Its 7^th October 2010, a great day for many reasons… my favorite band Indus Creed, my favorite musicians this side of the planet Uday Benegal, Mahesh Tinaikar, Zubin Balaporia, Rushad Mistry and Jai Row Kavi, playing at my favorite venue the iconic Hard Rock Café with my favorite sound engineer Vijay Benegal on the controls …. Wow wow wow.

I reach Hard Rock Café in Worli, Mumbai at 9 pm to find just about enough place to stand… The band, Split, is the opening act for Indus Creed. They begin their set with some awesomely deafening music…. Yeah I mean… deafening…. Most of their tracks were all original except for Joe Cocker’s You Can Leave Your Hat On.  A really loud version of the beautifully done original track.

Indus Creed, finally, came on at 11:15 pm. By then I was sweating down from my head. Jo Masi (Uday’s aunt), managed to find a place to sit. I moved next to her which was a relief. I think by the time Indus Creed started their gig, the place was packed (and I mean Packed) with just about enough place to wiggle your fingers smell your own perfume.

Indus Creed started with Rock N Roll Renegade…. Yeah… Uday… his voice… keeps maturing with age like wine… Mahesh… you are the god of guitars…. Man… awesome and Zubin…. you work magic with your fingers… Rushad and Jai were fantastic giving the band the tightness they have always had.

The money and Goodbye were songs I have heard for the first time and they were fantastic… except for certain places where the microphone just gave way… I guess one of the few issues with cordless mics.

The signature tablas in Trapped were missing… surprised???? Yes… this rendition blew me out of my mind…. Fantastic, to say the least. Naked sun and Take it harder again were new tracks. Not heard them before but fantastic. Pretty Child…. Wow… Mahesh’s guitars… always blow me away even when I listen to the song today…. excellent rendition.

As always… with big bands… they have a small ego in them that says enough… we are going and unfortunately… this time they could not leave, thanks to some enthusiastic 10 to 12 year old kids sitting on the steps and belting out ever y song they sang.  Wow… wish I could do that. So they come back on and start with Cry, a mellow track from their self titled album Indus Creed.  This version of Cry was rocked up with some major distortion guitar and a fantastic solo by Mahesh.

Jai Row Kavi, who takes drumming to a new level, not 0 to 60 in a second, I say 0 to 30 in a millisecond… what a fantastic solo. This solo went into Zubin playing with the awesome equipment he had on stage which honestly… to me… only a master engineer like Vijay Benegal can take on… hats off to you sir… awesome. Back to Zubin…. playing with his amazing array of keyboards and the works for almost over 2 minutes before breaking into Top of the Rock.  Man… this song. It got the crowd, which may have numbered close to a 1000. Yes… the doors of Hard Rock Café had to be opened. Every person I could see from where I stood… was just belting out the words along with Uday. This is fan following and dedication to me.

All in all, for me, as a serious collector of music and as a listener… Uday, Mahesh, Zubin, Rushad and Jay… you guys were, are, and will always be music stars to me. As they say… old wine in a new bottle… this is Indus Creed for you.

Keep it up guys. All the Best. God Bless.

Details:

Event: Indus Creed at Hard Rock Café, Worli, Mumbai

Dates: 7^th October 2010

By Zameer Vahanvaty

Zameer Vahanvaty is a businessman from Mumbai who is passionate about music (60s, 70s and 80s oldies, rock n roll and retro music). He can be reached on retromusicrocks@gmail.com