Midival Punditz

Haven't been able to update the blog though I've been going out to many good music parties. The reason is now my friend from Tokyo has been visiting me and so I've been out every night until last night for the last two weeks or so. Finally I've got a little off this evening and find it as a good timing to update my music life in NYC!

First, I went to S.O.B. to see Midival Punditz for their new CD, 'Hello Hello' release party. They played with Karsh Kale and Vishal Vaid. I've seen them played together at Joe's Pub almost a year ago, but the set at the Joe's Pub was not really fun, everybody had to sit down at the tables and listen to their music as if they were playing classic music or something. Especially being from S.F. that sucked and I was so dissapointed. But this time I knew how the parties at S.O.B. typically go so I expected the Midival Punditz show will be a good one. And it turned out to be a good show. Well, the crowd didn't go crazy, only the people in the front area were dancing, but it was much much better than the one at the Joe's Pub...

The music was beautiful, I really like the combination of the band, Midival Punditz, Karsh Kale, and Vishal Vaid, each of them brings different beautiy of sounds. Karsh Kale's tabla/drum and Vishal Vaid's peaceful and soulful singing definitely adds excitements of live to the sounds by Midival Punditz. Though I danced a lot and enjoyed the music, I have to say two things....

One, the Punditz guys need to be more entertainers! If they're just smiling and staring at their laptop computer all the time we didn't really need them on the stage especially when we had Karsh Kale and Vishal Vaid doing some actions getting attention from audience. It's a show, so I expect them to entartain or show some energy or something otherwise I can listen their music at my house with good stereo speakers.

And two, looks Karsh Kale was having a hard time to adjust a microphone sound level for his tabla and looked being frustrated while communicating with the audio setup folks at upstairs. At the beginning that was ok, but towards the end that was too much and the stress he was carrying and showing through out the show totally turned us off as well. And maybe that's one of the reasons not many people were dancing. Sound check before the show was needed or he should have made it though with what he had ? I don't know, but it was unfortunate that the great music live show couldn't connect with the audience because of such thing....

Overall, I still love their music and again I enjoyed the show. But I'm not sure if I'll go to their next live show if I have to pay.

Here are some clips from the night....