WHO: PENTAGRAM
WHERE: HARD ROCK CAFE
WHEN: MAY 20
VERDICT: ANIMALISTIC

Mumbai rock band Pentagram rarely misses; whether they aim to woo non-rock audiences who show up in hordes to a free show at the Carter Road promenade or stuffed shirts who've never heard of their existence. So when the four-member band took stage at VH1's History Rocks concert on Thursday, we weren't surprised when lead vocalist Vishal Dadlani worked the crowd with original tracks. The band opened the show with Drive, from their second album Up, which had all the thud and growl to have people off their feet. And while it's difficult to tear your eyes off Dadlani jumping around the stage, bands are yet to exploit the visual set-up that venues offer. Drive had a fantastic claymation video that could have easily been used to blow up the performance and surprise audiences even.

What did surprise us was Pentagram doing covers. Regardless of the reasons and the fact that most of us haven't heard a more honest, guttural rendition of U2's Desire by any other Indian band, a cover equals scaling down. Especially when the audience (even the unitiated lot) was screaming along to even brand new cuts like In My Head and Mental Zero.

The show that lasted a little over an hour came to a ballistic end with Animal and Rock N Roll, both from their last album It's OK, It's All Good.

Pentagram's last performance at HRC (which we heard was a showcase of sorts for international event promoters) was definitely more power-packed. That said, Dadlani really leaves no trick undone as a performer -- he'll cuss, he'll threaten to damage the speakers when he jumps onto them and he'll step down to mosh with the crowd. There's always an edge and the audience is always in suspense. Will guitarist Randolph Correia snap a few strings? Does he have some new beeps on the laptop to sex up the show? Will Dadlani flip and walk off stage? At the end of the show, it's like you've stepped out of an action flick.