Live Performances - KK vs. Shibani Kashyap

It was nice for a change. The crowd was small and there was a lot of enthusiasm. Last night's Royal Stag Mega Music Corporate Carnival at Palace Grounds had an eclectic mix of funk, fusion and rock. I reached the venue at about 7pm after recieving a VIP pass from a friend. A few rounds of the choreography competition had gotten over by then. It was good that I got there late - music choices for choreography hasn't changed much over the last 5 years.

Fast forward to post competition - the first performance was by Shibani Kashyap (of 'Hogayi Hain Mohabbat' fame. Frankly I dont remember her in anything else after that). The track 'Sajna' was quite good actually. "Track". Yes, it was a case of pure lip-syncing. The song had too much computer generated vocal (voice processing) and instrumental assistance put into it, that its not possible to do a live version unless, ofcourse, she renders it differently. But thats the whole point of a live performance. Music is meant to be played by artists who have the talent to replay what they've played before. It isn't realistic to expect an artist to sound exactly as in the studios where they have all sorts of equipment and can massage the sound into anything desired. If that was what I wanted, I would have been better off buying the CD. The remaining 3 songs saw her crooning with the aid of backing tracks.

The final and much awaited performance was by KK. This guy is fantastic. Unlike Shibani, KK had a band and they sounded real tight. My favourite was when he fused the tamil and hindi version of A.R. Rahman's 'Strawberry kanne/ankhein' and did the Dappaankuthu. The crowd went ballistic and everyone started doing the same. The instrumental rendition of 'Tadap Tadap', the song that got him noticed for his navigation of complex emotions with relative ease, was simply superb. Ballads like 'Yaaron' and the uber popular 'Pal' was well recieved and had the crowd singing in chorus. All in all, it was a good show and Nitin Arora (the MC) did a good job of keeping the mood high.