Some Place Else for the 3rd time!

All roads lead to Some Place Else, except if you're hungry past midnight! then the ITC Sonar Coffee Shop is a great place to hang out!

SPE after a long time

Dropped into Some Place Else at The Park after a long time. Hip Pocket was playing. Good old Rock n' Roll. The downside, now Kolkata's night life comes to a grinding halt at midnight.

The revamped Lobby of The Park. quite cool, I think!

A Dash to Some Place Else

Hip Pocket rocked.

Mainak "Bumpy" Nag Chowdhury

Bass and Vocals

Nondon Bagchi

Drums and Vocals

Sumith Ramachandran

Lead Guitar

Ben Westley

Vocals

Much Needed Visit to the Mecca of Live Music

After a tough couple of weeks at work, the visit to Some Place Else was most refreshing and rejuvinating. Popped a couple of Kingfisher pints, caught up with some old friends and listened to so pulsating music.

SPAN performing live at Some Place Else.

The Night Must Go On

After the evening spent at The Tollygunge Club soaking up Jazz Music and several beers, there was no turning back. The night had to go on. The music needed to get funky and ofcourse, we needed the beer to flow freely.

There was only one place to go; the Mecca, Some Place Else here we come!

HIP POCKET

INSOMNIA

After a night of music and adda, we headed to Jai Hind Dhaba to grab some food. On the way, I couldn’t help but be mesmerised by the colours of the SOHO Signage.

Got home around 3:00 AM. What a Buzzing night! Though I miss those days when we used to get back at sunrise. When will the government reverse their statute of shutting places by 2:00 AM?

Some Place Else: Rocking at 17

The Place started buzzing around 9:30pm. We were going there after such a long time, but SOME PLACE ELSE is like the Vortex of a Time Warp. The Usual Suspects trickled in; both audience and musicians alike. Saturday Night Blues Band was going to take the celebration forward and they whipped up quite a Blues Jam with the likes of other musicians like Nondon Bagchi, Bodhisattwa Ghosh, Rohit Nandi, Proshanto Mahato, Suyasha Rhea SenGupta and Dibyendu Mukherji. I think Mainak Bumpy Nag also got in on the action.

Gautam Singh was in the thick of things especially when it came to getting the lovely cake cut and pop several bottles of Champagne.

All I have to say is Some Place Else Rocked at 17 last night.

The Saturday Night Blues Band is:

Jayanta Dasgupta (vocals, guitar)

Arunima Dasgupta (vocals, percussion)

Stuart Munro (vocals, bass guitar)

Shaukat Ali (vocals, guitar)

Avinash Chordia (drums)

Meeting a Globetrotter

A Couple of days ago, Sheldon called up from Delhi and enquired if I'd help out a friend of his who was visiting Kolkata. Well the story was that this bloke was a colleague of his and had quit his job in England and decided to spend a year travelling.

...Ofcourse I'd help him out. Anyone who was brave enough to take on such an endeavour was always welcome to my assistance.

So Neel finally landed in Kolkata and so Divya and I met up with him on his first evening in Kolkata at OLYPUB. After that we headed to Some Place Else and then went for a spin around Kolkata into the wee hours.

The Man with the Golden Voice

After Roxy, we decided to head into Someplace Else. We did have a little trouble getting in with all the cover charge thing to keep out the riff-raff, but after that little hurdle, we did get in. Gary Lawyer was performing along with Hip Pocket and the place was packed. Yeah people were packed into the Mecca like sardines packed in a can and this is the way i remeber it being. The last couple of times here had been a bit disappointing from this point of view. To see a full house was so heart warming. SPE has still got IT.

Gary Lawyer had been singing for a while when we had ogt in and was towards the fag end of his evening's appearance here. Well so we thought. He announced his last number a bout half an hour after we got there and then sang on and on and on for another hour. It was nearly 1:00 before he got off the stage. But boy can he sing.

Newt time he's in town make sure to catch his performance.

SomePlace Else Revisited

So after The Basement it was good old SOMEPLACE ELSE. Man, it had been ages since we had been there and the completely renovated driveway was witness to that. I loved what they had done to it, no more chaos with proper lanes and all in place.

