Lounge Piranha Tour Troubles

Kamal Singh didn’t sound at all troubled on the phone yesterday. The Lounge Piranha frontman had just arrived in Mumbai with his band and was gearing up to play a gig at Hard Rock Cafe. The news of the (completely-unnecessary-anything-for-a-holiday-in-the-work-week) MNS violence in the city didn’t seem to affect the vocalist much. Hard Rock had confirmed that the gig would go on as scheduled, and the band was looking forward to putting on a memorable performance for the Mumbai audience.

It is likely the Piranhas tour (in a tour bus, pictured above) has enough ups and downs keeping the band occupied that domestic city disturbances are only minor considerations. The band’s blog recounts

Our assumption of 60kmph as an average speed were immediately thwarted. This is a mid-size bus that neither has the compact power of an SUV nor the sheer force that a Volvo can muster. 45kmph as an average speed is tops.

Then the management pulled one deadly stunt and decided to charge a grand at the door as cover. I talked to them, George talked to them, Vandana talked to them but they decided to stick to their guns. Not much we could do about it. The phone was ringing off the hook, fans were coming to the door and leaving. Eventually we played to like 20 or 30 people.

This morning Hitler has been arrested and city is in chaos. There’s some panic, some mobs, and such things. But we’re gonna brave it to sound check now and hope all goes well.

The whole tour bus idea is a killer move by a band that’s serious about promoting their new album/EP Going Nowhere.