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.

Live Banned © Jim Ankan | EF News International
© 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.

Live Banned © Jim Ankan | EF News International
© 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.

Live Banned © Jim Ankan | EF News International
© 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.

Live Banned © Jim Ankan | EF News International
© 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

Popular posts from this blog

Chador-mekhela, drums, keyboard, guitar, cultural activists, bihu and Being Assamese

-
Image
Courtesy: Raul de la Nuez Recently, in one of the Bihu functions (April, 2015), one of the leading female singers of Assam was not allowed to sing for not wearing Chador Mekhela by the committee members. (Chador-mekhela is the traditional Assamese dress worn by women.) What I feel personally in that case, even the male singers, including Papon, Zubben, should be asked to wear Dhoti-Kurta or ban them too. Why this unfairly prejudiced view? And all the committee members also should be wearing Dhoti-Kurta or Chador-Mekhela all the time. Do they? Embarrassing moment for Assam and Assamese culture. This is not culture, This is not Bihu. I understand that cloths are integral part of any culture; but cloths alone can't defy culture. If one has to follow one of the cultural aspects with full devotion, he has to follow everything with complete honesty and sincerity. That means, if one has to wear mekhela-chador to defy bihu, she can't actually use keyboard, guitar or drums in bih...
Read more

Pork, Naga pork and pork chops in Bangalore

-
Image
When I landed in Bangalore in 2006, the first thing I noticed was inaccessibility of restaurants or food joints serving pork items. I had always been a die hard fan of meat - specially pork. And it became more important for me to search for an eatery that has excellent 'pork' service than a job or a cot with roof. It took me almost six years before I could make a list of handful of eating joints where one can get an impressive menu of pork dishes. I got the taste of Naga pork (pork from Nagaland), Chinese pork, Thai pork (pork from Thailand), Italian pork and pork momos. Below are few joints where one can get hold of these. This is to help people who come mainly from North-East India to Bangalore in search of job. They would rather spend (waste) their time searching for work and a structure that provides privacy than pork. The Naga Kitchen (Try smoked pork with bamboo shoot or smoked pork thali) Koramangala 112, 6th Cross, 6th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore - 080 4167...
Read more

Copied songs of Bollywood - music piracy?

-
Image
There are hundreds of songs in Bollywood which are directly copied, adopted or inspired from other songs. Some of these songs saw huge success in the Bollywood film industry. What I don't understand is, where we have certain music directors who have been engaged in making their own music and mark, how can another bunch think of coping the tunes of some other songs and present as their own work? Well, below are few very famous Hindi film songs which got the popularity among Indian people, but actually were adopted or copied from works by other musicians and music directors. Original song TAK BISAKAH from the album Alexandria (2005) by Peterpan ZIGEUNERJUNGE released as a single in 1967 by Alexandra (Doris Treitz Nefedov) YA GHALI (Arabic song) from the album Qissati (2002) by Guitara AH REUM DA OON SA RAM from the Korean series Nae ireumeun Kim Sam-soon (2005) by Seo Yoo Suk RETURN TO THE ALAMO (an instrumental track) from the album Tasty (1977) by The Shadows (Orches...
Read more