Category Archives: Music

Music

My favourite Live Albums

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This post is a follow up to my last one. I was introduced to Live Albums when I moved to Nagpur. People in our college used to share 3-in-1 live concert DVDs with each other. I have already written about my favourite concerts, so this post is only about live albums. Below is the list of my favourite live albums of all time.

Hell Freezes Over (1994) – Eagles

Hell Freezes Over : Eagles

My favourite live album of all time and my introduction to Eagles, as a band. In fact I didn’t even hear the original version of Hotel California till years later and was then surprised to find out it was so different. Overall, this album is just magical. Everyone performed perfectly. I remember the first time I heard it, at a friend’s house, his father had found the DVD. It was also Eagles’ reunion concert and as Don Henley says, “we never broke up, we just took a 14 year vacation”.

This concert was part of the MTV unplugged series.

My only gripe with the album is that they replaced many songs’ live versions with studio versions which are inherently inferior. One example of this is “Learn to be still”.

Pulse (1995) – Pink Floyd

Pulse : Pink Floyd

One of my favourite live albums of all time, Pulse is Pink Floyd at its epic live psychedelic best. I have listened to this album countless times and can never get tired of it. The album starts with the epic “Shine on you crazy diamond” and ends with an epic rendition of “Comfortably Numb” with extended solos.

Honourable mention to Delicate Sound of Thunder, which is almost as good as Pulse, but not quite.

This concert also reminds me of a disaster that occurred back in 2006.

MTV Unplugged in New York (1994) – Nirvana

MTV Unplugged in New York : Nirvana

This live album reminds me of Whoreko, I don’t know why. I am not a huge fan of Nirvana‘s heavier work, but this concert showed their “acoustic side” and boy, was it awesome. This concert also introduced the Meat Puppets & Pat Smear to the world.

Another concert from MTV unplugged series.

Live at Pompeii (1972) – Pink Floyd

Live at Pompeii : Pink Floyd

Ok, Ok, so technically this is not a live album, but it is shot as such, simulating a concert in Pompeii (without audience). The tracks are all psychedelic and the version of echoes in this album is a masterpiece, especially the bass.

One Night Only (1998) – Bee Gees

One Night Only : Bee Gees

Not a huge fan of Bee Gees, but this live album is just awesome. Such beautiful, soulful music. Reminds me of my days in Chandigarh.

Supernatural Live (2003) – Santana

Supernatural Live : Santana

I got this as part of a 3-concert pirated DVD. The music is awesome and features guest appearances by Dave Matthews, Erik Schrody, Rob Thomas, among others. Entertaining much.

The Corrs Unplugged (1999) – The Corrs

The Corrs Unplugged : The Corrs

Another part of the 3-concert pirated DVD. I am not a Corrs fan. In fact I have never heard of them outside this concert. But the music in this album is soothing and beautiful.

This is also the album where I heard Dreams for the first time, much before the original version.

Another concert from MTV unplugged series.

A special mention to Roger Waters’ The Wall – Live in Berlin for being one of the shittiest live albums I have ever had the misfortune of listening to and making me dislike him forever after.

Music

My favourite Studio Albums

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I am a studio album guy. Playlists are not for me, nor is shuffle. I don’t like compilations either. I generally listen to music by the album and in most cases I listen to the album whole, in one sitting. Below is a list of my favourite studio albums.

The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) – Pink Floyd

The Dark Side of the Moon : Pink Floyd

There was never any real competition for the first slot in my list of favourite studio albums. I didn’t have to think twice. For me, The Dark Side of the Moon will always be as close to a perfect album that is technically possible. I can listen to this album and zone out with ease.

The only black-mark on this otherwise perfect album? – On the run. Can’t stand it and always have to skip over it. All the other tracks are just perfect in every way.

Highly recommend the Classic Albums episode on this album, narrated by Alan Parsons himself.

Rumours (1977) – Fleetwood Mac

Rumours : Fleetwood Mac

This album is rock bordering on pop. Which is why I was so surprised that I liked it so much. I listened to Dreams for the first time in Kolkata, but the first time I listened to the whole album was during a road-trip from Delhi to Chandigarh. Most of the songs are more or less perfect. My favourites are Dreams, Go your own way, The Chain & You make loving fun.

Even more fascinating is the background behind this album, the breakups, drugs and internal turmoils the band members were going through during recording. Highly recommend the Classic Albums episode on this album.

