Friday night, nostalgic melodies

Raaga performs at Kozmo Lounge Photo Courtesy: Iftekharuddin Bunty

Weekends at Kozmo Lounge on Satmasjid Road, Dhanmondi are festive affairs. Perhaps, “festive” is a little strong, but Kozmo certainly fits the “cool hangout joint” bill. Friends catching up over refills of latte or piping hot tom yum, popular and upcoming musicians performing live and so on. Last Friday Raaga performed at Kozmo.
As all the members of the band are NSU (North South University) graduates, unsurprisingly the audience included former and current NSU students as well as friends who cheered and at times mockingly jeered during the performance.
Raaga's repertoire included songs from their self-titled debut album and covers of classics -- both Bangla and English. Among the band's original compositions, Kahar majhey (from the mixed album Shopnochura 2), Brishti, Kothaye and Asha are notable. Raaga's style can best be described as 'Mellow Rock'. Elita's breezy vocals certainly work when it comes to nostalgia inducing numbers. Joy was on the bass guitar and Emran on keyboards. Nafeez deserves a special mention for a superlative display of skills on drums. The performance also featured guest guitarist Saif. A rendition of Smriti featured guest vocalist Simin Saifuddin.
Covers of evergreen songs had the audience humming along. The Hemanta classic Amaye proshno korey, Lata-hit Moina go, Moushumi Bhowmick's 'Jibonmukhi' ditty Shopno dekhbo boley -- all were enjoyable but what really worked the audience was a vivacious Blues-tinted rendition of the S.D. Burman classic, Ghum.
The band also performed covers of Madonna's Jump, the all-time favourite Beatles number Ob-la-di, Mojo's Lady (hear me tonight), No Doubt's breakthrough song Don't speak and the Sade classic Smooth operator. Elita's efforts were commendable but one cannot really replicate the Gwen Stefani verve, on top of her game, in Don't speak or do justice to Sade's Soul. Something was missing in those two renditions.
Kozmo has made some improvements, like moving the 'performance area' to the centre; management seems more attentive. However, the space is still limited and many complain that tickets are sold out days, sometimes weeks ahead. The establishment should give it a thought.