You read it right, Bangalore finally has a Blue Frog. The venues in Mumbai and Pune are known to be the hotbeds of live music acts and introduce audiences to new bands and artists. This particular Friday at the Blue Frog saw it’s first ‘Rock act’ take the stage. The evening featured Bangalore’s veterans – Thermal and a Quarter, with the opening act by Mad Orange Fireworks.
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| Mad Orange Fireworks |
Mad Orange Fireworks is one of the few bands in Bangalore, whose gig I have never managed to catch. While I’ve seen Michael Dias play solo, I’ve actually never seen the band play live. This three-piece act got off to a slightly slow start and the audience seemed to be getting restless. While the sound itself was not bad, and I do enjoy listening to their album, something was amiss in this gig. If I had to guess, I would say it was probably the set list.
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| Mad Orange Fireworks |
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| Mad Orange Fireworks |
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| Mad Orange Fireworks |
A venue like Blue Frog demands that one comes darting out of the stable, but Mad Orange Fireworks seemed to have gotten themselves off to a slow trot instead. The dedicated fan base was in awe and the band itself was tight and sounded pretty close to the album. Having heard their sound, I’m going to write this gig off as a slow-night with a tough-crowd. I look forward to the next gig to see if it was just a question of stars not aligning and what not, because no one gets as far as Mad Orange Fireworks has by sounding poor. More up tempo numbers the next time at the start maybe?
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| Mad Orange Fireworks |
Putting aside some technical trouble with the monitors, Thermal and Quarter came blazing out the stable and kicked off their set with Like Me from their latest album. Almost immediately, the crowd were upfront and grooving to the music. The band went on to play a whole bunch of songs from their repertoire of albums and some excellent covers.
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| TAAQ |
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| TAAQ |
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| TAAQ |
Despite having his electronics go a bit wonky on MEDs, Bruce Lee Mani powered on to get everyone grooving in the house. The Daft Punk covers were fabulous and literally got everyone in the house dancing and head banging. There were also some very neat covers by Steely Dan and JJ Cale. The band also called on Tony Das to help out on guitars and powered on with Paper Puli, Meter-mele-one and a half , How Can I get your groove and Drunk.
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| TAAQ |
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| TAAQ |
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| TAAQ |
The crowd really lost it when Bruce and Tony decide to have a bit of a duel on the lead bits. Overall, it was another stellar gig by TAAQ. The great part about having a ton of original compositions and super covers under one’s belt is that you can play around with the set list a fair bit and always have something new to show. TAAQ did just that; and despite the extended deadlines for venues to stay open on weekends, the crowd wanted more of the band.
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