"Wave your little wand, weave a little spell
Make some magic, Raise some Hell"
That is exactly what Bryan Adams did one day before Valentines at Bengaluru. With the crowd begging for more, he belted out one amazing song after another and by the time the show came to a close, we were begging for more. That is the magic of a live concert.
The first time I attended a live concert, I was a student of MBA Batch of 2006 in IIT Kanpur. The Band was Indian Ocean. Had never heard about them but evidently, they were quite popular among the IITK Junta. The true magic of a live performance lies in 2 factors. First, how the performer handles the crowd and second, how much passionate the crowd is. Some might argue that both are related. That is, the passion of the crowd depends on the performer’s handling of them.
Among the Indian Bands that I have seen Palash Sen and his Euphoria are the masters at crowd handling. Within the first few songs, they usually have the crowd eating out of their hands. My first exposure to Euphoria was during Manfest 2004 at IIM Lucknow. They played for around 3 hours nonstop. The crowd was going bonkers with each song. It was clear that all of them knew all the songs by heart. Being one among hundreds of voices singing along with the band is a really euphoric experience. Another thing that I feel is unique to Euphoria is that they are not fussy about what they sing. They perform their own compositions, old rock classics and even some hindi film numbers. Most of the well recognized bands stick to their own compositions during live shows.
On the other extreme of the crowd handling capability, I would place Atif Aslam. I love most of his songs. But he is so much better when he is singing out of my ipod rather than singing in front of me. His improvisations and crowd handling leave a lot to be desired. While we are on the topic of improvisations during a live performance, 2 guys who deserve a mention but not really for good reasons – Hariharan and Sukhwinder singh. Both awesome singers with lots of chartbusters to their names. But some of their improvisations during liver performances leave even the accompanying orchestra in the lurch. That feeling is best described as “Kabab mein Haddi”.
Coming to the non asian performers. I have had the opportunity to listen to only 2 of them. One I had never heard about and the other was Bryan Adams. The band in the former case was “Poets of the Fall”. They are a finnish band and had performed at IITK as part of the cultural fest, Antaragni. I had attended the concert to get a feel of what a Rock Concert feels like. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say they just blew my mind. I have been a POTF fan ever since. The performance, guitar and drum solos, crowd interaction – just awesome. So it was with high expectations that I went to Bengaluru for the Bryan Adams concert. About a month before the concert, when I didn’t even know Bryan Adams was coming to Bengaluru, I had gone on another live concert – that of Yuvan Shankar Raja. It was just a disappointment. The reasons are several – Dead crowd, zero crowd interaction by the performers and most of the songs performed were unheard ones. I remarked to a friend of mine who had accompanied me that the magic of live concert really comes out in Rock concerts. He replied that if Bryan Adams comes to India, we must really take the chance to attend it. Lo and behold, a month later, both of us were at Palace Grounds Bangalore waiting for Bryan to take the stage. Dressed in a Black shirt and Blue jeans, the Canadian star kicked off the night with “There will never be another tonight”. We could just stand and marvel at the silken voice even at the age of 51. Chartbusters flowed one after another. “Here I am”, “Please forgive me”, “18 till I die”, “Everything I do” and if palace grounds were an indoor stadium the roof would have been blown off when the oh so familiar guitar chords struck announcing the arrival of “The Summer of 69”. All in all, Bryan really made it “A Night to Remember”. The secret of an impactful live concert is to stop when the Audience asks “Why” rather than “Why not?” Bryan could have gone on for the whole night without the audience even thinking of dispersing. Such was the Charisma of the man and the power of his music. I for one am now a self confessed addict to live concerts. On this count I am really happy that I am moving from Chennai to Bangalore where the concert scene is much more active. Let’s hope there will be more such one night love affairs with rocking music and mind blowing performances.
Make some magic, Raise some Hell"
That is exactly what Bryan Adams did one day before Valentines at Bengaluru. With the crowd begging for more, he belted out one amazing song after another and by the time the show came to a close, we were begging for more. That is the magic of a live concert.
The first time I attended a live concert, I was a student of MBA Batch of 2006 in IIT Kanpur. The Band was Indian Ocean. Had never heard about them but evidently, they were quite popular among the IITK Junta. The true magic of a live performance lies in 2 factors. First, how the performer handles the crowd and second, how much passionate the crowd is. Some might argue that both are related. That is, the passion of the crowd depends on the performer’s handling of them.
Among the Indian Bands that I have seen Palash Sen and his Euphoria are the masters at crowd handling. Within the first few songs, they usually have the crowd eating out of their hands. My first exposure to Euphoria was during Manfest 2004 at IIM Lucknow. They played for around 3 hours nonstop. The crowd was going bonkers with each song. It was clear that all of them knew all the songs by heart. Being one among hundreds of voices singing along with the band is a really euphoric experience. Another thing that I feel is unique to Euphoria is that they are not fussy about what they sing. They perform their own compositions, old rock classics and even some hindi film numbers. Most of the well recognized bands stick to their own compositions during live shows.
On the other extreme of the crowd handling capability, I would place Atif Aslam. I love most of his songs. But he is so much better when he is singing out of my ipod rather than singing in front of me. His improvisations and crowd handling leave a lot to be desired. While we are on the topic of improvisations during a live performance, 2 guys who deserve a mention but not really for good reasons – Hariharan and Sukhwinder singh. Both awesome singers with lots of chartbusters to their names. But some of their improvisations during liver performances leave even the accompanying orchestra in the lurch. That feeling is best described as “Kabab mein Haddi”.
Coming to the non asian performers. I have had the opportunity to listen to only 2 of them. One I had never heard about and the other was Bryan Adams. The band in the former case was “Poets of the Fall”. They are a finnish band and had performed at IITK as part of the cultural fest, Antaragni. I had attended the concert to get a feel of what a Rock Concert feels like. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I say they just blew my mind. I have been a POTF fan ever since. The performance, guitar and drum solos, crowd interaction – just awesome. So it was with high expectations that I went to Bengaluru for the Bryan Adams concert. About a month before the concert, when I didn’t even know Bryan Adams was coming to Bengaluru, I had gone on another live concert – that of Yuvan Shankar Raja. It was just a disappointment. The reasons are several – Dead crowd, zero crowd interaction by the performers and most of the songs performed were unheard ones. I remarked to a friend of mine who had accompanied me that the magic of live concert really comes out in Rock concerts. He replied that if Bryan Adams comes to India, we must really take the chance to attend it. Lo and behold, a month later, both of us were at Palace Grounds Bangalore waiting for Bryan to take the stage. Dressed in a Black shirt and Blue jeans, the Canadian star kicked off the night with “There will never be another tonight”. We could just stand and marvel at the silken voice even at the age of 51. Chartbusters flowed one after another. “Here I am”, “Please forgive me”, “18 till I die”, “Everything I do” and if palace grounds were an indoor stadium the roof would have been blown off when the oh so familiar guitar chords struck announcing the arrival of “The Summer of 69”. All in all, Bryan really made it “A Night to Remember”. The secret of an impactful live concert is to stop when the Audience asks “Why” rather than “Why not?” Bryan could have gone on for the whole night without the audience even thinking of dispersing. Such was the Charisma of the man and the power of his music. I for one am now a self confessed addict to live concerts. On this count I am really happy that I am moving from Chennai to Bangalore where the concert scene is much more active. Let’s hope there will be more such one night love affairs with rocking music and mind blowing performances.
