The crowd at High Spirits was not Helter Skelter but instead, walked down Abbey Road with Mumbai-based band, The Mavyns, as they paid a tribute to The Beatles. This was their one and only tribute gig and they swore that in the future, it would either be originals or other tributes to the Beatles. The influence of Beatles on their music was very evident as they played classic numbers like Day Tripper, Get Back, Let It Be, Drive my car, and the like.
Other than the classics, the band played a few acoustic numbers like You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away and Something. There was also the Abbey Road medley with Mean Mr Mustard, You Never Give Me Your Money and the rest that follow. All You Need Is Love was a disappointment because the words were eaten up. Norwegian Woods was started but the band didn’t end up finishing it, much to the audience’s dismay.
Still, on the whole, the band did a good job at covering the Fab Four and had the entire crowd tapping to their tunes. On being asked why they chose the Beatles to do a tribute on, Varoon Nair, bassist and vocalist, answered that all the band members grew up listening to the Beatles and there was a certain nostalgia that arose while performing their songs. Vivek Nair, guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist of the band said “All you need is love, and that is why it’s the Beatles and no other band!”
The Beatles wore Black tuxedos and the Mavyns adorned a more ‘metal band look’ according to some audience members. Pradeep Mathews, lead guitarist and vocalist of the band however cleared this allegation by saying “No one can do anything else with The Beatles, and especially not a metal take. We hold our guitars the way they did!” The drummer, Kristofor Paul Mendonca, said that they definitely want to come and play their originals again in Pune because the reception from the audience has been great. We do hope that The Mavyns come back to Pune again, and maybe this time, we won’t Twist and Shout with them but go with what’s Hard To Believe in their album, Lick The Blue Frog. If you didn’t make it for the tribute, catch the band on Reverb Nation.
[Photo Courtesy: Naman Saraiya]