The Blues are alive in Bangalore.

I'd never really even considered a masala of India and the Blues. At first thought it seems an unlikely, even incongruos pairing. But at CounterCulture on Saturday night I was proved wrong!

CounterCulture was a great venue. It's a converted warehouse behind the posher malls and restaurants of Whitefield. It is essentially a bar, restaurant and an open space. The restaurant is pretty basic, though the food was good, and definitely not the star of the show!   The aim is to highlight art, music and culture by inviting artists from the renowned to the local to come show their stuff.

Saturday night was "An Ode to the Blues". The past week has apparently been "Blues around Town week" and various Blues bands have been appearing at various venues around Bangers. This was the finale.

 The black board at the entry reminded me of college days - don't think you can read it but it includes such lines as "Persons caught with ready mix peg bottles will be subject to a cover charge and their possesions taken away," details of the after closing bus back to town 

and a reminder that "illegal substances remain illegal."

We were here, sans kids, with a group of friends from the 'hood, one of whom is a true blues aficionado. The music was truly great and the atmosphere so relaxed and sorta 'bluesy', in fitting with the melancholy strains of the bands. The light drizzle just added to the mood and being India, it was warm rain. The outdoor setting for the bands was perfect. We spread our meal from appetizers at 7.30pm through to ice cream (the ice-cream with Chillis was a tad weird for me!) at 11.00pm, getting up to go outside to sway to the music in-between.  

There were people here of all ages - as the bands played traditional and more recent blues. So the Blues are alive in Bangers - but the Indian accents of the vocalists as they announced the next song, between crooning New Orleans/African American music took a bit of getting used to. I'll definately be back to CounterCulture and would thoroughly recommend it to fellow Bangaloreans as a great place, away from the hustle and bustle of the city to chill. By the way - kids and dogs (yes - dogs!) are welcome. 

Wills had been spending the evening a the house of one of the couples we were with, the parents of one of his good mates, with a sitter. Ads, meantime, had been home alone for the later part of the evening (after his friend had been picked up) and was found in bed, fast asleep, with a hammer beside him. When questioned about this in the morning, he said he'd been watching an episode of Castle and had decided to sleep with hammer.....No, he hadn't been scared, next time definitely would prefer a hammer to a babysitter and by the way did this mean he'd get the money we would have paid a sitter?