Animals (1977) – Pink Floyd

Animals : Pink Floyd

There’s absolutely no bad track in this album. All the songs are more or less perfect. But my absolute favourites are Dogs and Sheep.

This album always reminds me of our first Think Floyd concert.

The Long Run (1979) – Eagles

The Long Run : Eagles

This is my favourite studio album from Eagles. I really like the tracks The Long Run, In the City, King of Hollywood, Heartache Tonight & The Sad cafe. Additionally, I can’t tell you why is perhaps one of my most favourite songs ever. Beautiful album. So much soul.

This is also the last Eagles album before Don Felder was booted from the band.

Hybrid Theory (2000) – Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory : Linking Park

I am not into the genre that Linkin Park represents. But Linkin park is undoubtedly a big part of my college years and there are hundreds of memories associated with its albums. Out of them, Hybrid theory is perhaps the one that defines Linkin Park for me. My favourite tracks are Papercut, One Step Closer, Crawling, In the End, Pushing me away and My December. The last track only appears on the Japanese version of the album and which I heard through piracy. I probably won’t have been into them if I had heard them for the first time in any other stage of my life.

So what if the instruments are simplistic? They sound good and that’s all that matters.

I still listen to them but only when I go for runs. Transports me back to my college days.

The Division Bell (1994) – Pink Floyd

The Division Bell : Pink Floyd

This album gets a lot of flak for “being terrible”, but even though it is far moved from the 70s and 80s Pink Floyd sound, I still love it. This album is more David Gilmour than any other Pink Floyd album before it. It shows in the soulful long-winded solos. My favourite tracks from this album are Marooned, Wearing the inside out, Coming back to life, Keep talking and High Hopes.

High hopes transports me back to college days to a specific night when Whoreko was staying with us to appear for some exams and he showed me his Sony Walkman series phone. I chose High Hopes to test the music quality and was blown away by the amazing bass.

Coming back to life takes me back to my Kolkata days, going to Someplace Else and listening to The Hip Pocket.

Azadi (1997) – Junoon

Azadi : Junoon

This album was my introduction to Rock music. And what an album! And from Pakistan, of all places. Amazing soulful sufi-inspired music with rock riffs.

I remember falling asleep to this album every night listening to it on my Aiwa Walkman. This was when I stayed in Durgapur. I also remember once hooking up my radio antenna to our apartment window and catching FM radio from Kolkata and this was the track playing.

My favourite tracks from this album are Sayonee, Meri awaz suno, Mukh gae & Lal meri pat.

Too bad the band couldn’t continue their success after this album.

Wish you were here (1975) – Pink Floyd

Wish you were here : Pink Floyd

This album is carried by one track and that is Shine on you crazy diamond. At one point of time, I listened to this song every single day. The track starts out slow and soulful, picks up tempo, then goes slow again.

The title song is good, too.

The Man-Machine (1978) – Kraftwerk

The Man-Machine : Kraftwerk

I am not into electronic music, but I love Kraftwerk. The Man-machine is an album of epic proportions. Just like Azadi, I listened to it while falling asleep in Durgapur. Every song in this album is great and I will never be tired of listening to it.

After writing this, I realise that 6 out of my 9 favourite studio albums all came out within the 7 years between 1973 and 1979. What a time it must have been to be alive back then!

Movies, Music, Rant

School of Rock would end very differently today

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School of Rock is one of my favourite movies of all time. For those who don’t know, School of Rock is a 2003 movie starring Jack Black.

School of Rock
About to go to Jail, PC: Wikipedia

Black plays Dewey Finn who has just been booted from his band. He has no income and has a week to come up with rent money, so he impersonates his roommate as a substitute school teacher. Instead of teaching the kids the curriculum, he turns them into a rock band. Just a day before they are due to participate in the Battle of the Bands, though, he’s caught and makes a run for it. The kids, however, decide to run away from school anyways and participate. When the parents find out, they are furious. But when they watch their kids perform, the power of Rock n Roll melts their hearts. Finn ends up starting an after-school music program and the kids become regular rockers under his tutelage.

