Live: Imogen Heap @ Blue Frog, Mumbai

Imogen Heap performed at the Blue Frog, Mumbai on Thursday, November 24. We were there.

Watching Imogen Heap perform is like watching a science experiment; the step-by-step process, the precision of adding the right quantity and quality of elements to make the perfect “kaboom” of musical explosivity! She is the quintessential musical geek, with her various gidgets, widgets and gadgets that she uses to create her tracks, as though the stage were her own personal studio and we are but slyly peaking through a window. (Photos of the gig here)

While Heap potters around the stage, she is constantly muttering to the audience – the stories behind her songs, introductions to her instruments, et al – as your eyes and ears wade through the jungle of paraphernalia (including a piano, keytar, array mbira, Hang, looping-device, etc) she uses to compose her songs. With her trusty microphone, she records the raw sounds of her three-man band (Ian Burdge on cello, Ashwin Srinivasan on flute, and Christopher Vatalaro on guitars, drums and percussion), along with her synthesised vocals, and a smorgasbord of sound effects from her mouth, as well as her tapping, tickling, and tinkering with various bits and bobs on stage.

As part of her pre-performance ritual, as evidenced at this gig, Heap asks her fans what songs they want to hear at the gig and accordingly plans her set to suit every audience she plays for, so everyone is satisfied that they heard what they wanted to hear. As soon as Heap got on stage at the Lower Parel venue, she began swinging around a bendy lightsabre-type devise that creates a sound not unlike that of blowing into a conch, and launches into her beaty, Sarah-McLachlan-etched song, ‘The Walk’;  the instant curiosity is overwhelming. She then moved on to her light, and flitty ditties, ‘Goodnight and Go’ and ‘Speeding Cars’.

Throughout her performance she was constantly bantering with the audience, her band AND herself. She talked of the “boys” in her life that inspired her songs like ‘Between the Sheets’ and ‘AHA’, as though we were all at her slumber party waiting eagerly for the next juicy morsel of gossip.

Sadly, at her headlining set at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender, her borderline-awkward stage presence and whimsical banter got completely lost in the lumbering festival crowd. Her performance seemed weak, and lacklustre, and people’s attention spans were wearing thin as she flustered and ponced on stage. #OverheardatNH7 – “I can’t see a mic. She must be lip-synching.”

However, at the Blue Frog, her gig was more intimate and people were able to understand better how all the layering was done, and where all the effects and harmonies were coming from. A song that completely fell flat at Bacardi NH7 Weekender was her acapella rendition of  ‘Just For Now’, as most people were staring at her blankly not quite knowing what to sing when, as she waved her arms. This particular song went down like a treat when she split the Blue Froggers in three sections, gave them a different harmony each for the verses and another sound effect to gurgle during the chorus. People understood, people sang, and it was much better received with a smaller crowd.

Oh, and by the way, she whipped out the Magical Musical gloves for an improvised song on stage with Ashwin Srinivasan. Everyone fell silent as she put on those plain black gloves (with a battery pack attached and wires sticking out of it) and turned into a Lord-of-the-Rings-meets-Transformers-esque-character on stage. Using her hand-movements, she recorded her voice, along with her harmonies, created a drum beat and cymbals-effect out of thin air, manipulating the sound by panning it to the left and right side speakers, pulling the sound inward as though it were getting sucked into a black hole, and throwing it at Srinivasan. Even though the device didn’t look very slick (she did mention that it was a work-in-progress), the imagination behind the gloves was what awed the audience into open-mouthed wonderment.

She eventually ended the whole affair with a grand crescendo as she called a couple of her new Indian friends on stage – Karsh Kale on tabla, along with Vishal Dadlani (vocalist of Pentagram) and Shekhar Ravjiani to sing the collaboration song ‘Minds Without Fear‘ from The Dewarists TV show.

Though at times during her performance her elastic vocal gymnastics and high-pitched flourishes did get clawing and a bit repetitive,  Imogen Heap’s personality came through more clearly in this close-quarter setting. She made you feel like a new friend she just made as she showed you around her bedroom, sang and talked about her life, love and new toys.

Indiecision: B

Imogen Heap @ Blue Frog, Mumbai

 Photos by Naman Saraiya