This year, the festivities are spread over the weekend, and we have a fantastic slot on an evening otherwise reserved for classical music. This is the second episode of our Jazz Yuppies Double Bill, after that fantastic evening at B Flat. And, yes, we will be joined by Nate Linkon and his slinky sax.

Friday, June 19. 9 pm onwards.

Rendez-vous du vendredi soir!

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TAAQ at Hard Rock Cafe, Pune

Yes, we made history. History that was seen, heard and experienced so palpably that it reverberates in the Hard Rock Cafe that we left smoking yesterday.

TAAQ at Hard Rock Cafe, Pune

Sound wasn’t cooking very well during the first few songs. But when we came back from our break with Motorbyckle, four-stroke sound effects and all, Pune finally got a taste of what it had come here for. Look at Me followed, and so did cheers. The audience had totally warmed up, and warmed to us.

TAAQ at Hard Rock Cafe, Pune

Everything was cooking just right. Even the lights, handled ineptly and impromptu by yours truly on an urgent and frightening command from Vinay at the sound console, started to make sense. Perhaps because by the second half, most of my first scotch on the rocks had also nourished my liver.

High spirited

The covers got us a nice response – Run like Hell, Hoedown, Roxanne and Wonderwall all went down very smooth. Chameleon and Hot Day got them headbanging and grooving in turn. And by the end of the night, plenty of long atrophied muscles had been revived.

TAAQ at the Hard Rock Cafe, Pune

CD sales have never been brisker. At the console, I felt very like a bartender on a Saturday night. Many people bought all three at our very special Tuesday night price. And after the last guest had left, we tore through the Atkins Diet Hard Rock dinner (designed exclusively for the American Appetite) and headed off to Hotel Phoenix to uncoil. It was well past two when we hit the sack. We got back to Bangalore this morning.

TAAQ at Hard Rock Cafe, Pune

Thanks to the good folks at the Hard Rock Cafes in Mumbai and Pune, and Groovetemple for making these Midweek Weekend shows a very special hit.

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