and Shalini Subramanian (vox).

Trash all your other appointments and make a date with TAAQ for Thursday night. Check with the Hard Rock Cafe management about timings and entry tickets (+91 80 41242222 / +91 80 41699210).
Jazz Yuppies – Double Bill with the saxy Nate Linkon

bassist, CWG, guitars, Konarak Reddy, peacock cafe, Smita Malipatil | June 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

Jazz Yuppies – Double Bill with Nate Linkon

How about spending Sunday night with a saxy, horn-y blond?

Now that we have your ever-so-fleeting attention, here’s an invitation. Our good friend Nate Linkon (he of the smokin sax) is breezing by just in time to play a sensational double bill with Thermal And A Quarter. We will be reheating some microwaveable goodies and performing some smoking new ones at the Jazz Yuppies Reunion Tour with Nate.

Sunday June 14: Bb (B Flat) 100 ft Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore.
TAAQ featuring Nate Lincoln and Arathi Rao. 8 pm onwards.

Friday June 19: Fete de la Musique, Alliance Francaise de Bangalore 9 pm onwards. TAAQ featuring Nate Linkon.

Jazz be there. And bring along your grooviest state of mind.
What does it take to be an Unstoned Hero?

bassist, guitars, Jupiter Café, mangalore pub attacks on women, Mystic Vibes | May 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

TAAQ live at Kyra Theatre – May 17, 2009

May 17. It’s the night of the big election result, and the CEC is likely to call off the dry day at 6 PM. That means a lot of us are going to be very thirsty indeed. Flipside: the roads are going to be a lot less safe if all the tipplers get behind the wheel after celebrating or mourning or whatever.

This Sunday, Thermal And A Quarter and Kyra raise a toast to the spirit of responsible drinking.

If you stand up for your tippling friends and stay sober, and if you volunteer to drive them home, you get a free drink coupon from Kyra (redeemable, of course, on your next visit – if you are not driving again, that is!). Also, the first 1o lucky Unstoned Heroes get a free, autographed copy of This Is It, the hottest rock album by the coolest Indian rock band.

If you don’t have the liver to abstain, there’s help. You can hop into a cab arranged, by the management, at a very special fare.

Go on, be an Unstoned Hero!

Drink. And be driven.

For tickets, contact Kyra Theatre

RSVP on our Facebook page
Midweek in Mumbai, the harder they rock!

guitars, indian rock music, opus bangalore, rajeev rajagopal, valentine's day, world music day | April 8, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

Hot day!

At thirty-six ticks Celsius, Mumbai’s concrete-paved roads shimmered like beaten glass under the liquid glare. But they tell us it is actually cooler than the week before – by a whole round four degrees. These becalming meteorological statistics help us keep our cool. And we’re on our way with a little help from good, eco-friendly air-conditioning everywhere – on the plane to Bombay, in the airport lobby, in the cabs to the hotel, in the hotel lobby, in the hotel rooms, at the Hard Rock Cafe… Sweating it out has never been tougher.

Hard Rock Cafe billed it as an Alternative Tuesday, but it turned to be more the epithet we gave it - the Midweek Weekend. The crowd was thick by when we went up at ten, and there were no free tables or seats at the bar by half past.

Bruce Lee Mani at Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai

TAAQ Hard Rock Cafe Mumbai – Set List

Blistering opening with Shut Up and Vote. Chased that with Getting There and Surrender. We broke set at Hoedown. If you remember, the last time we played here at the Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai was the night before 26/11. So, we resumed with One Small Love and followed that up with a very extended Sold just to keep up the irony.

Roadie's eye-view

On bass, Mr Tony Das, impersonating Rzhude (laid low by mumps) for the night, went to great pains to prove his identity. But the Mumbai die-hards would have none of it. The night wore on, the crowd didn’t. Some chose to mosh while the rest just noshed. At the bar, some very vocal boys and girls grooved grandly.

Magical evening. We wound it up very reluctantly at ten past midnight.

Tonight, we descend upon Pune with our first-ever gig at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Be there!

On the road to Pune

Just in: Rediff.com has recorded and posted a video of Shut Up and Vote from our performance at Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai.

