An open mind was the only thing I had with me as I entered Museum Theatre to spend a musical evening on February 5. With just over a week left to Valentine's Day, the evening was dedicated to the evergreen love anthems of English music by some of the best artists we have ever had.
Very honestly, the first impression was definitely not the best. With so much of hype surrounding the evening's performers Jus' For Kicks (JFK) following their successful ‘Best of Eagles' concert last November, you would have thought Chennai would be waiting to hear them again. I did. And I was proved wrong. Strike 1: Things had not begun on the right note.
Another thing that definitely did not go down too well with the audience is their time sense. I entered the auditorium at 7:03 PM, three minutes late and worried I would have missed their opening. I should have just saved myself the stress. The first person I saw when I entered was JFK's bass guitarist. Go figure. It was ten minutes later that background music was turned on, another nine minutes later the lights were tested and finally, Twenty-three minutes past their scheduled start, JFK took the stage. Strike 2, 3, 4? But when they began, THEY BEGAN!
Style statements
The first thing that struck me was the band's daring sense of style. One of the lead singers, Richard Nathan, wore a funky hat, a shiny gold shirt, coat and pants with glitter to match! Talk about a fashion statement!
Some of the others, more sober but still striking, costumes included a T-shirt with guitars all over (Sujan Daniel, lead singer) and bright red shades (Tim Elliot, guitarist). Vikram Vivekanand on the lead guitar seemed most toned down wearing a semi-formal shirt of ethnic prints.
The opening song was ‘Nothing But Love' by Mr. Big setting the tune for some good music. The theme being ‘Sound of Love', the audience knew what to expect. Richard followed this up with Bryan Adams' ‘Everything I do'.
Excellent delivery and emotion, the audience was captivated. By the third song — MJ-Paul McCartney's ‘The Girl is Mine' — the artists had warmed up and many in the audience found themselves foot-tapping unconsciously. And yes, I plead guilty as well.
A couple of songs later and we found ourselves listening to Toto's ‘Pamela. Though the song itself didn't gel too well with the audience (it was LOUD compared to the soft songs so far), the keyboard (Shayne Fernandez), drums (Immanuel Theophles) and Tim Elliot's guitar solo saved it for the band.
U2's ‘With Or Without You' saw Richard giving the audience the DiCaprio-in-Titanic pose onstage. The best was yet to come.
Sujan Daniel's rendition of Queens' ‘Too Much Love Will Kill You' made him an instant hit with the girls. His enthusiasm and apparent comfort on stage gave the audience the impression he was the life of the band.
A 10-minute break and some minor costume changes later, JFK was back with strains of MLTR's ‘That's Why You Go Away', John Yeats' ‘Faithfully and Michael Bolton's ‘How am I Supposed To Live Without You' amongst others.
Lasting impression
By their grand finale (Bryan Adams' ‘All for Love') even Sujan seemed to have calmed down! JFK definitely set the tone for the Valentine season in Chennai. Their music was good, their attitude great and the rapport between themselves even better.
Chennai would be glad to hear more of them with their ‘Save the Earth' concerts later this year. Overall, it was an evening of lovely music, lovely entertainment and the start of a lovely Valentine season.
Yashasvini is a Std XI student of APL Global School.