We popped in and to our surprise we couldn’t recognize even one of the boys behind the bar. Man the staff had done a once over in our absence. Anyway we grabbed to pints of Kingfisher Beer after we had watched The Saturday Night Blues Band perform their last track and headed to the front right side for a vantage point to check out this new act. Well new to us at least, since we hadn’t been witness to the changes that had occurred in the Mecca of live music.

So suddenly we see this waif like girl who had been trotting about get one stage with the rest of the band and we realized that she was the lead singer. This was going to be interesting. They looked like kids but once they started playing things got interesting. Initially they did a sound check with some nifty riffs and then this girl came on stage and started to sing with them. Woah! Man! Was that her voice? She had a deep Dolores O’riordan meets Gwen Stefani meets Lauryn Hill meets Tina Turner kind of voice. Anyway these guys rocked.

To start with they had a guest Bassist who everybody seemed to make fun of, but he did play extremely well. It seemed like his first gig, his feet glued to the same place on the stage as he grinned like a schoolboy every time his name was called. After several numbers the bassist changed and I noticed that the guy playing the bass at The Basement where we had just been was gearing up to play here. In fact he seemed to be their regular bass player. Well he did like to bounce around unlike his predecessor on stage and added that funk to the act.

The lead singer pumped up the crowd with her vocals and the lead guitarists went into frenzies of solos like a man possessed.

When the last track was announced and we got our final two beers, we realized that the Kolkata Police was adamant to enforce the 2:00 AM clamp down. Just when things were livening up, we had to call in a night.

I have to admit though that after the two performances we witnessed tonight, Michael Jackson is definitely being raised from the dead. While he was alive I never heard anyone attempt his songs and now that he’s dead, he is the toast of every musician. Anyway I must say it was fun catching such a fresh act after a long time. I’m sure were going to be hearing a lot more of them.

A few of the covers performed by them were:

Zombie by The Cranberries
Holiday, American Idiot by Greenday
This Love by Maroon 5
Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson (the Alien Ant Farm version)
Come Together by The Beatles
Come as you are, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol
Break on through by The Doors

The Band: Pseudonym

Suyasha Sengupta (Vocals)
Devapriya Sinha (Guitars)
Sompratim Das (Guitars)
Bijit Bhattacharya (Bass) and
Rajan Bhaumik (Drums)

Open Mike at Some Place Else

So I popped across the road and bumped into my cuz Rahul outside the Park Hotel. I was hanging out and waiting Vishal. I called and found out he'd be there in 15 odd minutes. So I decided to head into Some Place Else.

I found Rahul and his friends outside and asked what was wrong and they told me that they weren't being allowed in. So I helped them get in to the Mecca of Live Music.

Inside things were starting up. Neel Adhikari on the Mic was announcing the entrants of tonight's session. Finally the session started with the first performer of the night. Pretty and petite Sukanya strutted up and down getting her music together and finally started to awe the crowd with her deep and powerful voice. She put up an awesome performance and got the thumbs up to do a second number.

All I can say is that Some Place Else has just found one great performer, both in the looks and the voice department. Am sure after that performance on stage tonight, she'll have a lot of suitors and is going to be approached by bands looking for a great singer.

After Sukanya's two songs, things went downhill on the Open Mic. Thank god Vishal had come by then. So we hung out catching up and having a couple of beers. The next hour went by in a jiffy and we decided to catch up the next time he was in town.

Waterhing Hole and Music Mecca revisited

New Band at SPE!!!

After our wonderful day around Kolkata, and an awesome dinner at The RCGC Maidan tent, we decided to head to Some Place Else. Just for Old Times sake and see what the music scene was like nowadays. Well there was a new band with some kids belting out covers of some classic Rock tracks. I don't know what the "KrYptiC" message was, but the moment they decided to do a cover of good old Jimmy Hendrix, I knew there was just so much I could tolerate.

We decided to call it a night!

Chilling out after the Friends Music Festival

After the Friends Music Festival wound up, my wife and I headed out to our favourite hang out after what seems to be forever. Some Place Else was nice to be at after such a long hiatus. Crystal Grass was playing to a fairly decent crowd of regulars. They seemed to have changed their sound quite a bit, but I did like their little dabble into Blues. Several Michael Jackson numbers and some freaky originals was nice to hear while we sipped on our beers. But the lead singer, Tanya's voice opened up and showed her fabulous vocal range when she did a rendition of Lady Marmalade.

After a couple of berrs and Crystal Grass winding up for the evening a bit closer to midnight, we decided to head to the ITC Sonar for dinner.

