In Sight

Chris Preovolos/Stamford Advocate

ABOVE: The Board Lords at Meera in Stamford.

MEERA: TASTE OF INDIA, 227 SUMMER ST., STAMFORD

The warm air of late spring, thick with cigarette smoke, wafted in and mingled with the residual aroma of curry at the Indian restaurant, Meera Friday night. But the heavy guitar riffs of the skate rock band, the Board Lords, could be heard from across the street. And down the block.

As we – a trio of Advocate staffers – exited the freshly-minted Barcelona Wine and Tapas Bar looking for a quick nightcap, it became readily apparent that we needed to figure out what, exactly, was going on inside the small Indian restaurant.

At the makeshift bar, owner Bharat Patel was serving up $5 bottles of Corona, Heineken and Kingfisher, an Indian lager beer, while the Port Chester-based band cranked out one original song after another, punctuated with the occasional Clash, Specials or Dead Kennedys classic.

“It’s really loud, isn’t it?” said Patel, shortly after a brief conference with a couple city fire marshals, “I like them, but it’s really loud.” Patel then proceeded to tell me that his favorite band is Deep Purple, pioneers of heavy metal.

But the show continued and between songs, lead singer Steve “MC-Rice” Moy told the crowd that two fire marshals “just came in and said you guys are all right. Compared to Hula Hanks, you are all right.”

Around one o’clock the crowd began to thin out and with the band’s set over, only the sound of a piped-in Bollywood soundtrack remained.

–CP