Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Jethro Tull - A Night Of Entralling Music


Just minutes before i could enter the concert arena, I could'nt help myself wondering if its going to be good show. For one, i was not a big fan classical/hindhustani music nor had i heard much of Jethro Tull. It was obvious that it was too late thinking about it as we have already purchased the tickets. I was the one to pull in more company for the concert so all more reason for me to be worried about the quality of the music that will be played. So it was Me, Uttaran, Ozzy, Arun and Prerna, with 3 of them having little or no prior concert experience. I have heard few Jethro Tull numbers and i liked them, but not much of Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the Pandit Ravi Shankar. The first thing we had in mind as soon as we entered the arena was to gobble up some unhealthy food and thats exactly what we did. The concert started at around 7:15 PM and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull introduced Anoushka and her band. She started off with Raag Jog in Aaditaalam. The splendid sound of sitar and tabala gelled well with the cold weather to give a promising start. She mellowed down with Raag Panchamsigara her dad's composition which was not so much to my liking but it was great anyway. She went on to play another song which iam not sure what it was. But it was overall a superb performance. This has convinced me to try out Anoushka's works. After the first set, we were eagerly waiting for Tull to take stage. The second set was purely JT, and they started off with Living In The Past.


I initially found Ian's voice a bit shaky but it improved a lot as the song proceeded. Although not my favorite Tull song it was enjoyable. The next track was Mercy, brilliant track, the guitar solos were very good and above all Ian rocked! Tull kicked in with a more familiar song Too Old To Rock n Roll and dedicated it to Sir Mick Jagger as we all know as the one the oldest rock stars to survive the new millennium. The frequency at which Ian was changing instruments in Heavy Horses, goes to show how talented he is as a musician. At this point Junglee was busy jumping here and there to avoid the pot smoking idiots. Just for the record there were many. Uttaran and me were particularly interested in 2 girls in front of us who were high. We wanted to try our luck if you know what i mean. After one and half hour into the concert the moment i was personally waiting for arrived. The opening notes of Thick As A Brick brought in the nostalgic feeling. That feeling only a few individuals can cherish. I personally love that song, especially the lyrics. I would pay any amount to watch JT perform that song again. Then came the magnum opus of JT, Aqualung brilliant as usual. That marked the end of set 2. The last set would be some fusion between JT and Anoushka. I was not sure how this would workout as i never been to this kind of fusion concert. It turned out to be one of the best concerts i attended to. The third said was beyond brilliance. They have done a superb job in mixing two unique sounds together. The set started of with a new composition just for this tour called Tea With Anoushka, which was lovely blend of guitar and sitar. It was slow to start but picked up momentum getting the crowd to sway. Celtic Cradle the next song that Ian introduced to crowd was simply mind blowing. True to his words it was indeed Irish music with sitar and flute as the main instruments. The music was very different and it had a lounge music feel. I guess all of us throughly enjoyed it. Moving on, Ian wanted to play Mother Goose for the crowd. He brought in Anoushka's band members to have a tabla, flute and sitar jamming with guitar, drums and keyboard. Uttaran was bit skeptical as it was well known Jethro Tull number and might spoil the whole sound with sitar. Again they have outdone themselves it gelled very well and the outcome was enthralling piece of music. Ian and Ravi Chandra Kullur (Anoushka's flautist) had a jamming session where they both tried to raise the bar higher and higher. Ian jammed with Anoushka and then there was a tabala and drums jamming.


Ozzy Looks Doped!!

It was a really extended version of Mother Goose but was enjoyable. No rock show is done without and encore, so the band was in the stage for the last song and it was none other than Locomotive Breath. The show ended on a high note. I mean that "literally", as lots of people were stoned. After an hour wait to get out we finally and drove back kicking into the interstellar overdrive.