Where is the real A.R. Rehman?

June 16 2007
I went to See the A.R. Rehman concert held in Dallas TX last night. I had seen one other concert here at the Nokia theater two years ago.
Remember I am talking about A.R. here, not some fly by night Bollywood concerts of drunks and concubines. I expected great sound, great singers singing their hearts out, and some serious live music.
I was very disappointed. Here is why. If you plan to plunk down one hundred bucks to see this guy, take this into consideration.
1 Sound: Local sound guy is a reputable one and has always done well. He has done many a Bollywood concerts, but the way he was asked to sit, he could not see the artists. Results were disastrous. When ever female singers were singing, their mike volume was too low for first five seconds. Volume would be raised and then in the next stanza it was properly adjusted. You would think that A.R. would get upset and do something as he was sitting right near the sound board. The ushers who have worked at the venue for a long time commented that these guys adjusted their own sound and it was not good. (Many of them were wearing their ear plugs that day. Several commented that this was bad and the previous week's Asha concert was worse.) Mind you, I have attended my share of Indian concerts and other concerts. Being an A.R. fan, I would have thought that his sound engineer would have done a better job. I know the local sound man they had hired and he has a high standard. I have used him for fairly complex situations and he tends to be precise, but he will not leave any microphone on that is not being used. May be it was his fault.

2 Music: Here is the real problem. There was no orchestra, which makes A.R. what he is. There was too much recorded music. You would hear large drum sounds when shiv Mani was not moving his hands? May be I am ignorant but some thing was not right. There was one violin and one cello player but the "violin sound" was so rich that it can only be produced by an prchestra or a synthesizer. Volume of the music was not proportionate to the singing (instruments being too loud), base was out of control. Some thing was not right. He brought in some "local" talent, which was really no talent to speak of and I did not pay to listen to some local talent of low quality.
3 Dances: Horrible.