Live Review: Karma Sheen at The 100 Club
WORDS BY ELLA PATENALL
Karma Sheen // Photo by Rob Blackham
An epic night at the iconic 100 Club from London’s psychedelic Hindustani rock band Karma Sheen. It felt like being in a movie and it was a night not to be missed, with support from British Tamil art rocker Kapil Seshasayee.
The night opened with Kapil Seshasayee who was on guitar and vocals, and backed by Diljeet Kaur Bhachu (who also happens to be his wife) on flute and drummer Edwin Stewart McLachlan. His music is eclectic: one moment he’s playing dense jazz chords, the next launching into a dancey track with the repeated refrain “whose bright idea was this?”
Kapil commands attention with his musicality and his songs tackle serious themes. ‘The Pink Mirror’, which is named after queer filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan’s still-banned film, explores the censorship of LGBTQ+ voices, while ‘Hill Station Reprise’ confronts the normalisation of caste in the diaspora. Between songs Kapil spoke about the importance of accessibility and lack thereof in live music, explaining that he livestreams performances during the week for people who can’t attend gigs in person. At a time when musicians keep being told to “keep politics out of music”, Kapil proved himself not just a performer, but a force with something to say.
The flute was especially impressive. It weaved around pounding drums and heavy guitar – sometimes in unison and sometimes as a call and response. The flute isn’t common in rock music, but Diljeet shows us that bands need more flute! Some of Kapil’s guitar lines take on a math-rock quality, adding rhythmic complexity and texture. The acoustic drums are also much more present and full than in his studio recordings, adding drive and urgency to the performance.
By the time Karma Sheen came on, the iconic venue was buzzing with anticipation for the five-piece headliner, with Sameer Khan on lead vocals/guitar, Rod Bourganos on sitar/synth, Grisha Grebennikov on bass, Amad Chima on guitar, and Arun Dhanjal on drums. I noted the diversity of the audience – a proper mixture of ages, ethnicities and styles. A solid turnout for a cold autumnal Tuesday evening.
Blending 70s prog and psychedelia with traditional Indian music, Karma Sheen delivered fusion done right. Sitar lines and drones burst into elaborate guitar solos, all held together by a thick, funky bass groove that anchored everything while the guitars wailed, screamed and twisted into wild shapes, at times even mimicking the timbre of the sitar. The drums were pounding, dynamic and relentless, constantly shifting the energy, and the sitar added that unmistakable fusion magic at all the right moments.
Layered over the top were splashes of harmonium and theremin, adding a touch of cosmic wonkiness that expanded the sound even further, while the rhythm guitar gave everything extra shimmer and sparkle. The vocals – rooted in formal training from the Shaam Chaurasi Gharana, a 600-year lineage and tradition in Hindustani classical music – sat atop the cacophony giving them their signature Hindustani sound.
Altogether it formed a dense, textured, unmistakably thick sonic experience. It was completely mesmerising – the kind of set you couldn’t look away from, a real you-had-to-be-there moment. The band had the room moving, commanding hands in the air and telling us to “get our dance on”. And if the atmosphere wasn’t already electric enough, the one and only Sir Jimmy Page was in the crowd – a quiet seal of approval from a rock legend. All in all, it was a hypnotic performance that had the whole room locked in.