CHENNAI: When Jim Morison said, “I like any reaction I can get with my music. Just anything to get people to think. I mean, if you can get a whole room full of drunk, stoned people to actually wake up and think, you're doing something”, he wasn’t speaking for just himself. When the lineup of musicians at Star Rock paid a tribute to The Doors and Carlos Santana on July 29, they did more than just get a few high spirited people (excuse pun) wake up and think. They made them get up and dance. Starting off with Latin/jazz fusion guitarist Santana’s songs, the band that was put together especially for the gig organised by Score Magazine delivered some authentic music to a packed house. During the initial Open Invitation and Into the Night, people were still busy clicking photographs for their Facebook pages, but once the band went into Europa, the crowd understood that the band meant serious business. “Not to pick any favourites, but I loved the way we played Europa and Black Magic Woman,” gushed Vikram Vivekanand, who was on the guitars. The fact that Santana was being rendered by female vocalist Kuki Ravindran was a little hard to accept initially, but after a couple of songs, everyone seemed to enjoy her version of the songs. Darbuka Shiva of Yodhakaa fame, along with Sounder Rajan, effortlessly made his Latin percussion work in perfect harmony with the Kuki’s rendition of the songs. Black Magic Woman was a surreal interpretation. The band took a quick break before revisiting some of the classics of The Doors. Light my fire was a perfect song to recapture everyone’s attention and they followed it up with spot-on performances of Love Me Two Times and Whiskey Bar. Before a near-perfect finale with Roadhouse Blues, the band rolled out Riders on the Storm, complete with thunder sound effects. The passion that vocalist Rohan Sen showed collaborated perfectly with Vikram’s guitars and the pensive-looking Madhav Ravindranath’s bass skills. The concert did capture the poetic, live music experience that Jim Morrison and his crew were known to give, but there could have been just a tab bit more dangerous enthusiasm.
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