Two Great Performances

I managed to squeeze two really great events into last Saturday and I decided that day itself that I HAD to write something about each.

First it was Aba, a proper Sri Lankan epic! What the director has managed to create is a great movie that is based on recorded history but deviates enough from what we're taught at school to ensure that it doesn't feel like a documentary and even makes me think again about my own origins.

It's obvious that a lot of time, money and effort was put into making the movie because the cast, script, sets, costumes and music are all pretty good. I think Aba's been a success at the box office and really do hope it does well enough to encourage other directors and producers to invest in quality. It would be a shame if the public that's been complaining about the current state of the Sri Lankan entertainment industry doesn't bother to get up and go to a theater when something worth watching has actually been provided.

Now, for those of you who know what I generally consider to be an 'Epic', I'm not saying this is 'Lord of the Rings'; just that it's probably the closest we've got to making something that is grand, exciting, intelligent and beautiful at the same time, in a long time!

After the movie was Nemesis at TNL On Stage! Their lead guitarist is a friend and I went to On Stage last Saturday because I've heard them play and knew they wouldn't disappoint. They did not!

Their first two songs were a Metallica cover and an original, which were pretty good, but they came on later for an acoustic session where they performed a cover of Audioslave's 'I am the highway' which blew my mind! I can't wait for a video of this performance to get to youtube, but until it does, here's an older recording of them doing Shinedown's 45.