INDIAN OCEAN AT ELYSIUM click here for more pics

It was the 27th of March, and Indian Ocean was to perform at Elysium. I knew I couldn't afford to reach early for the gig because the last time they were in Pune, a year ago, I had to leave the show after watching a rather boring 2 hour sound check!

Anyway, the gig got under way at 8:30 or so with Pune's fusion outfit Shankara playing to a gradually growing audience. As always, they did an all-original set and even had sushmit sen (Indian Ocean's guitarist) jam with them on one track. Things seemed to go pretty smooth and the improvisation and trading of licks between Shankara's Koko and Sushmit Sen was pretty cool. Shankara, who think of their music as "Fusion from hell"?!! went on to play a 45 min set that was well received by the sizable crowd present.

Indian Ocean, arguably India's most popular band, did not spend too much time on a second sound check! The band comprises Rahul Ram (vocals/bass), Sushmit Sen (guitar), Asheem Chakravarti (tabla/percussion/vocals) and Amit Kilam (drums/vocals).

They're currently on a popularity-high owing to the massive success of the song Bande that they wrote and performed for the controversial film "Black Friday" which is yet stuck in the courts. Most songs the band performed were from their successful album "Kandisa". They were quick also quick to launch into "bande" much to the delight of everybody present. It's a gripping rock song, that works very well and is something slightly different form what they're known for.

The tracks the crowd seemed to enjoy the most were Hilley Re, Maa Rewa and Kandisa. What was pretty surprising thought was that they didn't perform Jhini, their hit from Kandisa, which got quite a bit of air play last year.

Half an hour into their performance the band said that they'd be performing just two more tracks, because of the 10:30 deadline. However, it was to be two more "two last songs" threats before the band actually stopped playing!

Instead of ending with Jhini, Indian Ocean decided to call Koko onto stage to jam on the song Bande. It's the perfect song to get Koko onto stage for and that was demonstrated in his speedy and melodic soloing on the track. Once again, the interplay between Sushmit Sen and Koko made for some great entertainment! Sushmit Sen is a very interesting acoustic guitar player with a unique sound of his own.