Santosh's Blog

Friday evening, 7:30 pm. I park my truck at the Pacific Science Center, get my favourate Doppio Espresso and walk past the Space Needle thats looking beautiful at night. I arrive at Key Arena. The security lady finds my camera in the bag, takes a long look at it. Asks the other security lady "Is this a professional camera?". "No – you can let him in". Yipee!!! Paul Simon concert with my camera. 🙂

 

I hear some guitar solo as i walk in. I ask myself – how can i be late for this show? I keep hoping that it will be some opening band and not Paul. I see this short guy on stage wearing a hat and holding a guitar. Man i am late! Damn it!!! I find my seat. My seat is really cool. 10th row – right in the center. I watch the band closely and hey – thats not Paul. He aint singing either. Thank god! I message my buddies to tell em how good my seats are. And i listen to the Jerry Douglas Band play the blues. For those of you who dont know him/his music, he has won 12 Grammy awards and plays amazing slide guitars. He was cool.

 

As we wait for Paul, i take a look around to notice who have come to watch Paul. They were mostly oldies, people in their 50’s. Understandably so – knowing the fact the Paul is 64. After a wait for a few minutes – Paul hits the stage. People start roaring. This old man in the crowd with long hair starts dancing like a teenager. THe sound of that happy music has put a smile on everyone’s face. The crowd is cheering and dancing. The first song gets over fast. Paul walks back to the stage, stands next to the drummer and comes running in, dancing to the tune of this happy happy song. Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard sounds like the happies and the peppiest song ever. The cowd is on their feet – clapping, singing, dancing – having a good time.

 

The music goes on, people are screaming. Its party time. There is magic going on on the stage. A simple "C" chord is sounding sweeter than ever. The voice is narating every emotion in the song, you dont need to listen to the words to know what the song is about. You can feel the pain, sense the happiness. He is singing as if its the last show he will ever do. He is singing, playing his guitar, dancing. I observe how he is involved into his singing. I see his entire body rise as he sings a high note, notice him he waves his hand in synch with the lows and highs of the song. Wow!

 

I will never forget him singing "Father and Daughter" – my favourite song from his latest album. Each time i hear the song – i am reminded of Kalpita (my niece). If i ever can sing the song only half as good as Paul – i’ll like to sing it to my niece. I still remember the father and daughter in the crowd – dancing to that song. I can never forget the smile on his face as he sang "The Boxer". Bridge Over Troubled Water sounded like a happy song somehow that day. I can never forget me dancing to "Diamonds in the Soles of Her Shoes", i can never forget this show. I have never seen a band do more than two on-cores. This man did three. And when he left the stage for the fourth third the cword was screaming for more. Click here to check out the setlist. And here’s a link to the pics i took. Me with Bakithi Kumalo.

 

Wow – this was a show to remember. A man in the crowd screamed "God bless you Paul" as Paul completed his set. Yes God bless this man! He sure knows what it takes to make us happy. No wonder that time magazine has named him as one of the 100 people who shape our world. He is listed under "Heroes & Pioneers". Here is a link to his page.

 

As he finished his set – he paused, looked at the crowd, waved to us and said "Its a pleasure" – the pleasure was totally our Paul. You are my Hero!

This Neil Young song always gets me nostalgic. It reminds me of all the "good times we had". School days, playing cricket on the streets, sipping the 50 paise pepsi cola, bunking college and sitting at Mhatre’s, playing guitar in the hostel, playing badminton with Tanmay, Joshi sir and Vijay, discussing "philosophical things" with Aniket, Girish and Khadji, Syntel days, ride home with Ned on his bike, those frustration release talks with Priya in the rick home, my friends in Seattle – who i miss a lot. I really wish i can sit back and write a long letter to all you good friends i’ve known.

 

Anyways – here’s the song:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phew – i am so excited today. I am going to listen to Paul Simon – in flesh and blood tonight. The concert is at Key Arena, Seattle and i have the best tickets i could have got. I am going to be in the 10th row. 🙂 I still remember me buying the tickets – Manish Sinha was sitting behind me and watching me hitting ticketmaster.com and waiting for it to be 10 o’clock so i can get the best tickets. This was – i guess – a month ago. Time has passed and the show is tonight.

