For Reva- who has wanted to know how the concert was like for almost two weeks.

For Fraud- who actually enjoys reading my concert reviews.

After managing to arrange 8 tickets for a colleague, Chandu, my uncle Sam, his friend Srikanth Nadamuni and I set off to catch Jethro Tull at IIMB. My uncle and his friend had also caught Jethro Tull previously in 1989 in San Francisco. Although it was quite a coup for the organizers of Unmaad to land Jethro Tull for a college fest; it was not the first time it happened as Jethro Tull had performed before at IIT Madras in 1985 which was also seen by my uncle at the OAT when the festival was called Mardi Gras (in my opinion, a much nicer name than Saarang). They had also performed at Rang Bhavan in 1987 simultaneously with ˜Malhar, the annual festival of St. Xavier's, ye faithful alma mater. Other bands to have performed at college festivals include Uriah Heep at IIT Madras again in 1984. The reason for both of the above being was that IIT Madras was really into Tull, Heep and Floyd in the late 70s and it was the place to be back then.

But after the standing in line for about half an hour, we were finally let in. We promptly went to the second row from the stage in order to get a good view and also ensured that nobody could push past us as I held up people who tried to jump in front of me.  At about half past seven, as expected Thermal and a Quarter opened for Tull with a new vocalist in tow. They were a little off colour that day but I still enjoyed Radio Ga-Ga, which they opened with. They were pretty snappy with Bruce Lee Mani as effective as ever. But after a while, the crowd started to get impatient and started to boo politely (if that's possible). But the new vocalist did not endear himself to us too much as he tried to behave like Mick Jagger with some really awful dance steps. He sounded ok on the vocals but the theatrics were a bit much.

Finally, Jethro Tull came on stage at around half past eight. They opened with 'A New Day Yesterday.' And continued with the soulful Life's A Long Song. Ian Anderson in the flesh showed us yet again what Jethro Tull stood for. Having seen Mick Jagger perform live, I can safely say Ian Anderson is as sprightly at that age. He was jumping around on stage. He definitely has to be one of the wittiest musicians today. Most of the numbers were straight out of their anniversary collection. The acoustics were great leaving us with an awesome display. Ian Anderson on the flute is still a joy to watch. But, even though Jethro Tull has had about 20 line up changes, it only had Ian Anderson and there was no Martin Barre unlike 1995 when they performed in Bangalore. The supporting musicians were quite competent with the young German guitarist wowing the audience.  But the clincher for me was Anderson's rendition of Bach's '˜Bouree,' which was a big hit for them. It sounded as crisp as the album version. His vocals were a lot slower definitely than during his heyday, but it was a treat for a Jethro Tull fan. I got my money's worth. But I would make a distinction here between Tull and most other acts because Tull and the Grateful Dead are two types of bands who survive by touring and playing at the smallest of venues even. It is probably one of the reasons why they tour so often. But my crib was some of favourites like Teacher; Songs from the Wood and Skating Away were not played. But they played a good 20 songs. They also played at least 15 minutes from 'Thick As a Brick' and the incredibly haunting 'Budapest.'

Jethro Tull is what it is today because a conscious decision was made in 1968 to let Ian Anderson lead with the flute. I'm thankful for that. I had a great time with an audience comprising people of all ages. There was a really drunk stoned chap who tried to push his way through and tried to push two women aside. The women (around age 40) pushed him back and he tried to grab one of them, but he was thankfully pushed away by all of us.

They finally played Aqualung with Ian Anderson sounding the every bit the sniveling rogue, Aqualung is meant to be. They then decided to go off to cries of  'Encore' and returned rather predictably to play one of my all time favourites, you guessed it- Locomotive Breath. But after that it was truly the end and it left us all satisfied.

I shall leave you with this :

Nothing is easy

Though time gets you worrying, my friend it's ok

Just take your life easy and stop all that hurrying

And be happy my way