What was good and bad about Kailash Kher's concert last night

It was my first visit to Mutha Venkatasubbarao Concert Hall inside the Lady Andal School on Harrington Road, yesterday.

As for the concert hall the acoustics were superb. If only the air-conditioning was distributed fairly well in all places the audience wouldn't have had to scream "AC, AC" towards the end of the show. The organizers also seemed to have done a stellar job organizing the event with lots of volunteers and security.

And now for the concert. First the good things.
Kailash was wonderful with his voice and sang with total ease and comfort. His singing was very good. His simplicity and down-to-earth openness won the hearts of the audience.

And now the bad things that actually was a big let-down.
1. Where was the drums? Though most of the songs in the evening were the slow numbers I missed his rockers. And without drums songs like "Tauba Tauba" sounded awful. The very presence of a drum kit, and the sounds that emanate from it, the crash of the cymbals, the sounds of the high-hat, the bass drum, the snares and the toms, would have altered the sound of the show. But where were they?

2. Awful lighting. - Whoever was managing the lighting was doing such a shitty job. A kid could have done better considering how many different types of lights the concert hall had. Most of the time we could hardly see Kailash's face during the performances. The band was playing in total darkness most of the time. I wonder how the stringed instrumentalists were able to see what strings and frets they were playing had they wanted to look at them.

3. A little more emphasis on the lead guitar would have made a difference too. Not that the lead guitarist had time for solos but whatever he was playing was not audible enough, particularly in "Tauba Tauba".

4. Finally Kailash failed to play some classic rockers such as "Chaap Thilak" and "Rang Rang Ma". I also wanted to hear "Daulath Shohrath".

So without the drums this concert scores low in my opinion but the modesty and the singing prowess of Kailash can never be denied.