An eye full of Chen

Just got back from Chennai, braving our way through storm and rain, pothole and drain, chorus and refrain. Whew. Had a gig with the Raghu Dixit Project (formerly Antaragni) at a gala conference of Periodontists. From the Indian society of Periodontology of course. Can't imagine a more scintillating, glitter-fest of a conference, eh? All those looovely posters (size A0) of bleeding gums, plasma-cell gingiva, and the pulchritude of plaque. You might say we had a narrow brush with boredom, but it wasn't a total floss...

Typical brain-dead event damager. Can set up PA only after conference ends, which means set up time, sound-check time... and the bar/buffet set up is about a hundred metres away (Chennai Trade Centre - massive joint, huge halls, but no food allowed in conference space). No point in dwelling on the details anyway.

A young son of a drummer opened the gig. 7 year old chappie, all decked out in spandex, zebra spot silk shirt, and shiny vest, complete with mini TAMA Swingstar kit. What a dude. And he can really play. Krakthik, our drummer, (another son of a drummer, but 25, single, sexually frustrated, pressurized, groove-not-yet-happening-but-serious-scope-is-there, sweet guy really) got quite worried, watching him. The kid thulped the kit, and you could see from his paradiddles that some serious practice was happening. Very rare, at that age. His fussy, preening, yellow-sari mum waited in the wings with a cordless mic, ready to shove it in her darling's face, for his vocal bits. (She's understandably proud, but there's something about a proud parent that's always a bit irritating, isn't there?). Loved the little guy's spirit though - halfway through his solo, his mum hovered around with the mic, but he just waved her off with an impatient gesture and simply bellowed aforementioned vocal bits. Super.

Our gig went pretty well. Really happy with the Line6 PODxt Live. Plugged it into a Peavey 212 something, unfamiliar amp - and got a good sound in a flash. Good buy, that.

Only downer was during this song called Ambar, a really nice intense ballad. Raghu was in fine form, and my first solo really cooked. Halfway through, I saw two booze-addled periodontists walking up, and knew what was coming. Now this is the kind of song you DO NOT interrupt - you know the kind. And these morons can see the singer, eyes closed, putting his all into every word, and they have the nerve to come up close and say 'say, do some tamil, no? or can you play 'Words'?' Yaaaaaarghh. Botched the second solo a bit, I was so mad.

Anyway. There were some people in the front who seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Spent most of the next day cursing said braindead event damager who was inaccessible for the whole morning. Shacked up with some babe in a hotel. Ah, professionalism. Told us we could play again on the next evening, and hadn't thought of how it would fit into the periodontal schedule, which it didn't of course. Yaaaaaargghh again.

And oh, we stayed at 'A Boutique Hotel' called the 'Chennai Gateway' (or Gatway, as printed elsewhere). If boutique means small, mediocre food, bad service, and a great whacking 11k.v. power line directly over your room, this is it!

'Twas good to see Miles in the morning. Up at 5:30 as usual, gives me a huge grin when he sees me. And I shall go away now before you find this proud parent irritating.