avril quadros at opus : review

I have heard about this singer called Avril but knew nothing about her music. So when last week Carlton sent me his irresistible message about Avril's performing at Opus, I was among the first to check in.
My impressions:
1. Avril has a terrific stage presence. That halo of auburn hair in its ordered disorderliness had me reaching for my BP pills. Not since I sat in the front row of a Diana Krall performance in Paris has hair affected me so joyfully. Add to that the well-designed clothes and her body language - nothing short of professional. Too many Bangalore performers, including those that are idolised by the young cognoscenti, look like they stepped out of a mud bath six weeks ago. Weak and gauche when it comes to stage presence. What they have to say is too often banal and how they say it too teeny-bopperish.
2. But the music was simply too overindulgent. Original songs without character, lyrics (when they cd be heard above the unfortunate sound mix) that thought rather too well of themselves for reasons that I cd find little justification for. The few covers of international hits on offer were well received - but I didn't know what to make of them. This may be rooted in my own limited knowledge of what passes for Hits these days, but I have often enough enjoyed hit songs that I didn't know when they were delivered attractively, to know that these weren't.
3. Hindi songs??? I guess there is money in them thar Bollywood hills but I didn't respect Usha Uthup or Sharon Prabhakar when they jumped on that unfamiliar bandwagon, and that neither have made any inroads into the million-sellers of that genre tells me you are either what it's about or you're not. Good luck to Avril. And if you actually have to explain, in lurid detail, to an audience that is hysterically applauding every word you sing that in the next song the foetus will be crying out to Mama on the abortion table, well ... either they don't know Hindi or you don't expect to sing it comprehensibly, and what the hell is the point?
4. The biggest downer? ALL the songs were delivered at Loud, Louder, Loudest levels. In fact Scream, Screamier, Screamiest. At a time when every pop singer and her aunty is discovering classic standards and ballads and recording them, it wd have been a relief to discover that Avril knows the value of a beautiful ballad sung gently into the night. If she does, she kept it a closely-guarded secret that evening.
To sum it up, a singer with the potential to be very good, if only she'd tweak her songbook to include songs that wd showcase her talent beyond her lung-power.
Stanley Pinto

PS And wd someone tell the sound-engineers at Opus that the star is the singer, the rest are her accompanists, and the ideal balance between the sonic output of the two shd be 100-70, not 100-100 or, as is often the case, a terrifying 100-120. Hmmmph.