 

I have been a die-hard Simon and Garfunkel fan. I own all their albums and i also own the 3-CD "Old Friends" collection. Also, to prep for this concert i bot the best of Paul Simon CD and his latest album – "Surprise". I go for many concerts – almost one every week. Being in the US – you get to watch the best bands. Know what – the reason i was excited about coming to the US was to get a chance to watch these guys live. I still remember Viren and me walking back from the airport – after dropping Vikas – and talking about us getting a chance to come to the US and watching these bands play. I am here today and i have indeed watched a few guys play. I got lucky. Today is different though. I cannot tell you how excited i am. I am a little nervous too. Its as if i am going to watch someone live for the first time. How will it be? Will he sound the same? One thing is for sure – if he sings Bridge over troubled waters – i’ll cry. I just love that song and i have so many memories associated with that song. Man. I wish he sings that song. I wish he sings El Condor Pasa – i can still hear Vijay sing that song – i can still remember that western vocals finals from last year of college. I can still play those chords. I can still remember Manish Kurup sing Sounds of silence on that old guitar of his and Devtosh and me listening to him outside his house. I remember Sumit and me driving back to Jersey city on New Jersey Turnpike and me remembering the words to "America" – counting the cars on the New Jersey turnpike. I remember talking to Rajeshwari and telling her that this guy is God. I remember reading his biography i stole from Rajeshwari. 🙂 I love this guy!

 

Man – its a day to remember. Well – its also a day to remember cos its Satya’s last day here with the team and me. Its been great working with him and i’ll always be glad to have met him.

 

How good will the show be tonight???

I thought it will be a cool idea to list down all the bands that i really follow. I own each and every studio album these bands have come up with. 🙂 unless they released an album in the last fortnight. And hey – when i say i have these albums, i mean that i have an original copy of the album.

 

Here is the list:

Creedence Clearwater Revival (July 1968)
Bayou Country (January 1969)
Green River (August 1969)
Willy and the Poor Boys (November 1969)
Cosmo’s Factory (July 1970)
Pendulum (December 1970)
Mardi Gras (April 1972)

 

I "waste" my money most on music. I practically buy a new CD every other week. I thought it will be cool if i can scribble a little bit about the last CD i bot out here.

 

Mmmm, ok. so the last album i have is The Eraser by Thom Yorke. For those of you who dont know Thom, he is the vocalist of Radiohead. And for those of you who dont know Radiohead – two things. One – you havent heard a REAL cool band and two, maybe you may pass this post.

 

Though critics may say that OK Computer is the best album by Radiohead, I like Kid A the best. I never get tired of listening to this album. The Eraser has similar sound and sounds very much Radiohead like. My personal fav songs on this album are Analyse, Black Swan, The Clock and And it rained all night. The entire album rocks. I absoultely love the way he sounds. I think he is a genious. His vocals and the electronic sound. This album has a haunting sound – yet its very happy.

 

People compare Amnesiac to Kid A. I think they are very different. A couple of songs might sound similar but no – i dont think it should be called as Kid A – Part 2.

 

Reading reviews of Kid A on the net, i heard ppl talk about the soundtrack of Bodysong. I guess i need to buy that soon. Jonny Greenwood’s solo work.

 

To sum it all – I think being a die-hard Radiohead fan, i might be a little biased in my opinion. I am sure Radiohead fans will love this album. Of-course its not as intense as the Radiohead albums, and if you dont like the electronic sound – avoid this album.

 

I’ll give it 5 starts though! You rock Thom!

I thought it will be a cool idea to list all the albums i have bot more than once. I have seen something on the Counting crows website – Adam did that.

 

All right here’s the list:

1) Before These Crowded Streets – Dave Matthews Band

2) Under the Table and Dreaming – Dave Matthews Band

3) Crash – Dave Matthews Band

4) 3 sides to every story – Extreme (I have 2 copies of the CD and used to own a tape before).

5) Tommy (Original cast recordings) – The who

6) Best of Tom Petty – Tom Petty

7) Automatic for the people – REM

8) Human Clay – Creed

9) August and Everything After – Counting crows

10) Kid A – Radionhead

 

there are many more and i am going to keep updating this list as i recollect/buy new stuff.

I had been to the Ian Gillan show last weekend at the Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. For those of you who dont know him – he is the vocalist of Deep Purple. The cafe is a small place, it can occupy about say 125 people. Some 70-75 people gathered to watched Ian. I was lucky to get a very good view of the legend – i was in the 3rd row from the stage, unlike the usual 1st row. What a show it was. I am still smiling. He was so much into his music. He rocked. He sang with such passion. I wish all these greats play at places like the Crocodile cafe where we can talk to em and really connect with their music.

 

He played some Purple songs as well including "Smoke on the water". 🙂 Man – imagine that. It wasnt the first time i heard him sing. I have heard Purple when they played in Bombay but this was something out of the world.

 

Here;s a link to the pics i took.

 

Know what – i got a pic with Ian and also his latest CD autographed. Man – can u believe that. He was very humble and he also apologysed for making me wait. LOL – i could have waited there for hours for that pic anyday.

 

If you get a chance to listen to him – DONT MISS IT.