Live Banned and a robust corporate event

What a night!!

Will you accept an invitation when you are actually a 'metal freak' and get invited to a corporate party with full of 'stinky-rich' people? Well, I did. And here is the story...

Me and my wifey got an invitation to what I initially felt 'a damn boring corporate party'. Mr. Amarnath Sangawe, an employee of Artha Properties in Bangalore, extended his hospitality for this macro-event. In the beginning I hesitated as I never like going out of my premises (no I don't have any fear or mania). But checking the e-mail invitation properly found out that apart from 'lectures' and dinner, a live band will also be performing for the event.

© Jim Ankan | EF News International

Now here's the irony - a band called Live Banned, who are known to be or better call themselves 'Mental fellows' are invited to perform in a corporate event. My proverbially inquisitive mind won and  my wife, along with another couple joined me to share the evening.

We reached the venue, which was known as Park Plaza and ushered into a big auditorium. I was in my jeans and t-shirt, and as I looked around only to see the hoi-polloi who embodied British Bureaucracy, i.e, people with designer dinner jackets and suits. I was definitely odd one out. So, I tried to focus my mind on the Roland drums and the Marshall stack on the stage than my discomfort.

As we waited for something to start (atleast), a radio jockey of 'Radio One', who admittedly 'forgot to apply Fair & Lovely', got onto the stage and fought to break the ice between the 'patterned neckties' and 'Gucci shirts'. He tried his best by playing a game, and apart from few enthusiasts, others looked bored and petrified (including me and my friends) as they never had any intentions of revealing their childhood wearing Armani suits.

© Jim Ankan | EF News International

The evening continued with some 'hmmms' and 'zzzzs' when RJ Pijosh announced about the band performance. This was the time I was waiting for as I wanted to see the combination of bald-heads and head-banging. We pushed our way through to the middle of the hall so that I could have a better glimpse of the band as well as the mass.

The lights dimmed and we could see some people resembling 'circus clowns' on the stage. As everybody was looking forward for a band, this was more or less like an ice-breaker which the RJ wanted in the very beginning. As we watched with wonder-eyes, these guys on the stage went on picking up the instruments on the stage and started tuning. More surprises followed, when they actually started playing.

© Jim Ankan | EF News International

Members of the Live Banned, as the name itself suggests, are the Parody Music Evangelists and Entertainers. It's a band from bangalore, Karnataka. They play originals as well as covers. But what makes this band different? Well, it's for sure that, you can never take your eyes off them when you are in front of them and you have to draw back your lips and reveal your teeth (also known as grinning) throughout the time they are on the stage playing music.

The band is loud and tight and their stage presence is awe-inspiring. They play covers in their own way and the songs actually sound like spoof of the originals. But not once will you feel bad about that. You will enjoy and to my surprise I saw some people actually tapping their foot; though they didn't follow the rhythm.

© Jim Ankan | EF News International

The band consist of Amrit Rao (Vocals), Sridhar Varadarajan (Guitars), Siddhart Kamath (Keyboard/guitars), Dheerendra Doss (Drums) and Raveesh Tirkey (Bass).

All the band members were enjoying on the stage though the crowd was rather more suited a 'Ghazal Evening'. Eventually they had to applause after every song or medley by the band. Infact, I witnessed a person standing and dancing to the tunes.

Now, it is not always easy to entertain a crowd whose rocking moments might be changing news channels on TV or signing cheques by playing 'grunge guitar' and growling on the microphone. But the Live Banned guys were in their full force and I never saw a single person leaving the hall.

The evening came to an end with another half an hour 'lecture' typically arranged for the 'cheque signing' class and lovely dinner and cocktails later. But this is one concert I might not forget for a very long time.

- Jim Ankan Deka