No flurries would stop NYC from seeing the sweet, Indian R&B sounds of Sid Sriram. The soul singer serenaded the full house at Rockwood
Music Hall this past weekend, and didn’t skimp on the emotion either.
Accompanied by Cale Hawkins on the keys, Sid took the stage
about 8 PM and didn’t waste any time with the thought-provoking Frank Ocean
cover of “We All Try.” He then took it back with “Wake Up,” off the EP Daydream, before announcing that his
next song, “Sagetron,” will be the first single off the album Insomniac Season. The song drops February 5. After starting off
with Carnatic runs, he crooned, “How can I know right from wrong/When the sun
and moon are always at war with each other?”
The man of the moment sang “Winter Mind,” but when he got to
the lyric, “I don’t know why, I get so quiet when it’s cold outside,” he slipped
in, “It’s f***ing cold here!” He followed up with “Talk To Me,” which he said
was about reaching out and breaking interpersonal barriers. “It’s about trying
to get the person you love to talk to you and let them know what’s up, because
sometimes it’s hard to communicate,” he explains.
A Nirvana cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” got the crowd into a 90’s groove, before Sid sang “Love Shine,” and then delved deeper with “Entropy.” “It’s about things happening
in our life and you not being able to control them,” he said of the track,
defining the term entropy as a lack of order.
He didn’t forget his native supporters, singing a few lines from
“Adiye” in Tamil, off the Kadal
soundtrack. The song was a joint effort between him and Indian superstar producer/composer
A.R. Rahman.
His last tune was “2 A.M. Prayer,” a dedication to two family
members that have passed on. Its touching lyrics included, “Where do we go from here?/How do we know what’s on the other
side?” He ended there, but not before
graciously and gratefully thanking the audience, as a way of smelling the
roses. --GB/TR
