Gig review/ Timeless.. Always & Forever 2.0

 

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR 

Timeless.. Always & Forever 2.0

Artistes: Various

Genre: Pop, soul, RnB, rock n' roll, rock, blues

Details: St Andrew's Auditorium, Bandra, July 7

Rating: ****

There's nothing quite as gooseflesh-y as a well-rendered pop ballad with powerhouse vocals. We heard quite a few of them on Sunday evening, from Vernon D'Souza's rendition of the Righteous Brothers-popularised 'Unchained Melody' and Giselle Pinto's high notes on ABBA's 'The Winner Takes It All' to young Kelly D'Lima's outstanding cover of 'The Power Of Love', first recorded by Jennifer Rush and made legendary by Celine Dion.

Of course, the show titled Timeless.. Always & Forever 2.0 wasn't only about the mushy or maudlin. As the name suggested, it incorporated a wider variety of genres, as long as they came under the colourful umbrella of being evergreen. There were rock n' roll, soul, blues, rhythm n' blues and even vintage 80s rock, with ENT surgeon-cum-singer Jarvis Pereira pleasing our ears with some not-so-nasal, throaty vocals on Bon Jovi's 'You Give Love A Bad Name' and the Guns N' Roses hit 'Paradise City'. To top it all, there was a Bollywood medley, where the songs 'Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo' and 'Piya Tu' took the audience to Helen back.

Half of Bandra and a quarter of Mahim turned up, along with some visa-holding south Bombayites who gobbled the chicken sandwiches. Presented by INT Aditya Birla Centre for Performing Arts, the show was curated by Niloufer Rohira and Darren Das, with the latter also playing host. The programme was divided into three-song segments, with Darren giving some trivia on the songs. Marie Paul began the show, creating an immediate 'Bond' with the audience on Shirley Bassey's 'Diamonds Are Forever'. Singer-guitarist Salim John Sadiq came all the way from Siliguri to ask the crowd to unchain his heart. He did it in style. And talking of the song 'Unchain My Heart', it was interesting to learn from Darren's trivia that it was the working title of the Ray Charles biopic Ray.

One of the highlights was the guitar trio act where Salim was joined by Wilburn D'Costa, part of the band for the entire show, and the brilliant Claver Menezes, who also played on the Jarvis songs. The three female singers - Marie, Giselle and Kelly - did a tribute to the Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin on 'I Say A Little Prayer'.

Besides Wilburn, the tight band consisted of keyboardist George Joseph, saxophonist Enrico Rodrigues, bassist Russell Fernandes and drummer Sylvester Chaves, besides four backing vocalists. The visuals were used smartly, with giant-sized images of ABBA, Elvis Presley, Jon Bon Jovi, Trini Lopez, Paul Anka and others whose songs were covered. The only hitch was the sound mix wasn't right in the first 15-20 minutes though it got sorted later.

The 'Tequila' tune was used as a motif, with Darren egging the audience to dance. He even asked some trivia questions - this writer was alert for 99 per cent of the time, but during that rare moment I was napping, Darren mentioned my name and fired a quiz query.  Luckily, someone else replied and my reputation was saved. The answer apparently was 'Bon Jovi' though I'm still wondering what the question was. I've decided to pay 100 per cent attention when Niloufer and Darren return for their Christmas show on December 1. My tuxedo is getting stitched. See you then.