Once upon a time, in a concert far far away, a desperate voice cut its way through the crowd… craving, needing and demanding Metallica or some music like that with the gain turned way up. And then the 3-piece band on stage, looking cool behind their shades, beards and hats and shiny guitars connected to seriously sweet amps played such mind-numbingly awesome music that people just shut up and listened. Who knows, maybe they even went back, voted and started to work to rid their country of corruption. But then again, that place was Pondicherry and it’s likely that everyone just got very happily drunk and passed out at the beach.
Now, ever since I heard the extended intro in Jupiter Cafe, I’ve always been rather fond of their unique sound and song-writing. I happened to watch them live during the Jaago Re tour (March 2009) and I knew I just had to see them play many many more times after. So then I began the exercise of waiting for dates and venues to match schedules and convenience and if you’re from Chennai, you’ll agree that the best places in Chennai is actually, Pondicherry. No kidding. And if you’re a Chennai fanatic, one visit to Seagull could change that. It was a really nice venue for the concert – an open air restaurant right next to the beach where you could just sit back on the grass and experience a very high degree of peace.

I reached Pondicherry a bit late, missing the first ten minutes, and apparently I missed a lot of rock and roll moments… drunk people in shiny shirts trying to take over the stage and what not! But that enthusiasm-dampener notwithstanding, TAAQ slowly built their energy levels and tightness over the next couple of songs, particularly around Between the Lines. The skill and proficiency of this band clearly stands out with their songs sounding practically indistinguishable from the studio versions! It’s quite something to see Bruce hum his solos AND play them note to note! Not an easy feat, but it sounds terrific. However, VERY demoralising for anyone who has plans of playing a guitar. Unfair Bruce. Plain unfair. The ‘baby’(!) of the group, Prakash, has brought in a bit of a new sound to TAAQ, and it was great to see the band at ease with their new bassist – his extended solos flowing right back into the songs on every occasion. Just one doubt though… Can he see anything from behind his hat?

The sound though wasn’t top notch, there was some static and some jarring. I really wish that wasn’t the case as it lessened from their typically perfect patches and tones.

The crowd though didn’t take much notice of that and really got into the groove around the song Drunk, probably as it reflected their state at that moment. With the audience and TAAQ’s energy levels rising, Paper Puli was timed to perfection. In fact, Rajeev was throwing away his drum sticks in a fit of drum-rage too! You can’t deny it, that song is rather sticky. At the risk of making a very bad pun based on a common tea ad… Wah TAAQ Wah… The wah of that guitar!

Now I’m not sure about one thing, but there was this shockingly original rendition of Hey Jude! I swear you haven’t heard anything like that before and The Beatles would have been proud to see a 3-piece band from Bangalore pull that off! I hunted on their website but couldn’t find a studio version of that, but I hope that changes soon and a few more ‘original covers’ follow. And no, its not an oxymoron with TAAQ.

It’s a pity that to see the end of their shows, but the evening did come to an end amidst many shouts for an encore performance! Nonetheless, great music at a great place. Hoping to catch another show again soon. Though I often wonder… with all the other worldly skill that they possess, how would they sound in a completely acoustic setting, a fusion-ified and Carnatic-ified version or one with an all out backing orchestra and what not? Damn. Need more TAAQ!

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For some people it was a lonely Valentine’s Day. And this goes out especially to them.

When we played in Pune last year we decided we weren’t going back without cake and cookies from the famous German Bakery. Enjoying them in Bangalore the next day, we didn’t foresee having to reflect on that simple pleasure like this.

Terror could have struck then as it did on the night of February 13, 2010. But we lived to write this. And we shall make the most of the life and joy granted to us.

It is somewhat edifying that we were able to reach out to Pune on February 14. Opus Pune webcast the One Small Love concert live to its patrons.

Thank you for turning up (and turning down your other Valentine’s Day engagements) and for your support and encouragement right through this initiative.

Foremost, our thanks go to the fabulous folks at Trumpit and Opus – Carlton, Shonali, Priyanka, Venkat, Adrian and all the staff whose names fail us but whose smiling faces fill our minds when we recollect that lovely evening. Thank you for event support, your gracious hospitality and for making our artists and guests feel at home at Opus in the Creek, such a tranquil setting with its giant Buddha and tippling fish.

Thank you Konarak Reddy, Gerard Machado, Ravichandra Kulur, Alwyn Fernandes, Gaurav Vaz and Karan Joseph for your soul-stirring performances. A special thanks to Vasu, Varun, Jishnu, Montry, Pavan and Sanjeev, the awesome musicians of Swarathma, for playing a pulse-quickening show. In a market where live performances can hardly pay the bills, these wonderful people unquestioningly played for love.

For making the One Small Love concert a resounding success we thank Niranjan, the man at the soundboard whose admirable patience with the tantrums of rock stars is legend.

Thanks to Saswati Chakravarty, C K Meena, Prakash Belawadi and Harish Bijoor for articulating their special messages to our audience because rock stars (with the notable exception of Gaurav Vaz) are so pathetic at making speeches.

For his time-saving and completely impromptu comic interlude, a whopper of a thank-you goes out to our friendly neighbourhood Bollywood star-in-the-making Rajeev Ravindranathan.

Thanks to Merwyn Rodrigues of JumpMedia, Dubai, who accepted a brief that few designers would, and delivered a poster and profile image for our Facebook page in just a few hours.

We thank Smita and the very talented and even-tempered folks at Kieon for online support and web design.

Thanks to Kartik Iyer, Praveen Das and the beautiful minds at Happy Creative Services for dreaming up the original One Small Love music video. Special thanks also to Ashvin Naidu of Avakkai Films.

Thank you, PG Santhosh and his colleagues at MIPL-GraphicsAllAround, for the One Small Love giveaway stickers and for the big yellow smiley that graced the stage throughout the show.

Thank you, Gaurav Manchanda, for being Ayrton Senna to our guests when the cab guys ditched us at the eleventh hour.

We thank Dean Umesh PN, professors Srijayanth and Ananth and research fellow Bindu of the TAAQ Roadie Institute of Technology (RIT) for running the show like a smoothie, and especially for committing themselves to the odious task of filming people drawing smileys under hot lights.

We are immensely grateful to Facebook and WordPress for their fabulous (and free) online products, which make social messaging and online publishing look ridiculously easy. Ten years ago, we would have struggled to drum up opt-in support for an event like this. This year, we didn’t phone a single journalist.

In the same breath, we thank Facebook evangelists such as Martin D’Souza for spreading the message of One Small Love to their networks. Thanks also to the 1,300+ fans of the One Small Love page for your endorsement of this movement. You have a lot to look forward to.

We have had many managers and we love and respect all of them. But no one merits a bigger ovation than Divya Joseph, who deserves a lifetime royalty from Adidas for living the slogan ‘Impossible is Nothing’. The list of things she deserves to be thanked for cannot be accommodated here, so let just it be said that she was the smile on the face of One Small Love.

Thanks to Velu Shankar, a long-time friend, philosopher and guide of Thermal And A Quarter, for his advice and encouragement.

One Small Love begins at home. Our families deserve our utmost love and gratitude for their support and suffering in the face of our absences, late nights and many missed dinners. Since this suffering, and our solicitations for support, are not about to stop in the near future, we thank you in advance.

The show must go on, no matter what threats loom up to stop us. And we will do everything in our power as musicians and artists to fight violence and hate with messages of love, tolerance and freedom. To paraphrase Harry Belafonte: “You can cage the singer but not the song.”

The concert is only the beginning. In the future that is about to unfold, One Small Love will reach out to the world in many ways and touch many lives.

Let’s draw the line each day.

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