Monday, December 3, 2007

Bombs, Stars, Buffets

Sorry this has been sparse of late, but things are getting more and more strange.

I was to play drums for Shamsher Mehndi's band for a holiday concert (Dev Deepawali) on a huge floating stage in the Ganges river, but some law offices were bombed the same day (and Varanasi has a thick recent history of terrorist acts) so all public festivities were cancelled. But because of this we were able to have dinner at Daler Mehndi's house in Delhi.

Daler Mehndi is an Indian super star, the most successful and highest paid pop musician in Indian history. He also has the most, uh, outrageous music video I've ever seen. I promise you won't be sorry if you check it out: Tunak Tunak Tun.

Anyway, my Guruji introduced me to Shamsher Mehndi (Daler's older brother, and a pop star in his own right) who invited me to play drums at a high society wedding in Delhi since we weren't able to play together in Varanasi. Heather and Phil and I took the night train to Delhi where we were invited to dinner at Daler Mehndi's house. His house is astounding; the largest of any of the Bollywood stars', it has the requisite pool and gardens and gym and music studio and plenty of baffling Indian Kitsch (photos forthcoming). But it's also a self-sustaining compound with cows and water buffalos and chickens and 100% organic vegetable gardens. Armed guards? yes. Giant guard dogs? yes. Did I lounge around on his bed? yes. Daler was giving a concert in Mumbai so we just ate and sang and played music with his charming family. Hard to imagine an American family this wealthy being so functional!

Then last night I played drums for 700 people at an Indian wedding. So strange. So much food. Shamsher Mehndi wanted me to play rockmroll backbeats underneath his punjabi pop songs. There were 3 other drummers on stage so the pressure was pretty low. Oh and there was a fog machine. It was frustrating to have not touched a drum kit for 4 months and then have to play straight rock and roll for 2 hours. But of course the experience was great. Heather was stunning in a custom-made silk turquoise saree. Phil spent 2 sets of batteries on photos. No exaggeration, there was a food buffet 200 yards long.

We could write dozens of pages about all of this, and maybe we will... Check back soon for photos.