June 6th

Bomb Thursdays,
Kino 108
Tough on Tobacco, Adam Avil, TINT, Spook

Yawn. Bomb Thursdays at Kino 108 (in Andheri) are generally a lot of fun . Everything is affordable, it’s an intimate setup, and there’s usually just this beam of good vibes and positivity penetrating these gigs. (I apologize for the unforgivable use of hippie jargon. It’s only because I haven’t had a bath today and I promise to read Catcher in the Rye again.) This particular one featured Tough on Tobacco (ToT) – a band of whom I’m not a very big fan because I find them often monotonous and sometimes guilty of plastic emotion – and three other acts. It was no different, except for one glaring observation. The gig was boring. I found myself yawning multiple times through the course of the night. So, to keep myself entertained, I whipped out my mental quill and my mental scroll and compiled a list of unrelated things I noticed at the gig:

1.      Kino 108 has no stage. The band sets up on the regular-night dance floor, at eye level with the crowd. Which can be a good thing because the band can interact at close quarters with fans and the audience. But, strangely, there always seems to be this vacuum between where the band is and where the crowd gathers to watch them. It’s like they’re afraid to stand too close to the bands. And I don’t get why; they don’t bite. Usually. Through the night, the energy kept sort of getting sucked into this vortex.

2.      Apologies to the guy whose toe I stepped on. I generally tend to avoid stepping on people’s toes. Nevertheless, wear shoes next time.

3.     As for the individual who decided to grab me by the waist with both hands pretending to pass through in a crowded space: Get a hold of yourself, man. Frisky piece of shit.

4.      Adam Avil kicked off the evening. The music was really not my cup of tea – some concoction of modern and classic rock and metal and that whole ’80s guitar thing. Among other elements, they have that one move that I can never stomach – the one-foot-on-monitor while shredding through a guitar solo signature. Although in this case, the vocalist/guitar-player rested his foot on the hard-case for audio equipment instead. I don’t think I’d pay too much money to watch them live.

5.      Which reminds me, I didn’t pay the 200 rupee entry (because I’m paparazzi), which is a terrible thing to boast about. But then I do love free things; I’m only human.

Adam Avil

6.      Coming back to old Adam Avil and his band, I have to say that, while the music was quite average to my untrained ears, I don’t hate them as such. There was something almost endearing about them. It’s an old-fashioned thing but I really appreciate bands who hit their instruments hard and with conviction. They all seemed very sincere about what they were doing, and part of the live experience is to feed off the energy of bands who’re genuinely enjoying the process of playing the music they’ve written.

7.      My friends were heading to the smoking room. To get to this room, you have to go through a narrow staircase with three steps. At best, two and half people can get on this staircase side-to-side. This one couple decided to sit next to each other on those very steps, leaving room for just one non-big-boned person to squeeze through and get to and from the smoking room. Are we just the emperor’s new clothes, then? People in the city complain about traffic jams all the time. This is why they happen. So let’s not be classist and claim that we, the disenfranchised urban youth of the country, engage our so-called leaders and believe in civic behaviour and all that shit.

8.      The vocalist of Tint sang in that nasal Oasis-esque voice. The guitar-player was wearing a Nirvana cap, which I wouldn’t mind flicking. But more importantly, he was wearing a cap inside a pub at night. As for the drummer…

9.      …he was by far the highlight of the evening. He was more punk rock than punk rock itself (but not as punk rock as black metal). Instead of removing one tom from the drum kit, he removed both. The guy was animated on his kit to a fault (sort of like this guy), falling off or jumping on to the couch behind him after every song. At one point, I found him resting his torso on the snare, head down, after which he got up from the kit and started playing a strategically placed cymbal far away. He was a pretty good player, but I can’t decide whether the act was cool or really fucking weird and creepy. It was entertaining though.

TINT

10.   Tint’s set suffered from terrible sound – the guitars weren’t audible so it was hard to make a judgement call on the music, but the performance wasn’t much to speak of. I think they had this ambient thing going on top of the rhythmic spine, but then, I can’t be sure thanks to the sound.

11.     Spook were…well, good. They played modern rock and played it well enough and there was a lot happening and all that. And people liked them. But I felt the music lacked soul or any real value addition. To me, they were like the Barefaced Liars of Bombay – make what you will of that. Also, their set was almost a 50-50 split between playing songs and chattering on the mic. Four of the five guys in the band had mics in front of them, which they took full advantage of, trying their best to be funny (and mostly falling flat). It was another timely reminder why I generally skip stand-up comedy open-mic nights.

Spook

12.     Tough on Tobacco call themselves ToT. Why, you ask? I don’t know; JLT, I’m guessing.

Tough on Tobacco

13.    I’m a fan of Sid Coutto. When he’s behind the drum-kit. On the vocals, not so much. But you can’t deny that he’s got the frontman thing down pat.

14.  The band puts up a quite flawless live show. It’s the right amount of showmanship, technical proficiency, and (begrudgingly) soul, although I personally find the reggae-sprinkled music painfully dreary and lifeless, but that’s just me. But I don’t think they missed a single note all night. Everyone was spot-on, and watching a band in full-flow like that is always a pleasure. Plus they have fun on stage. It’s a perfectly assembled line-up, although the bass-player (who had this incredible OLP bass and seemed to share common mental space with the drummer – that’s how locked in they were) was wearing a fuchsia coloured t-shirt. Come on.

15.   The crowd finally started responding to the music – everyone was dancing and singing along. The Pentagram guitar-player even got up on stage to show off his blues licks on an improvised song the band did via crowd suggestions. Although it turned out to be a “reggae song about birthdays”, which is right up ToT’s alley and very convenient. Fun, nonetheless.

16.   There was this one song which had this one guitar solo that the ToT lead-guitarist (Pozy Dhar) played. It was a fluid and graceful slew of notes slithering across the canvas. Stunning, really.

17.   Come to think of it, the evening wasn’t really boring. The yawns that escaped my yapper could just have been due to a lack of sleep. Occam’s Razor.