“Dear sir, dear mam,
this Sunday, we’re having a jam
no bread no butter
just jam just jam
maybe marmalade
maybe metal
rather raaga
rather rock
sometimes salsa
sometimes soul
p’haps pictures
p’haps poems
l’il fizz l’il jazz
lotsa fun lotsa juice
dear sir dear mam
just jam just jam.”
This poem by a Freedom Jam regular sums up the live entertainment scene in Bangalore that’s increasingly getting better by the day. And there’s nothing quite like live music to set the mood. Here is where Bangalore scores. It has always been the rock capital of the country and continues to be so. What cemented its position was the superlative success of the annual Freedom Jam event. “Freedom Jam is the longest running live music tradition in Bangalore and also in the country,” says VG Jaideep, former editor of Rave magazine. “I think the live music scene is definitely improving in Bangalore as it has become more institutionalised.”
However, music lovers also feel that the live music scene is right now confined to a few isolated pockets like Koramangala and Brigade Road and Sankey Road. “If you look at north Bangalore where you have an audience, there isn’t any platform for people to perform,” said live music buff Chaitra. “Thankfully, the scope for bands to perform is much more now as they have access to technology and a good disposable income (most band members have full-time jobs).”
The 11-year-old annual Freedom Jam has become Bangalore’s own Woodstock with its signature 12-hour non-stop pulsating rock and contemporary music by over 40 bands of various hues vying to play over multiple stages. Performances have included Bangalore’s legends like Konarak Reddy, K.C.P., and an eclectic contemporary mix of music from the likes of Lucky Ali, David Rothenberg (New York), Sarjapur Blues Band, Baja, Steve Tallis (Australia), Vasundhara Das, Esperanto, Threnody, Kryptos, Bhumi, TAAQ and so on. On similar lines, the Sunday Jam is a live interactive event regularly held on the first Sunday of every month to promote art and other cultural activity. These days it is held at various places in the city. Anything from metal to ragas to folk and film songs to poetry readings, and art exhibitions can be expected.
And then there is the ‘Moonplugged series’ of concerts happening for about a year now at the creekside Guruskool outside Bangalore and the Chitra Kala Parishad amphitheatre. The previous Moonplugged at Parishad’s open air theatre that featured the Finnish band Piirpauke, Konarak Reddy and others was described as “magical and thoroughly enchanting” by avid music lovers.
Only a few years ago, the Bangalore Police clamped down on Live music by concluding that the live music in pubs is nothing different from the cabarets that happen at seedy bars. All of this now is slowly receding with the political top brass in favour of late-night entertainment. What has also come as a boon is the corporate backing to musical events. The pioneers were Opus, the Goan restaurant and lounge bar. The theme nights they started a few years ago today have corporate sponsors. From singing classes to karaoke sessions and live performances by semi professionals, Opus is the front-runner of live music in Bangalore today. Adding more impetus is Bangalore-based Venkat Vardhan of DNA Networks that has brought the biggest rock acts to Bangalore and other cities of India. He launched Campus Rock Idols, an annual nationwide hunt for the best college band. This year’s finale was in Delhi on December 2. He hasn’t stopped at that. In 2007, he also launched Rockillusion to get both professional and semi professional bands to compete against each other on a national level.
Some of the leading bands in Bangalore enjoying cult status include Galeej Gurus and Myndsnare. The other promising ones include Lounge Piranha and Thermal and a Quarter. Aside from the old faithful like Legends of Rock, Javacity, Pinch of Jazz, Pecos and Mojos , there are newer venues coming up every now and then. Casa Del Sol doubles into a social destination in the evenings – they have salsa nites, live music, pottery artists and lots of other fun events. The Park hotel hosts the occasional live music on Fridays and Saturdays where bands like Thermal and Quarter play a feast of original songs and ‘thermalized’ covers of Sting, Dire Straits, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam, and a lot more. The latest is Le Rock, a beer café on Residency Road opposite Pecos.
Things will only brighten up with the soon-to-be-opened The Hard Rock Café on St Mark’s Road. What is also adding to the nice mix of venues is the addition of corporate spaces. Take the RMZ Group. They have built Eco Space, an IT Park on Outer Ring Road that is home to a dedicated live music space for popular acts like Kailash Kher and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.
Bangalore’s music scene is definitely appreciative of other genres of music, but not on a scale as large as metal. If Central Park and Javacity play jazz, everywhere else it’s rock that rules. This is evident when we see the audience for unplugged shows and live performances like the Freedom Jam or campus rock shows. The audience is mostly college goers and the young working crowd from BPOs and software firms.
George Muthalaly, who works with British Airways, is a hardcore lover of rock music. He feels Bangalore is all for rock because of its culture. “You can do what you want, and break away from all the normal rules and regulations in music, and this helps the growth of rock,” he says. A big fan of Linkin Park, Creed and Bob Dylan, he says the music can always get better. “There are only a few quality bands. The city could do with a lot more of them.”
Documentary filmmaker Adarsh NC goes for all things retro, particularly to jazz and rock of the 70s. A regular listener to Grateful Dead, The Band and Bob Dylan, he says the music scene in Bangalore has always been good. “Rock has always ruled the roost here,” he says. “There were lots of college bands even in the 80s and 90s. The city’s culture itself had a lot of music embedded in it. It’s always been a musically oriented city. To top it, the number of international bands coming into town is only increasing.”
Given to blues and jazz music, Usha, a project manager with a tech firm, believes that music is all about class. “People have a lot more class out here, so they end up listening to blues and jazz after their initiation into hardcore rock,” she says. “Take me. I started off with rock and am now more cued to blues and jazz masters like Dave Brubeck, Global Unity and our very own local band, Barracuda Blues. Maybe it’s also because of the pub culture… people are more exposed to different kinds of music.”
Play on…
