Tuesday, December 30, 2008

The post that nearly wasn't..

So after a large number of days here I are with a new post. I'm still wondering who reads this. Not many people I'm sure. Anyway! I bring thee, the people, news of mine life! Wasszaaaa karachiiiiiii (and beyonnnnd)....!!

Last Friday I happened to witness a performance by The Munchkins at the PACC. ADP was there too but sadly we got there too late. The show, horror of horrors, appeared to have started on time. Yes I too am still wondering about that. Anyway, the show was in a word, amazing. These guys have their act in tact ladies and germs. Their setlist included:

Led Zeppelin
Whole Lotta Love
Immigrant Song
Stairway to Heaven (merged into All Along the Watchtower, the Dave Mathhews Version, an idea I had independantly thought of a few days prior to this..now everyone'll think we stole it)

Rage Against the Machine
Testify (omg he played the cable-pulled-out-and-touching-metal solo!)
Sleep Now in the Fire

The Police
Message in a Bottle
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic

Jimi Hendrix
Fire

Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here (Immu did some sweet keyboard-isms on this)
Comfortably Numb

Carlos Santana
Maria (Abbas Premjee displaying some serious acoustic chops)

Red Hot Chili Peppers (omg!)
Give It Away
Snow

U2
Vertigo
New Year's Day
Pride

John Mayer
Waiting On the World to Change.

All of these were astonishingly good representations of the originals. Their vocalist is very very versatile and so is their guitar man. Bass is courtesy of Khalid of Aaroh fame and their drummer is the man himself, John Louis "Gumby" Pinto. Who is crazy. They brought in this keyboards and synthesizer dude who was really classy. He played nearly the entire Stairway to Heaven solo after the guitarist. Skillz major. I was sitting with an open mouth for nearly the entire show.

Obviously the performance drove a few points home...at home. All of us band people were there. Saad, Owais, Anes, me even Jazib who is ex-band. Yeah heh we crossed the ex member mark already. Anyway, it really put into perspective the whole 'how good are we?' issue.

As far as im concerned we arent nearly as good as we need to be. Sure The Munchkins weren't very physical, unlike ADP who have OBA jumping all over the place and Yasir bouncing in his chair and Ali Alam gets worked up too. But they didn't need to. Their vocalist carried it all with his banter and well..chops. I mean holy shit the man can sing. It's not easy to cover Robert Plant, Zack de la Rocha (no its not "just rap"), Sting, Bono, Anthony Keidis, Dave Gilmour and Dave Mathhews, let alone all in one go. He did it.

So we need a blend of all out going wild and having a strong frontman. Er, I say. Work is needed.


The recording demos idea is getting a bit more support. In fact it's nearly a done thing. All we need is to get a decent level of quality assurance and we'll get a handful of songs recorded as well as is possible in some home setup. Then the plan is to disseminate them then through our friends and the internets. Hopefully interest will be raised, fans will increase and gigs will be gained. Which will result in a cumulative effect. Hopefully. Currently we got this friend of a friend to try his hand at scratching together something workable for one of our covers.


That one.

And the next time I see OBA I shall the talks to him. Ain't no glass barriers where I'm coming from.

I heard this recently and I like it quite a bit. More so than the original even. It's on Use Your Illusion 2, by Guns N' Roses obviously.


If we could see tomorrow
What of your plans
No one can live in sorrow
Ask all your friends

Times that you took in stride, their
Back in demand
I was the one who's washing
Blood of your hands

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I know the things you wanted
They're not what you have
With all the people talkin'
It's driving you mad

If I was standing by you
How would you feel?
Knowing your love's decided
And all love is real
Baby

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I thought I could live in your world
As years all went by
With all the voices I've heard
Something has died

And when you're in need of someone
My heart won't deny you
So many seems so lonely
With no one left to cry to baby

And don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight, baby, maybe, someday
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight

2 comments:

  1. Comment goes here ; he he this was the reply that nearly wasn't written .

    But then again you took the time to write a post so here is a little aaomething I can do in return :)

    Was so close to start a blog the other day !!

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  2. you should. OBA seems pretty approachable.
    and i am so proud of myself- it was only rage against the machine whose songs i hadnt heard.

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