Kethoser (Aniu) Kevichusa
There was a time when Naga bands were typically formed by teenage friends coming together – just for the love of music and the celebration of friendship.
Because friendship is talent-blind, every band inevitably contained discrepancies and weak links in terms of the musical abilities among band members. Usually, the least talented, the least skilful, and the least impressive ended up being – the vocalist.
It was Setso Liegise who almost singlehandedly (or, more precisely, ‘singlemouthedly’) changed this ‘Naga tradition’ and brought the vocalist back to where he or she belongs – the centre stage.
As vocalist of a number of Naga and Indian bands brimming with gifted musicians, Setso was still, always, able to keep the focus of a concert where it should be – the songs being sung.
Setso was, and will always be, the finest singer of my generation. Although he was a vocalist in a number of popular rock and heavy metal bands, and was extremely versatile both in range and repertoire, Setso was essentially a soloist, a crooner, and a troubadour. The hopeless romantic that he was, he was at his most soulful element when singing ballads.
Having known him since childhood, Setso was an ever gentle, generous, and sensitive soul. Although extremely intelligent and informed, well spoken and articulate, he was not someone who obnoxiously hogged the limelight or dominated conversations. In fact, he was often the hapless butt of many of his friends’ ruthless jokes. He got the limelight on stage, but gave it to others off it.
Setso’s life is also a vivid and exaggerated picture of what we all are as humans – created gloriously and gifted handsomely, yet deeply and helplessly flawed. He was never able to fully overcome certain habits of nature and nurture, and remained unhealthily dependent on one unhelpful substance or another throughout most of his life.
But the ‘stuff of earth’ that pulled him downward also pushed him upward to God. Setso knew and experienced God’s grace, forgiveness, and mercy – and responded to and related with God in his own way, as best as he knew how, warts and all.
In a way, Setso was a prodigal son of sorts. He did not necessarily live or play by the religious rules, but he still knew and related with God, his ‘Father’ – unlike some of us, legalistic ‘elder brothers’, who keep all the rules but neither know God as ‘Father’ or one another as ‘brother’.
Setso passed away peacefully at Oking Hospital, following a brain haemorrhage. He was 42. He leaves behind his mom and his wife. He leaves for us his songs.
Setso the Prodigal has returned home. Heaven, they say, has music. It is one more singer the richer.
‘Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!’ – Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
Setso Liegise, 14 September 1973 – 24 February 2016. Requiescat in pace.