The New Hip Pocket

Last evening after a sumptuous meal at One Step Up, we headed out to Some Place Else. By sheer coincidence Hip Pocket was playing. They play on Wednesdays and Fridays. My previous visit was last Friday and I witnessed the signing off performance of Samidh & Rishi with the Band. So was glad to be here to see & hear Hip Pocket in its new avatar. The replacements were Ben Wesley on vocals and Bumpy on bass. Sumit was still missing nursing his hand, which will keep him off the stage for another 2 odd weeks I heard. So Dabbu was filling in. Anyway they got off to a shaky start, vocally I felt and Ben seemed to lack the stage presence that had been built by Samidh. I guess the confidence will come over time, a glimpse of which came out when he did a rendition of Bad Moon Rising. But thereafter it was back to his eyes being peeled into the song sheet in front of him. Bumpy already created his presence with his cowboy hat and playing style. The rest of the band, especially Nondon Bagchi chipped in their support vocally taking some of the pressure of newcomer Ben.

I think over time, regulars at some place will begin to appreciate the band again, especially after Sumit gets back on board.

So here’s the new line up of Hip Pocket:
Ben Westley - lead vocals
Sumith Ramachandran – guitar (Dabbu still filling in though)
Som Dasgupta - keyboards and backing vocals
Nondon Bagchi - drums and vocals
Bumpy - bass guitar

Their Last Gig at Some Place Else

After a sumptuous meal, I was charged up and there was no way we were going home, especially when it was just 9pm and it was a Friday night. So we drove in the general direction of Park Street, my wife guessing exactly where we would end up and so we did; Some Place Else, the Mecca of live music. It was along wait of nearly an hour before Hip Pocket took the stage a little after 10.30pm. In the meanwhile we downed a couple of beers and were quite amused by a shutterbug from one of the dailies clicking pictures of Parno (upcoming Bengali movie actress) & Ranadeb Bose (Cricketer from Bengal). I was more taken up with the fact that he was clicking pictures of the Band members and especially of Rishi & Samidh. Only when hey had gone up to the stage did one of Barmen tell me that this was their farewell gig, Rishi & Samidh were leaving Hip Pocket after being with the band for 14 years. They were going out on their own to pursue a new duo venture.

So we stayed for the entire show and though Sumit Ramachandran nursing a bandaged hand after going through surgery wasn’t on stage for their last gig together, Dabbu filled in on the lead and they played to a full house. I made sure I’d catch the last renditions of their gig together which I noted down and is below:

Lay down sally.
Wild horses.
Come together.
Let it be.
Blowin in the wind.
Bad moon rising.
Black magic woman.
Walk of life.
Who'll stop the rain.
Money for nothing.
Feelin alright.
Coming back to life.
Take me down.
Day tripper.
Roadhouse blues.
Break on through to the other side.
Wish you were here.
I want to break free.
Crazy little thing called love.
Jump.

Hip Pocket’s new line up is already in place and hope they live up to the legacy left behind by two of Kolkata’s leading musicians.

So for the last time they are:

Band: Hip Pocket
Samidh Mukherjee – Bass / Vocals
Dabbu – Guitar (filling in for Sumit Ramachandran)
Rishi Chanda – Guitar / Vocals
Shom – Keyboard
Nondon Bagchi – Drums / Vocals

Friday Night on Park Street

On Friday we decided to head out to Park Street and try a new place. We new in the sense some place where we hadn’t been together or in a long while. So after the 3 of us walked up the steps and peeped into OLYPUB, we decided it wasn’t worth the wait at this packed watering hole and walked out to the street just outside Moulin Rouge. While waiting there and wondering what were the places to go to, we decided why not try Moulin Rouge itself. None of us had been there and didn’t quite know what to expect.

So as we walked in, we were rather surprised by the ambience. Quite contrary to the name, this place seemed like an eatery frequented by families rather than tipplers. So while were shown to our table towards the back right next to the refrigerator with all the raw sea-food on display I took stock of the place and we were quite sure that the shooting of Parineeta happened in this restaurant. Anyway a couple of beers and some chilli chicken and Bhetki were enough to set us up for the evening ahead. Well the food wasn’t that great really and we were glad we didn’t order much.

