Ergo, our sound onstage was so murky that we could hardly hear ourselves think. But how many inebriated men and women (and children — we hope they were the ones driving their parents home) in the audience cared?

It was, in the final analysis, not a bad show after all. We had a lot of fun on stage playing just before Indian Ocean who put together a nice act despite the shock absence of their singer and tabla player Asheem Chakravarty (who is in a coma at a Qatar hospital following a massive heart attack). That did muddy the evening’s mood. Our thoughts are with Indian Ocean and with Asheem’s family, and we hope he recovers quickly and gets back on his feet.

We, too, had our own absence to complain about. We were without Rzhude, who is convalescing after a viral fever. Prakash (Cryptic, Antaragni, Karma 6) filled in quite solidly for him despite the short practice time he had on hand. We also had Jason Zachariah guesting on keyboards.

Enough words. Here are the pictures:

And finally, one of the crowd. It’s always quite characteristic of TAAQ audiences that the people who appear to be enjoying themselves the most aren’t waving or jumping up in the air but watching calmly with a wry smile.

Person in picture (with Hard Rock tee and looking stagewards with hands clasped) may please claim one numbers free autographed CD upon producing ID proof. Please send us your name and address via email along with your Orkut/Facebook/Twitter account profile as photo ID.

More in our Octoberfest Flickr photoset

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Thermal And A Quarter – live at Octoberfest

Thermal And A Quarter Pint.

Live at the Kingfisher Octoberfest, Bangalore, Oct 25, 7 PM. Don’t worry about the billboard-makers who missed out our name — they were probably partying already.

S’will, s’way!

The post Thermal And A Pint – Octoberfest, Oct 25, 7 pm appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

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!

The post Fête de la Musique 2009 – Friday, June 19 appeared first on Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ).

High up in the blogosphere, a certain journalist has taken exception to two parts of the song title: ‘Shut Up’ and ‘Vote’.

His first blog post, titled ‘On Dumb Editors… and Dumber Rockers’ accused TAAQ’s anthem of being ‘exceedingly stupid’. We popped in to say our bit. Over the last couple of days, the conversation did hot up and today, he has a fresh new post where he snipes at TAAQ again.

Sauvik Chakraverti writes:

TAAQ confessed to having composed their song “Shut Up And Vote” in response to a “brief.” In journalism, we call this a “command performance.” As I said, this song is not from the heart nor from the mind. It is just an ad jingle – and a rude one at that. It cannot work. You cannot compose a jingle that says “Shut Up And Drink Coca-Cola.”

Our response: You can (in a bottle or in a can). And lots of people are doing that. But we won’t. And not just because we like our cola with rum.

A command performance, indeed! You wish!

Let’s get this straight. The Jaago Re One Billion Votes campaign is a citizen initiative spearheaded by the voluntary organization Janaagraha along with Tata Tea. If we were singing this anthem for a particular political party, the blogger’s accusation would hold water (or cola, or whatever). But what’s dumb about speaking out along with like-minded, progressive citizens, and what’s dumb about persuading young people to participate in electing our leaders?

Now, Mr. Chakraverti comes across as a reasonably intelligent, articulate sort of chap but, like many of his kind that we know of, his views are clouded with pessimism and this, in our observation, is nothing new to this creed of non-participants. And that’s what we tried to remind him about.

Go to the coffee shops and watering holes and pot parlours of the world and you will find plenty of them – bottom-feeders that drink deep but taste not the spring of citizenship. What we have exhorted the youth to do through this song is participate in the electoral process, to exercise their  right as citizens. That, Mr. Chakraverti, is a necessary first step. Before crying foul, before finding fault with the system, or even before poking holes where none existed.

Through this song and through this series of concerts, we urge the youth: Do not stand back and submit to pessimism and inertia. Participate as citizens. Idle debate is no good unless you have exercised your right to bring in change. Ok, you know and we know that the system sucks. You know and we know that even this time round, we cannot do away with corruption. You know and we know that the usual suspects may share power again. But all of that said, your inertia is not a fitting response. It will take us nowhere and will only leave us more frustrated at the way things are.

We’ll write another song for the cynic and the pessimist and the non-voting beefburger (haven’t we, already?). When it’s time.

Until then, shut up and vote.

Et tu, Mr. Chakraverti!

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The campaign vests the onus of change on educated urban young voters. The music video, shot by filmmaker Rani Jeyaraj for Jaago Re!, sounds a wake-up call for India’s one billion people to unite and bring about change in the quality of governance, which can become a reality only with the active participation of the youth. Through voting and electing quality leaders, the youth can strengthen the roots of Indian democracy.

So put that index finger to good use – shut up and vote!

Watch the video

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