Rahman concert

Last Saturday we attended the A. R. Rahman concert at Oracle Arena in Oakland. What an amazing show! Three straight hours of some of Rahman's best compositions, performed by star singers and musicians: Hariharan performing Roja, Sukhvinder performing Chaiyya Chaiyya, Sivamani performing a stunning solo piece on his array of percussion instruments, Rahman himself performing Dil Se, and lots more. Even the Tamil songs (which I didn't know at all) were great. There was even one Tamil song that sounded suspiciously like Tamil rap! The only things we missed were songs from Lagaan (and that was because the original singers of the Lagaan songs were not on tour with Rahman like they were 4 years ago). Bottom line: don't miss a chance to see Rahman in concert.

Talking about concerts, Indian Ocean will be performing in Hayward, CA in July. I highly recommend going to this concert (or one near you). We saw them perform last year and absolutely loved their music. They are a fusion band combining "improvisational depths of Indian classical music with the cathartic intensity of rock" (that's from their website; I can't wax quite that poetic, but it does describe their music very well!). We own, and love, their album Kandisa.