Mar 21, 2011
There was not even an inch of space at the Hard Rock Cafe at Banjara Hills on Thursday evening as the city's music lovers gathered by the scores for the performance by Indian Ocean. The anxious wait of the crowd came to an end when the band, currently on a tour promoting their new album, 16/330 Khajoor Road, took stage around 9.30 p.m., belting out popular hits from a career which has spanned over two decades. The band instantly got the assembled swaying to the melody of Kya Maloom, a song from their 2000 album Kandisa, before moving on to Chand, a song from their new album. Sushmit Sen, with his unique and melodious guitar riffs enthralled the audience while Rahul Ram, with his brusque vocals, grandiloquent stage presence and quirky bass playing pumped the crowd with adrenaline even as young boys and girls danced around the stage in ecstatic delight. Asheem Chakravarty's absence was amply made up for with the bass-tapping antics of the new tabla player, Tuheen. The band played songs from their new album like Bula Raha Hai Koi and Darte Ho, the latter featuring in the Aamir Khan-produced film on farmer suicides, Peepli Live. The crowd egged the band on for popular numbers Kandisa and Maa Rewa even as the band took the crowd into an emotional roller coaster playing songs like Boll Weevil and Bandeh. The crowd could not have asked for the more as Indian Ocean played, in a concert which spanned close to two hours, almost all the hits from their previous albums including Des Mera, which also featured in an altered version in Peepli Live, and Jhini, a Bhakti song composed by the poet-seer Kabir. The crowd were, of course, treated to their favourites Kandisa and Maa Rewa. To sum up, when Rahul Ram asked the audience “ kaisa laga?”,the entire cafe resonated with a thundering “aacha laga”.