Hmmm....

Tonight at half past seven they said.... I turned up as usual, late, by about twenty-five minutes. :)

The gods must have had me in mind for it was a good ten odd minutes before sharat and his troupe turned up in the actors arena, sharat on the Bass Guitar, a totally lost-looking drummer who looked like he'd seen the city for the first time in his life, a lead guitarist who sorta looked his part, a lead vocalist who certainly did'nt look the part.... 'Kewl! These guys could'nt possibly rake in the crowd' I figured.

sharat does'nt look like his part, He looks too sedated to be a bass guitarist. Besides, he gives the impression that he likes to keep to himself. It was their first run in public and I came with my expectations turned down as far as I could manage in my excitement to see a personal acquaintance (sharat) playing in his own rock band. Once I saw the troupe getting into position though, my hopes sunk deeper than I had known them to ever go. Still, I decided to stick around and get an earful of their music since I'd made it this far, why not see my friend in action ya? :)

Thankfully though, The pathetic looking drummer who certainly did'nt look anything like the part he was supposed to play dealt out his music way beyond my expectations for the chap. I hardly expected him to play anything even decent, but he dazzled me and, by the looks of it, the rest of the crowd as well with his neck-rock.

The lead guitarist, though I can hardly say I had great expectations of him, did of course do better than I'd expected him to, but somehow, he just did'nt match up to the drummer as well as he could have. He looked the part better than anyone else for one perk in his favour, but apart from that, I would'nt go around showering accolades on him for his performance. he was good, for a first public display, I guess he did pretty neat.

Rhythm Guitarist was pretty decent, though strangely, he kept leading the 'lead guitarist' out of sync…. Funny…. Haha! But in the end, the non-synchronization was'nt all that apparent, I'm sure most of the people present would'nt have detected anything….

Our dear ol' LJ Brother', sharat, the Bass Guitarist, he did'nt really look like a part of the band, all sober and sedated that he appeared. :) Knowing the dude personally obviously heightened my expectations, but speaking as a critic now, the stuff he was pouring into the crowd was something way beyond my hopes and expectations. I did'nt expect too much, but I never expected this either. From start to finish, I was in awe of this guy.... He played like he was born playing a bass guitar. From what I gather, He's not always been a bassist, he was a run of the mill guitarist earlier, but upon an impulse, took up bass guitaring and well, I'm pretty darn glad that he did. :-D

The Lead Vocalist.... Hmmmm.... Well, I might have made the point I was trying to make earlier, but I'll just go ahead and make it again, I came badly prepared for these guys and so far, I was pleasantly surprised to see these people wade way beyond my expectations. But as is with every thing, there was one place where this group was seriously lacking. I'll never ever forgive their Vocalist!! He was enthusiastic and all that, he seemed to be proud of himself and his abilities, but in my opinion, he was justified only in being proud of having to do the vocals for this band. He was, as I'd feared, worse than my previously expected nightmare that I'd had during the drive from my place to Qwiky's.

I came prepared for a terrible performance, but I found myself cheering these guys on in glee! :) Frankly, they made my day! I was a bit upset that they played for such a short time, They should have gone on all night in my opinion. There were to other bands playing this evening, the second band had a wonderful vocalist.... I found myself wishing he was in sharat's band instead. They had a good drummer too, but their guitarist was'nt as well oriented as I would have hoped. The last band was good only as far as the lead guitarist was concerned. Everyone else seemed to me, rather off key and far from accomplished at their duties. I wish we'd had some alcohol to numb the high treble sounds the last band was making, but looking back, I guess that was too much to hope for on such a nice evening. :)

sharat had told me earlier during our rendezvous at OFD (One Flight Down) that his band was all newbies and even though they were playing some rather complex tunes, I was'nt to expect too much. I understood the situation, I've had my first times on stage and have made mess after mess of them, sometimes striking gold, sometimes wallowing in chicken-shit, and for a group full of first timers, I expected a good number of hitches and bugs. Turns out, I was really glad I could actually make it to the performance. Absolutely enthralling. It's a pity I had to get back home before dinner, I hope Pradeep (aka brainz) or sharat will do us a favour and mention the dinner in their Journals. :)

I've gone on and on about how dumb I thought the experience would be and quite silly as it might sound, I'm glad I was so fscking wrong about them!

Kodies to sharat for turning out as well as he did and a pity to those who could'nt make it.

Kaydeeyoh!