Going unplugged

Fri, May 16 12:45 AM

There are times, when one craves for a certain song. Now if you're lucky you may have it on your phone or music player.

But, if it's not much of a favourite, you're stuck with a song in your head. Now either you end up singing it for yourself, (that, of course, is not taken lightly by my colleagues often).

If it is a la Mera Kuch Saaman (Ijazzat), they think you're in the depths of depression, while a Here Without You (3 Doors Down) or Wicked Games (Chris Isaac) could mean I'm in looove. Someone once asked me seeing my playlist if I'm the sorts who 'loves to live with memories of the past, probably they are more pleasant than the present or the anticipated future'.

Whoops! Whether or not music affects your mood or personality type, is a debate for another time, but as someone said if it feels good, overdo it! Cut to the present, I heard one of the music joints in the city play Travelling Blues, a MenWhoPause (MWP) number, which usually holds true for my state of mind. Sweet Despair is the another MWP wonder that seems almost like an anthem, I Need A Friend To Keep Me Warm; I Need My Sweet Friend, Despair.

Don't we all? They'll be performing at Haze, Vasant Vihar on Monday for a book launch, which could feature some of the new songs as well. Colin Fernandes's book Viva Santiago is based on a treasure hunt in Goa and the clues are Bob Dylan songs.

The band after their US tour has recently started jamming again and is working on some new stuff. The gang came back with some fantastic musical exchange from their recent US tour.

And no they won't be playing an unplugged set. Going unplugged seems to be the flavour of the season.

This Saturday, Lou Majaw is holding one of those sessions at Haze and on Sunday, it's Soulmate's turn to do so at the Pub Rock Fest at Tabula Rasa, Saket. Recently, Indi-pop artist Shibani Kashyap had done a few of those too.

A couple of weekends back, I witnessed a hang-loose acoustic gig by Josh Reiman at Caf and #233; Turtle, GK-I. Reiman, who hails from Seattle, US, has been in India for about a year or so. He covered a few tracks of artists like David Gray and Death Cab By Cutie, and sung some of his own.

We need a lot more of those laidback gigs in the city, where the focus is purely on the music and it's left up to you to make what you want of the time and space. There is certain charm about unplugged concerts and unplugged versions of songs as well.

Korn's unplugged version of Twisted Transistor is one hell of track, that I heard lately. Did I hear someone say, Born To Be Wild.

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