Live: Half Step Down @ Blue Frog, Mumbai

It’s scary when you like a band’s covers more than its originals. But Delhi’s Half Step Down, whose Mumbai gigs took place two months later than scheduled because of the November terror attacks, seemed to be better at reinterpreting other people’s material than at playing their own during their gig at Blue Frog. The group played to a sparse crowd at the pricey Frog (their gig at Hard Rock the previous evening was better attended singer Dhaval Mudgal told us at Baajaa Gaajaa), and while they were fairly tight on the night, we suspect the lack of audience hindered the five-piece from giving it all they’ve got.

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It wasn’t until the third song and first cover of their set, Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’, a tune they clearly love quite deeply, that they let go of their self-consciousness and just had a good time. We felt the same way during their covers of Stone Temple Pilots ‘Plush’ and The Doors ‘Soul Kitchen’.

Maybe it was the long wait that made us want to be blown away when they finally arrived. (We at Indiecision can’t really afford to go to the Frog as often as we do – since they now claim that gigs will start at 9.30pm from Tuesday to Thursday, we reached the venue 8.45pm to avoid paying the gate charge that kicks in at 9pm. The gig eventually began at 10pm.) Of their nine blues-influenced originals, ‘Girl Not Guitar’ and ‘Overture to Outerspace’ (also the title of their upcoming album), were familiar owing to their appearance on previoulsy released compilations. And honestly, they’re the only ones we still remember from the show.

Maybe it’s because Half Step Down make the kind of music that requires a couple of listens before it fully grows on you but some of the tunes were far too derivative – ‘Circle’ and ‘Roll Over’ in particular owed large debts to Pearl Jam. That’s not to say we didn’t enjoy the band while they were on. Mudgal with his Eddie Vedder-like baritone makes compelling listening while the keyboardist stood out for doing more than just filling in the gaps, he added a special dynamism to many of the songs.

Unsurprisingly, the band, whose hardcore fans or friends in the crowd amounted to less than ten, did not do an encore. Which was a pity because we’d really like to have seen more of them, especially since they finally seemed to be getting their groove back during their last tune, the fast-paced ‘Knocking On The Back Of My Head’.

Indiecision: B