After that we headed to Some Place Else and listened to Hip Pocket after a long time. They seemed to have experimented a bit and brought in a new sound into their covers of the usual songs that they play. The lead riffs are more experimental and I kind of liked their versions of the Pink Floyd and other covers that they played. I could venture to say they had Hip Pocketed the songs they played.

Band: Hip Pocket
Samidh – Bass / Vocals
Sumit – Guitar
Rishi – Guitar / Vocals
Shom – Keyboard
Nondon Bagchi – Drums / Vocals

I waited for the next act called Catch 22. They were what liked a composition of members from various bands. They sounded very much like Urban Reflektion because of their lead singer and especially the funky songs they played. The band has spunk and is peppy enough to get your spirits high on a Friday night.

Band: Catch 22
Guitars: Rohyt and Rajkumar
Bass: Bijit
Drums: Deboprotim
Vocals: Satrujit

An evening being Madly Bangalee @ SPE

Last evening I decided to head out to Some Place Else after what seemed like forever. I had heard that Anjan Datta was playing there. So after a quick dinner at Domino’s Pizza on Russell Street, we headed to the Mecca of live bands, Some Place Else. We got there hung out for a while and then realised that Anjan Datta was promoting the music of his soon to be released film “Madly Bangalee”. The four boys who act in the film about a rock band put up a great gig to start with. They were actors who had actually learnt how to play the set of songs they performed only for this gig and by George they put up a splendid performance. Anjan Datta followed soon and with his golden voice entertained the crowd for a while.

While I was there I was surprised to see two ex-colleagues of mine from radio City hanging out and enjoying the music. Pankaj & Sudarshan were completely taken up with the concept of the live band culture that this place had. Another power-packed song from the film sung by a talented lad “Arka” was the pinnacle of their performance for the evening, before Anjan Datta wrapped it up with another song from the movie.

We decided to wait a while longer, while most of the crowd including my two friends from Delhi departed. They were talking about a song called “I wish I was Single Again” and asked me if I could help them getting it. They said they had heard it at SPE on their last visit and were floored by the explicit lyrics of the song. So I said it was a popular song with Anglo-Indians from way back. Anyway as we sipped beer, Span took stage.

They belted out some really nice numbers and engaged in some histrionics with a couple of tipplers. Suddenly I heard it, so I whipped out my phone and decided to record “I wish I was Single Again” and to my delight, it was the longest and funniest ever rendition of the song I had heard, complete with audience participation and all. Neel Adhikari, Stewie and the lead guitarist were having a ball. All I have to say is that Span was good. Period.

The Band: Span
Neel Adhikari: Guitar and vocals
Stuart Munro: Bass and vocals
Raja Narayan Deb: Keyboards
Arka Das: Drums

We finally left the place at about 1.30am and reminisced about the days we would be there till the wee hours on our drive back home.

SWISS Band at SPE

Eliana Burki on the Swiss Alphorn with her band put up a splendid performance at Some Place Else on Monday, 13th October 2008. I would usually not go to Some Place Else on a Monday, save the SMS I got from Gautam saying that a Swiss Band was performing there and especially the fact that the lady would be on a Swiss Alphorn. I wanted to hear how a Swiss Alphorn could be integrated into Jazz music. To my surprise it went really well and sounded somewhere between a saxophone and a trumpet and not only did it go down well with Jazz music, the band also performed a lot of blues and ventured out to play a song from an Indian Film! The song was “Chak De” from the movie Chak De India”. I guess their PR person must have told them that SRK was big here. Well he's the biggest there is today in Bollywood.

About the Band:
Eliana Burki – Alphorn
Arnaud Francelet – Bass
Samuel Siegenthaler – Guitar
Adriano Regazzin – Piano/Keyboard/
Anthony LoGerfo – Drums and Percussion
Astrid Van der Haegen – Management and Technicals
Website: http://www.elianeburki.ch/

After being enthralled by their performance we made a quick getaway and headed out to Azad Hind Dhaba. I had been dying to eat some typical Indian Dhaba food for a while now. So when we got there the first thing was to quench my throat with Pepsi ( Dhaba Food without Pepsi is not possible). I got down to the ordering and it was 1 Chicken Bharta, 1 Egg Tarka Dal, 2 Masala Kulchas, 1 Naan and 1 plate Green Salad (which is also a must with this kind of food). Total bill Rs. 276/-

Gosh the thought of that food is making me hungry all over again!