City quakes to rock waves

[busybeeburns]

A blend of rock, jazz and classical rock music — spiced with some Parikrama left scores of Bangloreans in a dense musical haze as it resonated every nook and corner of Palace Grounds.

 

This unusual initiative by Radio City 91 FM to promote three new local rock bands is laudable indeed. Spanning eight weeks, the weekend show ‘Radio City Live’ — featured eight talented but little known bands and recorded over fifty original compositions across multiple genres of alternative rock, country music, classical rock, Indian fusion music inspired by folk traditions. The show provided a unique platform to all those who aspire to be rock stars, but otherwise do not get the opportunity to display their talents.

 

While most rock bands launch with a bang and fade away into darkness, this initiative may trigger the growth of a latent talent pool in this City of Rock.

 

The three bands - Phenom (rock band), Lounge Piranahs (an alternative rock band), and Swarathma (an Indian fusion band), were voted by public as the three best bands after they performed on the radio channel.

 

The concert began with the band Lounge Piranahs rocking the thousand-something audience with a foot tapping number ‘La Bamba’ and performing some of their own compositions that they played on air.

 

As the audiences encored for more, they sang loads of alternative rock numbers. Mark, the lead singer for Phenom, rocked the audience with high-pitched numbers from its very own compositions like ‘See the daylight’ and also ‘Walk the way’.

 

The most awaited performance was that of a relatively new band from Mysore called ‘Swarathma’.

 

This five-member band led by its lead singer Vasu left the crowds speechless with its own fusion rock compositions in Kannada, Punjabi, and Hindi. This band was formed four years ago in Mysore.

 

Their Kannada song Ee Bhoomi touched Namma Bengaluru’s audience as they all karaoked with the band. They had already won people’s hearts when they jammed for the first time on Radio city.

 

Last but not the least, the band with its fifteen year-old history and creme’ d ‘la creme’ music - Parikrama - set the stage afire with some of its own classics like ‘But it rained’, ‘Super Hero’ and ‘Vapourise’.

 

They also paid special tributes to our defence forces who fight for our country by sacrificing their lives by playing a composition called ‘Border kings’, encouraging the audience to karaoke to their song. They also covered all-time favourites like Iron Maiden, Robbie Williams and Coldplay’s Yellow.

 

The final segment of the concert was a jugalbandi between Phenom, Swarathma and Parikrama which was a great fusion of the violin, kanjira, guitar and drums that lasted for nearly ten minutes — interspersed by the lead singers of Phenom and Swarathma.

 

Radio city 91 FM’s RJs Fiona, Darius, Rohit Jayakaran, Sunaina Lal, Cindu and Divya made guest appearances on the stage to give away loads of freebies while entertaining guests with their on-air jokes.

 

http://www.deccanherald.com