The rock band Prime Circle comprising Ross Learmonth (vocals, rhythm and primary songwriter), Gerhard Venter (drums backing vocals), Marco Gomes (bass), Dirk Bisschoff (lead), Neil Breytenbach (keyboards) popularly considered South Africa’s best, performed at the Hard Rock Cafe in the City recently.
Relatively unknown to Bangaloreans until recently, Prime Circle shot to fame when they performed at the opening of IPL II. A band that was freely compared to The Frey across coffee shops in the City, performed to fairly large audience.
Undeterred by the initial lack of enthusiasm, the band did what they are known for best — an energetic stage performance which eventually won them the audiences’ approval.
It is hard to resist a band with that much charisma.
Prime Circle ensured that they kept an open dialogue with the audience, inviting them to join in. To overcome the obvious ignorance about their music, the band would introduce each song, teach the crowd the lyrics and coaxed them into joining in.
The boys handed out goodies like it was Christmas. It rained tee-shirts, CDs, DVDs, Caps and much else. The initially reluctant audience ended up dancing to the beat. The band even earned a rousing applause.
The band performed such hits like My Inspiration, Hello and Live This Life from their earlier albums and She Always Gets What She Wants, All I Need and Out of this Place from their new album All or Nothing. They even performed their latest single Consider Me. Their heavier songs had interesting progressions and were better received than their ballads which were rather too radio-friendly. Moving from a song based on tribal beats to a heavy strings lead number to Floydesque ones, there was no dearth of range in Prime Circle’s set even if it did lack experimentation.
Learmonth’s vocals were powerful and compelling. Bisschoff on lead guitar was genius.
The band evidently had a great time performing in the City and promised to be back soon.
