Being a rock musician is as much about travelling (all over the globe if you are lucky) just as it is about moving people with your music. But is it really all so groovy as everyone makes it to be?
Being a rock musician is as much about travelling (all over the globe if you are lucky) just as it is about moving people with your music. But is it really all so groovy as everyone makes it to be?
Rajeev Rajagopalan who plays the drums for Bangalore’s very own band, Thermal and a Quarter shares excerpts from his travel diary on the recently concluded 3 wheels, 9 lives Tour that took the 14-year-old band comprising Bruce Lee Mani, Rajeev Rajagopalan and Prakash KN half-way across the world — from Singapore all the way to the Yewnited States of Yamerica.
March 13, 2012, 7pm
Why does exciting, illuminating, mind-expanding travel have to begin at a boring, soul-destroying, stomach-turning place like an airport? Ah, well. If only we could all do a ‘Skyhook’ thing, a la Batman. Bring the Meru-mobile, Alfred! Thermal And A Quarter is off to see the wizard. Four gigs at the Mosaic Festival in Singapore, followed by five gigs in the Yewnited States of Yamerica. Yes, New York, Dallas, Seattle — this is going to be something.
March 13, 2012, 11pm
Wunderbar! Our flight to Singapore has been delayed six hours. Six hours that we have to spend in Chennai airport (pause for piercing scream). The hecklers harangue the harried airline employees, demanding refunds, fresh flights, gourmet meals, Jacuzzis… eventually we get a limp sandwich, watery coffee and a cold shoulder.
March 14, 2012, morning
Singapore! That little country, that great big shop, that squeaky-clean metropolis — here we come. Received at airport by the lovely Olivia, our minder from the Mosaic festival, hustled into van and checked into rooms on Queen’s St. This is the life. We’re right next door to the Singapore Museum of Art — featuring a great big statue of Superman on the front lawn, suffering from some sort of meltdown, poor fella. Lunch at food court, bring on the noodles, baby. Amazing. Already addicted to Kopi and Kaya toast.
Afternoon
Prax has a new 6-string bass! Yamaha store, Plaza Singapura rejoices at influx of Indian funds. Played mallrats for a bit, gawking at gear and ignoring all manner of biped PYTs. Honest.
March 15, 2012, 2pm
We walk to the venue from our hotel, through the Raffles arcade. What a venue the Esplanade is, so wonderfully built and organized. Our green room is brilliant! Shower, lockers, mirror-lights, pool, jacuzzi… well, maybe not jacuzzi, but close enough. Soundcheck super streamlined, everything works, everything sounds GREAT. Two sets tonight!
March 15, 2012, 11pm
What a gig! Super response and vibe. Sold record number of CDs. Yeppidi!
16th March 2012, 11pm
Acoustic sets also super duper. Bigger crowd, lots of repeat customers. We’re doing something right. Four gigs already done. That was quick.
March 17, 2012
Bye bye Singapore. Loooong flight now. Mumbai, Brussels, New York. Mumbai’s a mess, Brussels goes by quick.
March 18, 2012
New York. Wow, we’re actually here. Make it through immigration with the usual smiles for the Bruce Lee. Super shuttle brings us into Manhattan from Newark. Ah, that skyline. Our apartment is beautifully located - right on the banks of the Hudson. We have Lady Liberty and Ellis Island within view and the World Financial Center and the WTC Memorial are within a five-minute walk. To go all Yank on yuh, that’s just kick-ass. Chilly winds make our first hot road-side meal even better.
March 19, 2012
Pizza with the La Bella folks on Bleecker street singing Simon & Garfunkel, walking into Matt Umanov guitars, lusting for a $4000 Martin… all in a day’s work, eh? New York is just so cool. Don’t feel out of place at all. Hear just as much Hindi, Italian, Chinese and Russian on the street as English. Everybody’s here. Everybody. And working hard. Taking the subway, grimy stations with old, noisy but efficient trains (a far cry from super-sterile Singapore). Big old brownstone buildings, narrow streets - this place has so much character. Somehow preserved and celebrated, too.
Mixed up as we are, this feels like the perfect place for TAAQ music. Questions of identity have always figured strongly in our musical conscience; and here, in this great city of the world, your identity is what you make it. Sure, you’re a certain colour and you speak a certain language and you have a certain life — but it’s all about what you make of it.
March 20, 2012
Times Square! Joining the rubber-neckers. Lion King still playing somewhere, all other shows booked till next year. What a scene. Hot dogs, old friends, bookends, Patel pictures, we’re living it up, swallowed up in a New York minute and believing that everything can change.
March 21, 2012
La Bella Showcase gig tonight! Good crowd turns up, quite a few old friends there, including some amazingly mad characters that flew in all the way from San Francisco. Pull off a good set, recorded by the enigmatic Kirk Yano… ‘Live in New York’ is in the can, boys. Great food at the Hill Country Bar-B-Q too. Head back to our apartment for the after-party and the after-after-party.
March 23, 2012
On the plane to Dallas, chatting with co-passengers and discovering that the world is so small. Dallas - big and flat and spread out like a good ghee-roast on a hot Tamil tava. Staying with a friend, Southern hospitality at its best. Gorging on Texas Barbeque before heading out to Garland for the gig at the Plaza Theater. Huge distances, lots of driving, bigger cars.
Local ‘rock school’ kids open for us - what a great little band! We pull off a good set, getting some folks dancing for our koothu blues.
March 24, 2012
This is really it. We’re heading to the place that saw the birth of so many of the bands we loved back in the 90s. We arrive in Seattle one night ahead of the gig - this is a big country. Picked by the lovely folks from the Association for India’s Development (AID) Seattle chapter.
Bruce Lee (the undisputed original) lived here and is buried here; Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains walked these streets, played these venues. Way back, our Bruce’s vocal style was often considered reminiscent of Eddie Vedder - and here we are, playing the King Cat Theater in Seattle, the place where some of these bands had played! Quite a moment in time. All that flannel we wore in college is finally paying off.
March 26, 2012
It’s a long flight (and two time zones!) back to New York. This country is huge. Land at JFK this time, so we’re going to see a totally different side of the city on the way back to our apartment in lower Manhattan.
March 27, 2012
Gig at the New York University, playing to a class of students majoring in an instrument, music education and music business. Gig ends up being an ‘interactive session’ of sorts, with students and professors asking a variety of questions about our musical education, our culture and just how we do what we do. Fun!
March 28, 2012
Absolutely enjoy being in ‘The Village’. Chic bars, seedy dives, Chinatown, music everywhere. A real scene, serious jazz cats, vintage bluesmen, punk excess — it’s all here, just like us. Last day in New York - we head back home tomorrow.
March 29, 2012
What a trip! 3 Wheels 9 Lives tour, done. Nine gigs across Singapore and the US, three musicians from Bangalore, India, taking a sound we call Bangalore Rock to the world. Time to plan the next one.
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