Last night was legendary. No, in fact it was “legen – wait for it – DARY!” (Please immediately download all four seasons of How I Met Your Mother if that meant nothing to you.) I went to Blue Frog to check out Anushka Manchanda’s new band called SHKABANG! (What a great name by the way, you know you’re on to something when your band name sounds like a firecracker went off every time you say it!) Go on try it… SHKABANG! See? So I get to Blue Frog and eat an incredibly yummy bacon and onion lasagna which was *ummm* divine and team that up with some Sula Zinfandel (which is probably my favorite wine apart from Cloudy Bay) followed by a Vodka Redbull and the band comes on. Epic timing.
Unfortunately Anushka’s microphone was off (or too low) for the first half of her first song which was kind of a bummer but she totally made up for it with a power packed performance and vocal chords of pure genius. Dude, the girl can sing. There is absolutely no doubt about it. Oh wait! So I got her to do a little a capella MissMalini shout out for me check it out!
The first time I heard this song was at Daddy’s Windsong Wednesday (which is where this motley crew of jammers got together to begin with actually) and TOTALLY fell in love with it. It’s basically about one of those “bad boys” who drives you totally insane because you-hate-that-you-love-him-but you-totally-adore-him-even-though-he’s-such-a-huge-ass**** (and honestly girls, haven’t we ALL been there?) As you can see, I like music with lyrics. It rocks my world 🙂 So here it is now, live and unplugged at the Blue Frog (I <3 Blue Frog) SHKABANG! (Psst! There’s more videos from the night on my YouTube channel here.)
Tech Bonus: She also did this really cool thing by texting some of her peeps the lyrics to the chorus of one of her songs before she started the show and then announced that all the pretty girls who had the lyrics should hold up their phones and people could go up and sing a long! Cool right? I got em too 🙂
No no, you can never stop me
You cannot control me
Won’t you come and let me
take you down
You know, you have got to fear me
Why don’t you come near me
Take me on so I can
put you down
And now for the juicy bits! Mandira Bedi, Pia Trivedi, Shveta Salve, Hard Kaur (or someone who looked an awful lot like her!) Sameer Malhotra (aka Daddy of Daddy’s Windsong Wednesdays), Ankur Tiwari, Sid Coutto and basically the entire eclectic music frat turned up in support (which they often do and its so nice to see.) Eventually when SHKABANG wrapped DJ Bunty took over and played the most killer set with just the right mix of hip-hop, Motown and geez, even grease lightening! Killer. Yes, I definitely <3 you Blue Frog 🙂
P.S. Mandira Bedi is the cutest and most uncoordinated dancer in the whole world. Hilarious and adorable all at the same time!