Second coming.

Pardon the puns, I don’t mean to swear as much as I do.

Watching someone with a case of the nerves so bad, it takes me back to exam time at school. Funnier still is when that person is well into their sixties. And he is referred to in your circles as ‘your dad’. The image that immediately comes to mind when I think of it is Chief Inspector Dreyfus of the ‘Pink Panther’ series.

Don’t be harsh, lets start at the top

I wasn’t surprised by the venue. Well, if I was, I didn’t notice. The Egmore Museum Theatre is such a wonderful venue for a concert. Superb acoustics and a very well designed space for small music shows, it exemplifies what I look for in music venues. I wish there were more place like this in India, and even more , perhaps we could have some open air concerts once in a while? Would certainly make me a less grumpy young animal.  Music lovers must have chosen this place for us to check out their gig.

Few such spaces remain where music is the real draw and the show IS the show. Everyone is scrambling to make a club or music space that can include bar sales, and usually that takes over as the bottom line, a fact that ive come to live with, albeit a little sulkily. Hot little tarts in teeny dressings would be the secondary draw at these venues, not something I would complain about too much.

But lets not get too far from the actual reason for writing this piece. A show. A music show that had the makings of a beginning. A second beginning for some involved for sure.

The show in question was a concert put together by the Madras Musical Association (MMA for short, not to be confused with the more familiar andfor more brutal tournaments of the MMA-Mixed Martial Arts. They have different effects on the ears for sure). Proceeds go the Sathkarya trust, a foundation to support underprivileged women and women in need.

This show is special also because its been 45 years since the now hopefully more mature young men, all 60 plus, have played together.

The men  (or ‘boys’, really) in question are here to perform, and their names are Kash, Allan, Murali and Vaidhy. The crowd is as motley as this crew. IIT Alumni, family, old friends, children, locals, even a few musicians are strewn about the venue. Small enough that any audience is a family, and large enough that you can put on a good show, this is the perfect setting for the concert about to begin, a folk rock medley with everything from Abba to the Beatles, Crosby, Stills and Nash to Queen and a few between.

And it begins. The Choir is amazing, performing pieces that you know they are not trained for, but nonetheless carry of with elan. A whole Beatles medley sprinkled with tidbits from every popular song from the band. Then some Abba and a Bohemian Rhapsody like a cherry on top.

On come ‘the boys’. IIT graduates from the 1970s these guys had a band when they were in their teens, some 45 years ago. At the time, CSN, Simon and garfunkel were big, and the band of sometimes 2 sometimes 3 and maybe even 4 were so good at the harmony, they even got to hold girls’ haa-a-a-aa-aands. Big deal back then, my friend.

Fast forward through the introductions on them, hard days nights and  raising families, running businesses and being bosses, and the boys are back in town. Madras town. And the fans are screaming for more.

With the band (Blue note) backing them, they bang out  Cecelia and the audience digs it like they did back when. They chatter on the mike, letting us share their nervousness, catching us up to now, jibbering about their lack of practice. Really? No one complaining in the back. Of course if they are, its hard to hear it above the whistling, cheering and hooting of the raucous crowd who feel transported back to their teens as well, seems like.

And back…to the music, the songs they love doing, classics we love hearing. Hearing CSN done this way, and a ‘leaves that are green’ in the harmony they make, makes you think maybe these guys need a second career. Rockstars.

After all that and the cheering and the star treatment, the afterparty and the evening after, I sit down and think about it. And I feel  so proud. That’s my dad.  There’s my uncle and their friends. The ‘boys’ from IIT did a gig, and man are they awesome!

So maybe the adults get nervous, maybe they don’t always know what’s best. Sometimes they need us to teach out parents well, their children’s hell. But that show was so great, it reminded me of a saying, a little modified for the children in the audience…’don’t teach Papa how to rock’.