In the wee hours of September 8 Sankalp Khare, who had attended TAAQ’s gig at 10 Downing Street, Hyderabad, found himself trying on a tad-too-tiny TAAQ tee (note the alliteration). Aghast at the bikini-like fit, he vowed to have it exchanged. Or have his funny money back. Braving the terrors of the night he set out on an expedition to the hotel where the band was put up. Expecting hostility and badass band attitude at these odd hours, he made sure he came armed to the gills with some of his own. But quod erat demonstrandum, he mused as he rode home unscathed, “Luck comes hidden in the most unexpected things”.

Here’s Sankalp’s story in his own words…

The band and some friends were chilling at their hotel room when I arrived. It was great to meet them all and I’m quite sure I was acting mighty strange, trying to keep the excitement bottled up. Now I don’t know what you may have read about bands having attitude or ego issues or blah, but this was a group of fellers who made me feel at home almost instantly. Heck, the way Rajeev expressed his concerns about me riding all the way & back “all alone in the big bad city” would’ve reminded anyone of home! So after a teeny sip of what Rajeev was having and some chatter, someone (bless his soul!) said I should have a pic with my new TAAQ T-shirt. The way I’m looking like a 16-year-old kid on cloud 9 in the pic brings back some memories of Stillwater & the kid from Almost Famous. Bruce gave me a copy of “This is It” as a keepsake for my nightly visit.

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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).

Photo: Suchin Moses

Samson Madella from Hyderabad writes this ringside first-person account of the night where the state had no name:

Me and Rishi, an ex-TAAQ roadie, were with Bruce in his hotel room, catching up, talking songs, gear and biting his ears with questions while he was ‘leesurely’ penning down the set list.

“Wonder how it’s gonna be… we haven’t played Hyderabad for a long time and are playing our new material mostly,” Bruce expressed with a tiny whim of uncertainty. Moments later, Rajeev and Rzhude walked in, looked at the set list, nodded… that’s all.

The aptly titled show Where the State has no Name was a stunner and a bummer of sorts to the crowd at the Hard Rock Café Hyderabad. As an ardent TAAQ devotee, I noticed 10 things… 10 things you need to know about the night and the crowd (in no particular order):

1. Pockets of musicians in the front row counting odd time signatures.
2. Guitar players gleefully fretting… ‘How-does-he-do-that-man’ over every blue note.
3. “These-guys-have changed-since-I-saw-them-last”
4. “Dude, this band is boring, why did you bring me here… gimme back my entry fee”
5. A cute girl from Dilli Oye singing almost all the songs.
6. Audience decibel levels rising from 100 db – 145db (Origami to Roxanne)
7. “The bass guitar is actually driving the band, man”
8. “Let the band guys know that there are people who appreciate their brand of music in Hyderabad too” – A brilliant local musician, Anand Paul, who left halfway through the gig
9. “Chanineese Items”…”Without Wings”…”Jupiter Café”…”Motorbyckle”… all old songs denied!
10. “Whaaat? they wrote a song for this show … what talent, bah bah bah, kya baat hain”

The post Crowdsourced gig review #2 – HRC Hyderabad appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

Photo: Suchin Moses

As men, we feel very flattered when a woman says nice things about us. So when the young and eloquent Ramya Sriram gushed about our gig at Hard Rock Cafe, Hyderabad, where we played last Thursday, we blushed. And then, without a thought, plagiarised this bit from her blog and cut-paste-posted it here.

Read on:

The show was brilliant. They started off with one of my favourites, Look at Me, and by the end of the song I was already filled with that feeling only Bruce’s tu ta paraburapurooo can express. The new song, Where the State has No Name is a bluesy, catchy number and has one of those choruses that comfortably settle down in your head. A total singalong song. I really liked that they wrote this one. I’ve always believed that TAAQ is an intelligent band; from their lyrics to the structure of their songs, there’s a characteristic subtle wit that underlies. They’re classic, they’re contemporary. They reach out to the audience with songs like this one, and previously, with Keep the Promise, One Small Love and Shut up and Vote.

It was the first time I heard them play their signature cover, with its long intro (oh what tones on the guitar!) delightfully breaking out into Roxanne. At this point I glanced at the bouncer, contemplating my fate if I did get hysterical. De-arranged was anything but. I love how all the parts come together in their songs. I grinned throughout the show, and everytime Bruce went hic! during Drunk I grinned a little more.

Read it all here.

We’ll post some pics once our missing-in-action roadie with the throaty heavy-metal caller tune resurfaces with them. Meanwhile, if any of you have taken photos on Thursday, be kind enough to share them so that we can see what we looked like that night.

And here’s to all of you in Hyderabad: You made it a very memorable gig for us, no matter what you name your state. You have spirit, and you have guts for braving the bundh to watch us. Thank you!

As for ‘where the state has no name’, we’re not done making a noise about that yet!

The post Crowdsourced gig review #1 – HRC, Hyderabad appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

We have a special fondness for Hyderabad because our third record Plan B was put together there at Ramoji Film City in 2004. Now, it saddens us to hear that this erstwhile princely state that has its own cricket team is turning into Jekyllabad (if you will excuse the atrocious pun), torn asunder as it is by contending claims for statehood. War-cries for new states are ringing across the country. And in nearby Puduchery (Pondicherry as we still love to call it), a new fight has erupted against statehood.

Drawing and re-drawing borders within borders… what a state for a nation to be in, we thought. Didn’t you too?

While we have time left, we shall give our fans in undivided Andhra Pradesh something to sing about. Here’s the chorus of a new bluesy number we composed just for the occasion.

Where the state has no name
Borders like boulders thrown
In a laughing god’s game
The dice fall in unkind spots
In a land of polyglots
Where the state has no name

We’ll perform this number at our concert in Hyderabad on January 21. Be there and don’t forget to sing along.

Concert details: Hard Rock Café, GVK 1, First Floor, Road No 1, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. Telephone: 91-40-4476-7900

Watch this space for updates.

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