Gig Review: Sam Smala

Who: Sam Smala
Where: Blue Frog
When: June 16
Verdict: Eclectic

There are two things that you can be sure of when you show up for a multi-lingual band at a club -- a lot of expats will show up and some of them will hit the floor. We also walked in expecting a washout, considering it was one of the worst rain-hit days of the week, but a sizeable crowd beat rain and FIFA for Sam Smala.



The lively five-piece band that sings in French, Turkish, Indonesian, Spanish and English performed a jazzy, dancy and technically sound set. Of course, there was a point where the show ever-so-subtly threatened to turn monotonous. There's only so much of 'eclectic' one can take for a night but the band split up the set into slower solos (both original and standards like Summertime) and charged-up tracks driven by bursts of electric violin (Mathias Levy) that sounded nothing like a violin at times and guitar (frontman Samuel Strouk). Drummer Quentin Braine's kept the jazz flowing with his rustling beats as only a seasoned jazzman can. Vocalist Serena Fisseau whispered, wailed and scatted on tracks like Var Yok (which means 'there is none' in Turkish, Strouk helpfully explained), throwing herself into the music without any inhibitions.

The recently-written Debuse (which translates into 'from the bus'), yet another breezy French number made its debut at the Mumbai gig after which the band performed an old hit Iramaku, an Indonesia number that picked up tempo. The bar-stools and tables were cleared to make way for some dancing. Sam Smala were smart to do just a one-hour set. While a small section of the audience were just warming up towards the end of the set, we might have made a quick exit had it stretched on for another hour.