From the land down under, a band with many accolades in their pocket, Wolfmother took to the main stage at the BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus as part of their tour in India. An Australian Hard Rock band founded by guitarist and vocalist Andrew Stockdale in 2000, Wolfmother  rose to fame with their Grammy for the Best Hard Rock Performance for ‘Woman’, and ‘Joker and the Thief’ (Shrek 3 OST). They have composed two studio albums – Wolfmother and Cosmic Egg and three extended plays ‘Wolfmother ’, ‘Dimensions’ and ‘iTunes Live from Sydney’. As a band, Wolfmother went through roller coaster rides over the years including a temporary split. The transitions led to the current line-up with Andrew Stockdale on lead vocals and lead guitar,…

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Last Saturday, an eclectic mix of female musicians descended on CounterCulture for the Women’s Day showcase. Shakthisree Gopalan, Vasuda Sharma, Sulk Station and Alexis all shared the event, displaying a variety of musical styles from pop to electronica, folk to dubstep. CounterCulture proved once again its premier status as a Bangalore venue, having been beautifully decorated for the occasion. Origami birds hung from the ceiling brilliantly illuminated by the soft glow of the stage lights. By 7:30, a not only large but also diverse crowd had gathered; families with young children sat mere feet away from rowdy students taking shots. Indeed, it is a testament to the universal appeal of these four bands that they can attract such a wide…

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If Day 1 was anything to go by, the acts on Day 2 had their work cut out. However, Soulmate, Li’l Ed and The Blues Imperials and multiple Grammy-award winning blues legend Jimmie Vaughan have been silencing doubters for a living and were well equipped to make sure that the festival ended on a really high note. On day 2, even before the first act, music was already in the air as faculty from the True School of Music, Mumbai performed some pleasant acoustic jazz on an outdoor stage set up at the venue. Near the performance was where Soulmate’s third album ‘Ten Stories Up’ was to go on sale for the first time (read an exclusive interview with Rudy…

Skeptics became admirers, admirers became lovers and lovers became fanatics. All that in only a couple of days at the 2014 edition of the annual Mahindra Blues Festival at the fabled Mehboob Studios in Mumbai. After raising the bar for music festivals held in India, three times with three highly successful Blues festivals starting 2011, the Mahindra group had set its sight on doing just that for its 4th edition. The build-up was immense, accentuated heavily by the line-up for this year – Grammy awardees Tedeschi Trucks Band and Jimmie Vaughan, Blues stalwarts Zac Harmon and Li’l Ed and the Blues Imperials and India’s crème de la crème Soulmate and BlackStratBlues. Even the heavens had opened up to lull a city…

After its initial success at Ion Bar & Kitchen, less than two months ago, Insurrection returned with its second edition, welcoming Tinga Tinga Bar (previously known as Couch) to the world of death metal. The line up comprised of the most mind-boggling metal bands –  Necrophilia, Festered Wound, Shepherd, Xector, Orchid, Nihilus, Trojan Horse, Dark Desolation and Neolithic Silence all at one stage. As the day progressed to night, minimal lighting contributed to the dark ambience, enticing the metalheads to headbang and mosh throughout. “One of Bangalore’s most brutal heavy metal shows” began with Bangalore based experimental death metal band, Necrophilia infecting the crowd with its vacillating tempos and time signatures. Avinash’s ruthless high pitched growls in combination with Shelton’s…

Not very often do you get to see a packed Chowdaiah Memorial Hall on a Wednesday evening. But that’s mostly because not very often do you get to see a classical concert that brings together the Saraswati Veena with the Tabla. Especially when you start to name the artistes for the evening, behind the instruments. The last time Ustad Zakir Hussain recalls playing a similar concert was with the legendary veena maestro Vidwan S. Balachander, all the way back in 1974. Forty years on, on the 29th of January, 2014, the Ustad took the stage with a disciple of Vidwan Balachander, veena stalwart, Vidushi Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh and together delivered a performance that could easily last another forty years in…

Goethe Institut, Bangalore witnessed India’s heavy metal band, Kryptos’ extended 15th anniversary celebrations on the 25th of January. The Saturday was a tribute to old school heavy metal with Bangalore-based thrash metal band Theorized opening for Kryptos, and vocalists from Bhoomi, Dying Embrace and Witchgoat making appearances as special guests, to the delight of fans. The evening began with Theorized ripping the stage apart with Ankit Suryakanth’s shredding lead solos. Yash Kumar’s drumming served as the backbone of Theorized’s music. They had a fully fledged set list, with fast paced riffs, and tempo and count changes that could not allow the crowd to stand still. Soon enough, they began to grow brutal, in response to the Yash’s high speed double kick drumming. Ankit’s extraordinarily…

When two bands of national acclaim are gathered to play at a popular venue, you can expect the early animated crowd to fill in way before the concert. This night was no different. Each table had an excitable someone telling their friends about the bands that were to perform. One of the most heartening things about the Indian music scene is getting to see fans pointing to band members (who are almost always part of the audience, sipping on their pre-gig drinks) in awe. And so it was that when Aks took the stage, the audience cheered them with a fervour that came from finally not having to mutter their appreciation at dinner-table volume. Without wasting any time on the soundcheck,…

NH7 Weekender, one of the country’s largest music festivals, finally made it to Kolkata, much to the delight of the city’s music-hungry population. The fourth and final leg of this event was to be held on the 14th and 15th of December, and with the completion of exams at most of the city’s educational institutions, the organizers seemed confident of wooing the huge student community to the venue grounds. In fact the Kolkata leg had a lot going for the city’s music lovers. With the highly discounted ticket prices when compared to the three other NH7 Weekender venues, the tickets rates for the City of Joy were a complete steal! And for the student population there was even an under-21 ticket to…

A magnificent desert palace full of colourful people bathed in moonlight dancing to mesmerizing music. Sounds like a scene right from Aladdin right? This was the general sight at the Magnetic Fields Festival that took place at the Alsisar Mahal in Alsisar, Rajasthan. Set over a period of 3 days to commemorate the meeting of the Bedouin tribes and the Royals of Rajasthan, this was a music and adventure laden retreat far away from civilization. I can’t jump straight to the music here as the Magnetic Fields Festival was so much more than your average music festival. Well first off – location, location, location. Alsisar itself is a town that reeks of mystery the moment you enter. Crumbling minarets and arches…