GigView: Goldspot
What do you get when you take the musical sensibilities of Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi and Kishore Kumar, add a pitcher full of George Harrison’s transcendental influences and mix it up for a distinct 21st century sound? You get Goldspot – an indie-pop rock band consisting of Siddhartha Khosla (vocalist and guitar), James Gabbie (guitar), Jake Owens (guitar), Darren Beckett (drums) and Adam Chilenski (bass).
Siddhartha Khosla
This is just an introduction to their sound but trust me, when they are on stage, it’s way more than that.
Goldspot played at Hard Rock Café, Pune on the 25th of January 2012 as part of their 2012 India tour. I spoke to their guitarist, James Gabbie just before they went up on stage and going on how our conversation went, I expected something brilliant from them and that is exactly what I got. It wasn’t just crazy; it was infectious. The band played a pretty straight set; with their new unreleased songs (‘The Evergreen Cassette’ and ‘Somewhere in the East’) and ended with the famous ones (‘Ina Mina Dika’ and ‘Friday’). They even played an impromptu cover of ‘Jane Kahan Gaye Woh Din’ by Mukesh from Mera Naam Joker.
(Below – James Gabbie and Jake Owens)
The gig started with Rewind and it’s about the same time that the people present there were taken to a different world where clean guitar riffs and heavy-on-bass drums ruled the world. Layer that with Khosla’s uplifting vocals and you know that it’s like nothing you’ve heard before even though it might sound familiar. Their distinct Indian-ish sound is the most significant aspect about the band. It’s like a flavour more than a genre – a flavour that you find common in all of their music. And the best part? The band is as energetic as a chipmunk on Red Bull! For reasons beyond my understanding this energy descends onto the audience seamlessly.
Very few bands possess the power to get the entire crowd jumping with gay abandon and Goldspot is definitely one of them. They are just so easy to listen to! By the time they played a Hindi-English mashup of Friday, the atmosphere of the whole venue had changed!
(Below – Darren Becket and Adam Chilenski)
My favourite songs from the gig were The Evergreen Cassette, Time Bomb and Tale of a Fish. Then again, I have literally lived parts of my life on some of the other songs so it’s a given fact that I loved them. I observed that a lot of people in the audience were not familiar with Goldspot’s but after this gig, they would have all gone home with a new favourite band to look out for.
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Photographs by Aniket Dasgupta and Anurag Banerjee
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About the Author: Aniket Dasgupta