Even in 2003, the movie could hardly be called “realistic”, but in 2021 the entire premise is rather laughable. This is because parents these days are much more anal about school. As a father of a Primary Grader, I know. Some personal examples of the unbelievable lengths parents go to micromanage their kids’ schooling

  1. Parents taking an AQI meter to their kids’ classroom to fight with the school administration about how polluted the classroom is. All the parents gather and scream at the school to reduce ventilation.
  2. Parents taking a CO2 meter to their kids’ classroom to fight with the school administration about how stuffy the classroom is. All the parents gather and scream at the school to increase ventilation.
  3. Parents fighting with the school teachers if their kid gets a tiny scratch while playing.
  4. Woke parents fighting with the school teacher for using “he” and “she” to refer to the kids instead of “they”.
  5. Parents fighting with the school teacher because the muffins served for snacks had “too many raisins” & “too little wholegrain”.
  6. Parents complaining that their “precious kid” doesn’t get enough attention in class and feels sad (with 1 teacher for every 3 kids).
  7. They enrol their kids at International Schools and complain about how the curriculum is “too progressive” and there’s too little of “traditional studying”.

It doesn’t take long for them to make a new WhatsApp group and rally other parents against the school. After all this, they also have time to fight with the school administration about how high the fees are.

During our childhood, our parents were not as passionate about our schooling. I appreciate that parents these days are more involved, but some of them have taken things to a whole new level; especially those sending their kids to fancy schools. When I went to drop my daughter to school, I would always find some parent arguing with the teachers. I felt bad for the teachers and the school administration, that they had to spent so much time pacifying anal parents.

If School of Rock were to come out in 2021, people would probably have it banned immediately.

Gadgets, Music, Rant, Technology

My Worst Purchases-Bose QC 35 II

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Continuing with my series, the next entry in the list is the Bose QC 35 II headphones, which I regretted buying.

Bose QC 35 II
The Bose QC 35 II, stellar headphones

Don’t get me wrong, the Bose QC 35 II are great headphones, with stellar sound quality and impressive noise cancellation. I just realised after buying them that I am not a “wearing huge headphones in public” kind of guy.

A bit of history, my earphones of choice used to be the Bose Soundsport Wireless, which I happily used for a few years, but lost during my last trip to Xiamen, China. I was quite devastated and for some time, considered buying the same earphones again, but couldn’t find them anywhere in Xiamen. I almost bought Apple Airpods from the Xiamen Apple store, but somehow controlled myself because of the poor audio quality.

After returning to India, I saw the Bose QC 35 II on sale at half price and I had wanted to dip my toes into Noise cancellation, so bought it.

The sound quality & the noise cancellation blew me away (Sony MX3 performs even better they say, but I was a Bose purist then). However, after the first few days of use, the novelty began to wear off. I would feel awkward walking in public with them around my ears, sitting at my desk in office. Having phone calls on them looked even more awkward so I started regretting my decision very soon.

On top of that, Apple soon launched the Airpods Pro, which had everything I wanted in the original Airpods and I was done with the QC 35 IIs.

I eventually sold them to a couple of illiterate Gym Bros via OLX at almost the same price I bought them for, so the regret didn’t last for long.

Hate, Music, Rant

What in Satan’s name is this?

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Well, I was hanging around at a club yesterday, for an office party. Office parties being office parties, I found myself distracted and veered off to the side. Soon, I found my eyes wandering towards the TV. Incidentally, it had MTV on it. I was greeted with this scene

WTF

That is Katy Perry (I think?) with fireworks bursting out of her Bosom. There was no audio (thankfully), so I couldn’t understand what caused her to contract such an ailment, but that seems to be the gist of the song. Please also note that that’s the only place the fireworks seem to be coming from.
I have avoided watching such channels for years, exactly because of such “artists”. Earlier, albums used to sell well because they had good music. These days, it’s all because of such gimmicky videos, synthesized music, skin show and something called “Twerking”.
I feel old.

Music

Think Floyd 2012

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I have written about Think Floyd many times before here, here, here and here. Really, with a busy lifestyle and bands not playing on the weekends, they’re the only band I follow regularly (apart from Indian Ocean, who don’t seem to play at Delhi anymore).
They recently announced their first gig of 2012, again at Hard Rock Cafe, Delhi. I had many things going against me this time. I had cold and fever, I had to go to office early the next day, it was the end of the month and I was short on money, but none of that stopped me. After swallowing a crocin, I reached the venue sharply at 21:30, waiting for the show to begin at 22:00.
Their on-stage lineup last night
Anindo Bose: Keyboards
Abhishek Mathur: Guitar and Vocals
Rohit Kulkarni : Guitar and Vocals
Chintan Kalra : Bass and Vocals
Aveleon Vaz : Drums  
The Guy whose name I always forget : Sax
Here’s the set they performed, with a break in between
Side A

