Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Rocked Hard Cafe

Avial's concert is what everyone was talking about when I got to Hard Rock Cafe on Tuesday night. The cafe wasn't packed then. The boys had spread themselves lazily around a table and were consuming, as usual, large amounts of Rum and coke, and food.

Mel's hair was a sight. He looked like a frizzly vulture - an extremely good looking one. Nigel showed off his new gizmo, sticking out of his ear, and was trying to persuade someone to accompany him to buy new shoes. Shekhar has evolved and now drinks wine. Garreth was singing along with the videos being screened and smiling serenely. Aviv was making arrangements to have Rum on stage.

Rishu arrived, with Dhaval and armed with more Rum. We stepped out of Hard Rock to mix more drinks, and there the boys argued about how much alcohol they should /could consume before hitting the stage. The rest of us random standers-by drank the rum.

At 9:30, the gig began. I was really happy to see the energy and spirit of the band was just right- they sound checked with Pearl Jam's Alive.

It was an Unplugged show. They were sitting on pretty stools on stage, and Aviv had his acoustic guitar. Nigel, however, gave the drums a full blast, and Mel was fairly vigorous on his Telecaster. I had a video camera and wanted to record as many of the original songs as I could.

Their set list was mainly the originals, and some covers - Radiohead's Just, Wicked Garden, their funky version of Jefferson Airplane's Somebody to Love, With or Without you. The originals were many and were sounding tight - Build Higher, Holy Ghost Machine Gun, My House, Pig Society, Belief, Isn't it strange, Don't wake me, Fat Oaf. The energy picked up and went higher, and Aviv would frequently close his eyes and vanish into a solo. Garreth would pull out his harmonica and seduce us. The last song of the night was a cover of the Doors' Five To One. Wow.

The boys had a blast on stage. Rishu got fairly smashed. Another memorable gig.