CALL it a pocket full of memories.Or better, a trip down memory lane. To hark back on the good old days of CCR and ABBA, more than anything else is gratifying for the retro tuned ears, and it’s just what the Carnatic city needs to attend to, as a respite from the seasonal rock and classical festivals, habitually kissing the city.
The pop-rock culture of the retro eras will inventively be revisited today, as Museum Theatre comes resplendent with Live Martini and their second leg of Pocket Full of Memories, a concert in tune with a retro pop-rock upheaval of situation.
What was laid upon, last December when Sujan Daniel mouthed his resolute, clarity abiding vocals, at the first ever Pocket Full of Memories, was that, Chennai still has a retro pop-rock fanfare, as a motley bunch of retro artists were mused on stage.
This year his band will do it yet again, but with newer ideas and fresher energies.
Live Martini has a good history it can boast of. Keeping aloof from the heavy metal sounds that most bands today are engulfed by, the six young men seem to have carved a unique niche for themselves in the showground of retro pop-rock music.
The sounds are evocative.
The covers are nostalgic.
With Sujan Daniel on the vocals, Tim Elliot and Bruce Lee on the guitars, Shayne Fernandez on the keyboards, Gerard Joseph on the bass and Elvin D’Costa on the drums, the line up looks neat.
Good instrumentation and unyielding talent.
Sujan Daniel is the one of those musicians who has understood the eroded culture of live bands in the city, and perhaps that’s why he pooled together a group of like-minded people into forming, the Happy Cat Session (which birthed at the Elvis Tribute concert last year), a platform that promotes western live bands. And this concert is an epitome of such an effort wherein they unitedly raise their voice for bringing back the live band culture into Chennai.
“The situation was different ten years ago. Hotels used to entertain live bands. It has changed considerably. We hope to raise our voice through this concert. In the future, we will talk to the hotels and refresh their memories on the live bands Chennai once had,” he says.
The concert articulates a lot. They put in their energies, improvised to the extend that it doesn’t demean the original sounds, but in a way that makes them inventive enough for a good pat on the backs. And what you get is a pocket full of memories! The concert is at 7 pm, today at the Museum Theatre.
Tickets, priced at Rs 200 and Rs 350 are available at the venue. For details, call 9884710580/ 9884425405.
elizabeth@epmltd.com