It’s not every day you find a 90s American pop-alt-rock bandperforming in India. But that’s just what happened. Third Eye Blind, the SanFrancisco-based outfit, whose hits include Semi-Charmed Life, How’s It Going ToBe, Jumper and many others, recently completed a three-of-four city tour inthe country. Starting in Bangalore on Tuesday, where this writer caught themperforming at Hard Rock Café, the band played at Hyderabad the following day,Mumbai on Friday, and will finally conclude their tour in Pune tomorrow(Sunday).
The show, which started at 8pm (IST of course), was a teaserinto the mind of lead singer/songwriter Stephen Jenkins. Hits like Graduate,Motorcycle Drive By and Wounded were belted out and the crowd responded with greaterforce, singing along and even requested an encore of their hit single Semi-Charmed Life, whichwas duly granted.
Stephen Jenkins was refreshingly candid (though somewhat naive) when he said he didn’t expectanyone in India to know about Third Eye Blind when he got here - but was he wrong! What waseven more surprising was that one of the band’s roadies filled in as lead guitaristas the actual one couldn’t make it due to visa issues and was stuck inFrankfurt! And he didn't do a half bad job.
Interestingly, not a lot has been said about why the band choseto play in India, especially as they have been in hibernation for some time nowalbum-wise. Regardless, it was a definite treat to catch a glimpse of the bandwhose first self-titled album hit number four on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.And though their subsequent albums never quite lived up to the dizzy heights oftheir first album (though this writer disagrees), their fan following remains,especially among today’s early 30-somethings.
All in all, it was a special - albeit short - experience (they played for just over an hour) to witness a band that has significant value in today’s world where more andmore music and artists seem to be simply driven by beats, image andglamour.
In the end, all I can say is Third Eye Blind - Thanks A Lot!