  1. Time
  2. What do you want from me
  3. Empty Spaces/Young Lust
  4. When you’re in
  5. Set controls for the heart of the sun
  6. Have a cigar
  7. Echoes Part -1/2
  8. Lost for Words
  9. Burning bridges
  10. Learning to Fly
  11. Hey you

Side B

  1. Coming back to life
  2. Money
  3. Us and Them
  4. Any colour you like
  5. Astronomy Domine
  6. In the Flesh
  7. Run like Hell
  8. Wish you were here (Dedicated to Amit Saigal)
  9. Shine on you crazy diamond (VI – IX)
  10. Great gig in the sky
  11. Comfortably Numb
  12. Shine on you Crazy Diamond (I -IV)

Few points to note about last night’s performance

  • Chintan was sober. He didn’t space out even once. This was a first
  • Gaurav Chintamani seems to have been domesticated-post marriage and spent his time off-stage; perhaps to keep him off the reach of clawing groupies out to get him
  • This was the first time they didn’t perform Dark Side of the moon in its entirety, but the playlist did need an overhaul (and time for more songs), which it got
  • Animals were missing
Music

The Great Gig (under the sky)

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Last night was my third Think Floyd night. I have already covered how awesome the band is and how they play during my first and second gigs. This time was as awesome as ever and much better than the second time.
This time the gig was held on the terrace of Vapour bar and lounge, Gurgaon. The ambience was amazing; the best ambience I have ever seen for a live performance. There was a full moon out, there was a cool, pleasant breeze flowing and the metro would whiz by close to the mall every few minutes.
The set included more or less the same combination of songs as the last few times (Yes, Dark Side was played in its entirety).
Since this was an open venue (no entry fees or cover charges), some losers did make it to the venue. It was actually hilarious to watch them make a fool out of themselves.
Loser 1:-
Loser 1 is a short & thin guy, dressed impeccably in formals, sitting at the bar as far away from the band as possible. You can imagine that he grew up in South Delhi & when he was young, his parents didn’t refuse anything he asked for (probably got a BMW at the age of 11); which is why he turned out to be a loser. Suddenly he comes up to the stage
Loser: C’mon guys. Play some Morrison
Chintan: We’re gonna play Morrison next Thursday
Loser: But I want Morrison now
Chintan: Next Thursday
Loser: You don’t know how much money I spend. You gotta play my request
Chintan: Someday we’ll play requests
Loser: Some more fake-accented shit
Chintan: Man I’m not even listening to you anymore
Loser: Utters abuses in Punjabi and goes back to the bar


Loser 2:-
Loser 2 is with a bunch of friends, standing right in front of the stage, dancing, making rap signs and desecrating the best Pink Floyd songs. During an instrument tuning break, he gets up on stage
Loser: September 11 was worst day of life yaar. Mean worst day yaar. I cried yaar. I hate Pink Floyd yaar. I mean Pink Floyd legend yaar. I am Pink Floyd legend yaar. I cannot tell you yaar. I mean september 11 was just worst day yaar. I am the biggest legend of Pink Floyd yaar. I hate Pink Floyd yaar. I just so happy Pink Floyd come to India today yaar.
I works at Accenture yaar. I such big legend, I bunks office tonight for Pink Floyd yaar
Crowd: Fuck Accenture
Loser: You can say that
Crowd: Fuck you
Loser: I am TL!!! (Tech Lead)
With this awe-inspiring statement, he walks off the stage and goes back to dancing. His facebook update tomorrow will be about how he shared stage with Pink Floyd.
Videos (Make sure you click on HD before you start playback)

Music, Rant

Different types of “Rockers” you might encounter at a Rock concert in Delhi

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Well, going to different Rock concerts in Delhi for more than 3 years, I have noticed how peculiar the crowd is, that comes to these concerts. I have divided them up into the following categories

