Day Twenty-Two

Odissi Guru Subdha invited me to her performance at Ruia College in Matunga titled "Kanupriya" It was almost 2hrs long...and yes she danced for that long! It was amazing. She did so well and has so much energy. The sound system made the music sound so good, like it was live...Actually the vocals were actually recorded by her, and she brought in musicians to make the music. I taped the whole show! It was fantastic...It got me really excited about my workshop I'll be starting this Monday coming up! 

 









After the show...It was ridiculously hard to find a taxi to take me back to Bandra....I stopped everyone that was empty and they all drove pass or as soon as I said Bandra, took off. Finally by the grace of God...I saw a text message Preethi sent me asking if I wanted to go to this place called Blue Frog.I was completely exhausted from sitting and watching 2 hrs of classical indian dance...but I was up for it!! Want to squeeze in as much as I can while I'm here, and make the most of it! Well I told Preethi I was stuck in Matonga because no taxi's wanted to take me into Bandra, but thankfully she was kind enough to scoop me up for heading to Blue Frog. So while I was waiting for her I ate at the restaurant across the street from the College. I ordered Pav Bhaji and Pani Puri and ate whilst talking with Daniel on skype. I demonstrated how to make pani puri, it was pretty fun but I'm sure I got weird looks...well I know I did. 

So Preethi found me just as I was about to get up and top up my phone and we headed to Blue Frog. She told me it used to be like an old mill house or something. It had a really nice ambience. There was a show going on that night with this group called Dub FX. We made our way to the front just as it was about to begin and the minute time the guy stepped on the stage and made the first sound...I was blown away. This is probably the most refreshing new sound of music I've heard in a long time. It was a clash of reggae/dancehall meets techno/house with a hint of hiphop. Perfect for partying and dancing. What made is literally "jaw-dropping" for me was the way in which he made the music. First of all he's Austrailian, which already gives him a cool accent. Then he beatboxes, so first he starts off with a beat boxing beat and records it and it plays continuously. Then he starts adding it different sounds of instruments like the base guitar and throws in some other sounds and just starts layering them on as he goes til he gets a complete beat. It was wicked cool. I was literally stunned at how the whole thing works. Basically he had peddles on the floor, that are controlled using the feet, and thats how the whole thing is produced. 

Later on in the show he introduced his Fiancee, who sings as well. Her stage name was flower faerie. She sung with him as well and had so much energy and knew all the lyrics to every song he performed (she lip synced every song he was rapping to) They also had a saxophonist named Rhys who was quite amazing at only 22 yrs old. He was clearly a professional. And there was another guy on this really old string instrument, I forget the name of it but it was 100 years old, and lastly a guy on the flute. He was pretty good as well! The entire show was amazing and I'm so glad I had that experience. Everything was perfect.