One night @LIVE

Last Friday was destined to be a special night.

Good live western music in a city drunk on remixed Bollywood and bhangra numers is indeed a rarity. Even more so when the act happens to be one of the living legends of 'urban' folk, and not just another one of those teen bands struggling to break through, playing covers of Metallica, Megadeth, RATM, et al.

After scanning the Whats Hot! edition of the TOI for the umpteenth time in the morning, my eyes fell on a dark corner announcement about a certain gentleman called Sushmit Bose, who was apparently in town and set to perform at one of the few places in Delhi with a taste for good western music (no, its not TC). Its a small, relatively new joint, belonging to the QBA restaurant group, aptly named @LIVE. For those who've not heard of Sushmit Bose, well, he is a modern day troubadour, a film maker and a social activist, all rolled into one, and is blessed with an amazing voice, highlighted by a deep baritone.

So after leaving my office early and picking up my fiancee from her office, we headed to @LIVE, loacted on the K-Block of the Outer Circle of CP. On arriving there, much to our disappointment, we found there weren't any tables available on the ground floor (where the action was about to take place). Instead, we had to make our way to the only available as well as the most distant table on the upper deck. After a fair amount of pleading with the captain, we were assured of at least the first right to any table down below, subject to its vacancy. Having settled for that, we ordered our drinks- she, a tall LIIT, and me, a pint of Kingfisher (courtesy the astronomical prices of everything else)- along with the hors d'oeuvres. Sipping our drinks, we waited eagerly for the gig to begin. The opening act was a Goan chap called Norman, who did the most amazing voice imitations of the artistes he was covering (probably the best Day-O cover I've heard). Couple of songs through his act, we were informed, to our absolute elation, of a vacant table downstairs. Without pausing for a single moment, we grabbed our drinks and rushed downstairs for fear of it being given to someone else. In our excitement, we left our lamb rolls and fish chops upstairs, which were taken away by the waiter by the time we realised it.

Things started getting better as Norman belted out quite a few decent covers, and the crowd roared out its appreciation. For the first time in years, I was getting high on music (hadn't done that since leaving Pune) and predictably changed my order to whisky (Ballantine's Finest). Norman got the crowd foot tapping and after a couple of encores, rounded it off with 'Ticket to ride'. By this time, I was down a few drinks and was swinging, standing up to applaud every number.

As Norman got off to a rousing applause from a very appreciative crowd, my fiancee and I twitched in our seats nervously, waiting in anticipation for Sushmit to take centrestage and entertain us with what he calls 'urban folk music'. And by golly, did he he entertain us! This guy is a self confessed fan of the pioneering 'folkers' like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie but his greatest admiration is reserved for the greatest of 'em all- Dylan. His entire style is very Dylanesque, right from the rasping voice, to the harmonica slung around his neck, the acoustic guitar, lack of percussion elements, and finally to his lyrics. Predictably, he started off with a few, very predictable Dylan numbers (guess I don't need to name them) before launching into his own catalogue of some superb songs. His first song was titled 'Certain Thoughts', which was more of an appeal for introspection, and was followed by the superb 'Walking Talking Contradiction'- one of his big hits and a song he wrote during the flower-power, hippy, revolution-in-the-air era. His reverence of Dylan comes across in one of the lines of the song, which goes "I'm Dylanising situations...". In between his songs, he constantly kept interacting with the audience, urging people to sing along and even getting off the stage to strum right among the crowd (and people think folk ain't much fun).

We waited patiently for our favourites, 'Hey Bob Dylan' (another ode to the great man) and 'Friend of a Friend' but were a mite disappointed when he didn't play them. He, however, more than made up for it by belting out a brilliant, Baul folk song called 'Niraakar Noire Bhojon'- anyone who hasn't heard that would be all the more poorer for it, in my view. He was accompanied for this gig by his music pals, Rukmini (vocals) and Deepak (guitar), who also played the banjo for 'Niraakar..'. By the looks of it, it was quite evident that there wasn't a single person in that joint who wasn't having a good time. One person in particular, a Yank from Chicago, was visibly moved by the rendition of 'This Land is Your Land'.

The show was rounded off with a superb Bluegrass version of 'Bye Bye Love', again highlighting the supreme musical talent of the performers and their ability to adapt to different styles of music. The two of us were so taken in by the whole gig and the alcohol that we didn't even bother ordering for dinner. Post the show, we went up to the great man and conveyed our personal gratitude for the splendid entertainment he provided us. Heck, we even bough his CDs right there to add to our eclectic (hmmn..) collection. All in all, it was a smashing evening of 'too much wine and too much song', not that we minded it one bit.

More Friday's like that, and Delhi might actually be an interesting place to live in. Cheers to that thought!