View the video here
Rock hard – Mumbai & Pune, Apr 7 & 8

guitars, indian rock music, opus bangalore, Shalini Subramanian | April 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

Rock hard midweek – Mumbai & Pune, Apr 7 & 8

What is one bleary-eyed, groggy morning at work when we’re the TAAQ of your town?

It’s not always that a weekend drops by in the middle of the week. Or that we drop by both Mumbai and Pune. But here we are (and the edge of the world isn’t so far).

We can now safely call the Hard Rock Café gigs a series. We’ve played in Mumbai and Bangalore. Pune, where the Café has opened not many moons ago, will play host to us for the first time. We expect a lot of first-timers here.

Mumbai: Tuesday, April 7, 8 pm onwards

Pune: Wednesday, April 8, 8 pm onwards

Are you worried about the morning after?

Calling volunteers: Since it’s our first outing in Pune, we’d like all the publicity you can help us get. Tell your friends, call your family over… just pack the place. Please write to us (taaqmailATyahooDOTcom) if you are able and willing and, most importantly, if you are in Pune.
Shut Up Roundup – the big thank you

carlton braganza, culture police, february 14, fete de la musique, guitars, Jazz Yuppies Double Bill, karnataka, kartik iyer, kerala, kingfisher rocktoberfest, righteous anger, shows, TAAQ and the Divas, theatre, valentine's day, world music day | April 3, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

Shut Up and Vote tour – Thank you!

Five cities. One band. One message: Shut Up and Vote.

Through Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, we spread the word. We played the music. We sang the songs. Shut Up and Vote, Humpty Dumpty, Chameleon, Look at Me, Jupiter Café, Simply Be… wry anthems and strident protest songs from thirteen years of TAAQ.

Thank you for being there. For singing along. For cheering us on. We hope you will make a difference by rocking. The vote, that is.

Big thank-yous to the team that that put together this amazing tour – Vinay, Milan, Umesh, Niranjan, Arif, Prashanth, Rishi, Sharat, Vijay, Suman, Vandana, Abhinand, Velu, Rani and all the Janaagraha/ Jaago Re volunteers in Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore.

Thank you also Anushya Badrinath, Gaurav Vaz, Shrenik Sadalgi, Srinath Shankaran, Gurudarshan Somayaji, Vinay Kewalramani and Rani Jeyaraj for your amazing photo-finishes of the tour.

You are the *real* rock stars!
Rites from the Road – TAAQ @ Java Jazz 09

cape town cafe, digidesign eleven rack, guitars, jaago re, kannada, kick out corruption, kickbackistan, Kieon, Kirtana Kumar, profile image, roots rock, Rzhude, YouTube | March 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments Off

What a trip this is.

Landed in Jakarta 3rd afternoon. Heard it was rainy in these parts, but perhaps they were taking it a bit too far – it was actually raining inside our Air Asia Boeing from KL to Jakarta (last leg). Greeted at airport by the very friendly Mike from Java Jazz, holding a big ‘TAAQ’ sign. Helped through paperwork; all the baggage shows up – it’s a great day already!

taaq with prasanna @ java jazz 09

The Sultan Hotel used to be the Hilton (that rhymes – if you’re Mark Knopfler) and it’s swankus maximus, so all’s well again! The JJF folks are amazing, really friendly, really efficient, and really hard working. Have lunch at the Peacock Café here, and we are immediately hit with the realization that we’re not getting back without carrying a few extra pounds. If there was ever a buffet to die for, This Is It.

Spend the rest of the day bumping into (name dropping coming up!) Dave Weckl, Mike Stern etc, while 40,000 odd folks queue up to get tickets for the festival. Yes, 40,000.

TAAQ jams with Prasanna

4th morn, meet Prasanna on his way in – we’re supposed to jam tonight at our first pre-festival warm-up gig here, at the Airman Planet Lounge. Do a small ‘Glaswegian’ practice (if you followed our UK tour, you know what that means) in Prasanna’s room – fix up to play new track Grab Me and the staple Brigade St. Nice vibe! Nice PRS axe too.

Brigade Street goes to Indonesia

Gig starts 10:30 pm, no soundcheck; launch into Sunset Man, Look at Me, etc. Good vibes from the crowd so far… Prasanna comes in on the last two tracks and puts his distinctive stamp on them, all right. Finish up with a fully jammed out Brigade St and our first gig at Java Jazz is done… two more to go, sowatchthisspaceetc!