Having been my first time visiting the Dakota, I didn't realize that I would be enjoying an entire dinner meal there and be waited upon all night. It was quite nice though, and the food was good.
Anyway, Anoushka and her fellow players came onstage and filled the place with wonderful music. They began with a traditional Indian style piece that was just lovely to the ears. Anoushka, sitting in center with a great stage prescence, led the songs, which varied from traditional ragas to psychedelic flamenco-esque pieces ("it's like flamenco--but not entirely") to interesting energized songs with her two percussionists going at it across the stage verbally. All the pieces were terribly impressive, what with so many plucked notes in rapid succession and much raking of the sympathetics alongside the tom dom tom of the tabla. She played a piece written by her father, as well (as she put it: "... I assume I don't have to tell you his name"). Later, she introduced her band-mates, and mentioned that she was actually playing a borrowed sitar, from a San Franciscan fellow named Kenji (who was standing up in the balcony above) because her own was damaged during transport. Oh dear. She wasn't very distraught, however, and seemed confident it was repairable. The last song they played before encore was a long jam of back-and-forth motifs wherein each player had his or her own solo bit. After leaving for a minute, they came back on to do the final song, which was a romantic Indian song that they "like to finish shows with." It was very pretty indeed, and left a good taste in my mouth. (Also the soup I had was delicious).
Here I am looking silly as usual with Anoushka's percussionists and flautist who I spotted on the sidewalk after the show. When I saw them walking out, I promptly succeeded in walking into a locked revolving door. Hopefully, they didn't notice.
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