  1. The Posers:- These are cool Delhi dudes whose main aim in life is to impress  girls and would go to any extent to do so. They come to these concerts impeccably dressed up, cool glasses, hair done up using copious amounts of hair gel. To give themselves the “Rocker” look, they wear things like scarves on their elbows, bad-ass gloves, chains hanging from their pockets etc. To complete the wannabe impression, they talk loudly in fake accented English and address each others as bros/homies/fellow-rocker. Before the concert starts, they would keep shouting things like “We will rock tonight” and “Rock my brains out” etc. It need not be said that their idea of rock music ends at bands like Linkin Park, The Rasmus, Green Day etc. They are mostly accompanied by rocker chick(s) (to be covered later) whom they explain the band’s history in detail and the songs to look out for. They are also apparently friends with at least one of the band members and would try to meet him in front of his friends to prove this to them. During the performance, they would frequently break into fake air-guitaring bent backwards. Why do they do all this? So that they can update their facebook profiles with their photos from the concert so that everyone can know how cool they are.
  2. The Rich:- These are men in 40s from areas like Vasant Kunj, Defence Colony, New Friend’s colony etc. They would come to a concert in their Mercs/BMWs/Jags, dressed in expensive suits with their socialite wives and crap-spoilt-fat children. They would keep checking and replying to e-mails from their smartphones (Blackberrys 2 years ago, Androids these days), “sit” at the back (so that no one steps on their expensive suede shoes) and pass the whole concert without any expression. The children would play games on their iPhones. They would  also look at distaste at the poorer crowd and leave some time before the concert gets over, so as not to mix with the poorer crowd.
  3. The Clueless:- These are mostly Jats & Bhaiyas with a lot of money but no culture/class/education. They would be passing by the venue (in their open air jeep) when they would see a crowd gathered and since they have no jobs or anything else to do, would buy tickets (not without haggling) and come in. Inside they would be clueless as to what is happening and would ask young folks “Yo kay chal rahya se” . Once the band starts performing, they would laugh at the type of music being played and also laugh at the headbanging audience and say ”Inme to bhoot chadh gayo”. But since they paid money for the tickets, they would stick around till the end, abuse everyone and leave.
  4. The Rocker chicks:- I should start off by saying that 99.9% of Delhi girls should not be allowed to enter rock concerts at all. They are an insult to the band as well as they fans. These are upscale Delhi girls. Their idea of being a rock-chick is to apply heavy makeup and wear small clothes (or Lady GaGa T-shirts). They would let their boyfriends (see: The Posers) haggle with everyone to let them be at the very front of the crowd, have the boyfriends (see: The Posers) bring a chair and sit and watch the concert. They would frequently ask the boyfriends (see: The Posers) to muscle their way through the crowds and bring them drinks. After drinking a little, they would dance to the solo of Comfortably Numb with their fellow rocker chicks while their boyfriends (see: The Posers) keep others away lest someone touches them and derives them of their virginity. Needless to say, the sight of such women makes my blood boil.
  5. The Dopers:- These are mostly Delhi University students. They drink and dope before turning up for the concert. They have long hair (if any) and thin emancipated bodies. They are mostly dressed in black with all-star sneakers. Their favourite genre is Death Metal. The louder the music and more incomprehensible the lyrics, the happier they are and more furiously they bang their heads. Between bands, they go to the corner to smoke some more dope (hidden in their socks or underwear) and then return for some more furious headbanging. After the concert is over, they stand clueless outside the venue with no idea of how to get back home. Surprisingly, this is the least dis likable groups of all the above.

PS: Thanks to Papa tere Papa of Baytay for the Haryanvi text.

Hate, Music, Rant

Why Delhi/NCR doesn’t deserve Metallica (or any other band)

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After the Bryan Adams fiasco and concert cancellation in February, here I am, spending another disappointed night at home. Metallica’s first concert in India, one I was looking forward to for months was cancelled. I don’t agree with what most of the news channels are saying; here’re the events as I saw them myself from the venue

