BANGALORE: Saturday night fever gripped India's silicon city when the American rock-n-roll band Aerosmith took centre-stage in the sprawling Bangalore Palace grounds for over a two-hour musical extravaganza.
Performing for the first time in the subcontinent, as part of its world tour that began from Brazil in April and covered Dubai in the last leg, the concert's rock stars - lead singer Steven Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry, Joey Kramer, Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton - held a frenzied 20,000-strong yuppie fans spellbound with their 'Great Hits 2007'.
Accompanied by a band of 40 musicians and tonnes of equipment, the concert belted a dozen songs, including fans' favourites - 'Looks Like A Lady', 'Walk This Way', 'Janie's Got A Gun', 'Sweet Emotion' and 'Crazy'.
Tyler amused the fans with a few Hindi words as he asked: "Aap kush hai?" (Are you happy?) He also had the fans eating out of his hand as he said he would love to have the 'sweet taste of India', obviously referring to 'Taste of India' number from their 'Nine Lives' track.
Fortunately, the skies were clear even though the weatherman had predicted arrival monsoon in the city on June 1.
A few hundred diehard fans of the band had flown from other cities, especially Mumbai as their city missed out hosting the event.
Organised by the Bangalore-based DNA Networks, an event management firm, in association with half a dozen sponsors, the grand show had an electrifying effect on the fans, majority of them in their 20s and 30s and some in 40s, who rocked, swayed and tapped their feet to the last beat.
With all roads leading to the Palace grounds in the heart of the city for the rock concert, the main thoroughfares were choke-a-bloc with two and four-wheelers jamming downtown before and after the show.
With the Aerosmith concert, Bangalore consolidates its billing as the place for rock shows: the city with a young crowd flush with money from the booming IT and BPO sectors has been host to Rolling Stones, Iron Maidens, Scorpions, Bryan Adams, Deep Purple, Roger Waters and others in recent years
