“Jai Maharashtra!” were Garreth’s first words on the microphone at Split’s live performance at the Hard Rock Café on Thursday evening. It was certainly an effective way to start the performance as it had the crowd, (most of them seated) in splits (pun intended), with a few of them even shouting out the slogan. 

Although there were barely a dozen patrons on the floor near the stage, the band members seemed unfazed by the fact that the audience was not as active as one would find in a usual performance. 

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Split performed songs from both P for Pig as well as their next album Counting Perfume with lyrics from Black Sabbath’s War Pigs included in one of their numbers as well as a cover of U2’s With or Without You. 

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It’s easy to see why they may sometimes be considered progressive rock as they handled the transitions from slower and melodic style of play to faster and aggressive sounds on all the instruments, very well.

Aviv played a number of solos on his Gibson Les Paul including one where Garreth just left for a loo break(!). Melroy, who plays the rhythm guitar, occasionally played some lead licks as well on his Fender Telecaster.

Despite the differences in their styles and guitars, both guitarists sounded tight.

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About halfway through the gig, Garreth announced that that they would play a couple of their slower songs; which suited the ‘sit down’ environment at HRC that evening perfectly. However, they were soon back with their heavier stuff. Aviv in one of the solos, produced some excellent examples of shredding to pick up the pace and heighten the mood. Unfortunately, again, it seemed like this went largely unnoticed by the audience. Shame.

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One of the most interesting parts of their performance, later in the evening, was the combination Aviv’s guitar solo and Garreth’s harmonica solo. 

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Music aficionados from Mumbai certainly missed out on a solid set. Their music was occasionally good enough to forget that you are standing behind a bar, and in front of a crowd that took the ‘Café’ part of ‘Hard Rock Café’ a little too seriously.

PHOTO CREDITS: PARIZAD D