  1. Gates were to be opened at 3:00 PM. The security personnel/organizers didn’t anticipate people queuing up since morning. By the time it was 3:00 PM, there was a huge dis-organized crowd, almost 30,000 strong, impatient to get it. The security personnel should have started organizing people in queues from the very beginning (Hats off to concerts I have seen in Mumbai; excellent organization and obedient people)
  2. Before the gates were to be opened, the security staff shouted at the crowd that unless they get into proper queues, they won’t open the gates. A 30,000 strong crowd (especially a metal concert crowd) can’t organize themselves in a queue just like that.
  3. After failing to form a proper queue, the security personnel just opened the gates. The crowd mass directly in the front of the gate surged forward, the ones on the left or the right, sensing that they aren’t making much progress, started pushing the whole crowd. This was sheer torture. For almost 40 minutes, we had to almost suffocate in the unruly crowd and risk being stampeded if we fell down. The ground was uneven. Many girls almost suffocated and had to plead with the crowd to let them leave.
  4. During entry, the security staff failed to keep up with the massive crowd surge. Not all tickets were checked and frisking was a joke.
  5. Once in, the people right at the front rushed towards the stage, banged against the barriers separating the stage from the crowd and broke them. Slowly people settled down and the crew members noticed that the front barriers were broken
  6. Crew members politely asked the crowd to move back a little so that the barriers could be repaired. The crowd did nothing
  7. Another crew member asked the crowd to do the same. They just kept standing like they couldn’t understand what was said to them.
  8. Another crew member called the crowd ‘buttheads’. At this point, the crowd started abusing back (but still didn’t move)
  9. Another crew-member politely told the crowd that the concert cannot start unless the barricades were repaired and that cannot happen with the crowd still pushing against it. Still, nothing.
  10. This went on for some more time. They also flashed the text on the screens which said the same thing. The crowd just laughed, abused and threw bottles towards the stage
  11. The crowd waited till around 18:30 when they were told that the show was postponed till tomorrow because of technical difficulties. At this point, the people standing towards the front went berserk and passing the already broken barriers, climbed up on the stage. They broke microphones, monitors and speakers.
  12. A few people gathered a banner and set it on fire.
  13. While I decided to leave, my last view was of a group of people trying to pull a huge speaker (towards the middle of the ground) down. There was not a single policeman to witness the whole event
I think the following factors contributed to this disaster
  1. The organizers/security personnel had little or no experience of dealing with a Heavy Metal concert crowd. The failed to ensure order from the very beginning. They didn’t anticipate such an early turnout and didn’t make arrangements for queues.
  2. Press says that the organizers were facing technical issues with sound, I cannot comment on this because I don’t know this for sure, but they did goof up big time. They failed to control an already unruly crowd and kept them waiting for too long before breaking bad news
  3. I feel the crowd was the biggest factor. Most of the people were unruly, already drunk/high and very different from rock/metal crowd you see in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore.
I see reports coming in now that the gig won’t be held tomorrow either, but will instead be scrapped. I understand that a band needs some rest between subsequent gigs (Metallica has another gig in Bangalore on Sunday), but the unruly behaviour/vandalism by the crowd ealed their fate. Metallica will not risk performing before such a crowd. Here’s a video

The people of Delhi/NCR don’t deserve to be rocked by Metallica (or any big band for that matter).

Music

Great Gig Part-2

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June 30th, 2011 was a day I had waited for a long time. Think Floyd performed for the second time in Hard Rock Cafe. I had informed everyone of my absence from the other responsibilities of life days ago, as soon as the dates were announced. The concert was slated to start at 10:00 PM, we reached there at 07:00 PM, waited till 8 to get the tickets. The concert actually started around 10:30 PM.
For those who don’t know about the band, read my last post or facebook fan page
https://thescurvydawg.com/2010/05/22/the-great-gig-in-hard-rock-cafe/
http://www.facebook.com/thinkfloydindia

I had a few apprehensions on what the playlist would be like on this occasion. My minimum requirements were Dogs, Sheep, Echoes, Shine on you Crazy Diamond & of course, whole of Dark Side of the Moon.
Un-like last time, the concert started with Coming Back to Life, followed by Poles Apart and then High Hopes. Just when I was yearning for some classic(old) Pink Floyd songs, they Started with Dark Side of the Moon and played the whole album, just like last time.
While they were playing, I started looking around the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of Vasundhara Vee, who sang the part last time; however, I could see no signs of her. We were all surprised when the Sax guy (whose name I never heard or forgot) played the vocal parts on his Sax. It was simply amazing and played perfectly. All in all, I can safely say that “The Great Gig in the sky” was the song which surprised me most both the times.
After this came the mandatory alcohol top-up break after which they started with Echoes, followed by Sheep, Dogs, Shine on you Crazy Diamond, finishing with comfortably numb.
A few differences from last time

  1. The show was technically more successful. Last time the Sax sound went in and out, the keyboards couldn’t be heard on many songs, but this time everything seemed good.
  2. Everyone seemed more drunk than last time. Gaurav Chintamani looked like he was almost about to throw up.
  3. Rohit Kulkarni had more role this time, did most of the lead guitar work.
Overall, a very satisfying experience. I hope they do play “Careful with that Axe Eugene” next time.