Spinning music
Fatboy Slim was here! Originally christened Norman Cook and nicknamed the godfather of dance music, this artiste is a wizard at the turntable, churning out beats and rhythms which are hard to resist.
And in a City like Bangalore, where chances to dance are few and far between, his performance at EZone Club on Sunday was a welcome opportunity to shake a leg to a few catchy tunes.
The stage was set for a night of trance, electronica and everything to do with dancing – with neon strobe lights and a psychedelic video display.
The crowd came in slowly and was surprisingly sparse through the evening. As darkness began to fall, the hosts of the evening — Nikhil Chinappa and Rohit Barker — emerged on stage and began to keep the crowd entertained with witty one-liners and promises of a legendary night.
Popular turntable artistes DJ Ivan and ‘Brute Force’ took over the opening acts, keeping the crowd pumped up with upbeat music and a pulsing beat.
For the crowd, the event was nothing less than a party. They came with a dazzling array of accessories, and electric blue afros, large sunglasses and flashy bags. Beer and cigarettes were passed freely around and the open-air ground was converted into a makeshift dance floor, the strobe lights adding to the club-like ambience.
The crowd may not have been particularly impressive — to the extent that Nikhil Chinappa actually began to urge the people in the elevated VIP stands to come down and gather around the stage — but the youngsters who turned up knew how to party.
Right before the artiste was set to appear, Nikhil said, “I’m going to come there and have a good time with you guys — that’s how good he is!”, following which he and Rohit Barker slipped off stage. A countdown began to announce Fatboy Slim’s arrival on stage, although it turned out to be a rather flexible one, with the announcers pushing back his arrival time every few minutes.
When he did make an appearance, he crawled onto the stage and crouched under the turntable, urging the crowd to cheer even louder from that position. It was only when his name was finally announced — complete with the electronic version of a drumroll — that he leapt up and the audience went wild.
His energy on stage was incredible; not for a single minute did Fatboy Slim stay still. Instead, he pranced around the turntable, constantly gyrating, pumping his fists and in general, pushing the crowd to the absolute brink of an excitement overdose. He played some of his classic numbers such as ‘Weapon of Choice’, ‘Praise You’, ‘The Rockafeller Skank’, ‘Right Here Right Now’ and ‘Champion Sound’ and although not everyone in the crowd recognised the numbers, they didn’t hold back from having a good time.
Evidently, improvisation is Fatboy Slim’s forte, because he included a few Bangalore references — accompanied with a liberal dose of swearing — into a few of the songs
source: http://www.DeccanHerald.com / Supplements> MetroLife / DHNS / May 07th, 2012
