If you ever wondered why every other public space is not as populated as one expects on a Saturday evening, it’s because malls have lured in most of the crowd. It’s no surprise club venues and promoters often lament low turnouts at their shows, because everyone is up for a roam around the mall but not to see live music.
Is a mall gig the optimal solution, then? To bring the music to the mall crowd, on paper, feels like cheapening the artistic worth of the alternative music landscape in India. But then again, if you can bring in two Delhi bands with their full crew for a two-hour performance, who’s to complain?
Psychedelic rock band Menwhopause and pop rock band Faridkot made their way to Phoenix MarketCity in Velachery, in a rare show, considering North Indian bands rarely make the journey down South. Menwhopause, who played their last show in the city in 2011, were led by vocalist and bassist Randeep Singh, guitarists I.P. Singh and Anup Kutty, and drummer Bhanu Thakur. There’s a certain air of melancholic soul in the band’s music, in their best-known songs like ‘Easy’ or ‘Brimful’.
IP Singh has an interesting guitar modification that allows him to modulate every effect-laden note he plays, which acts as colouring that fills in the rest of the band’s slow-building melodies. There’s the occasional spurt of fun, of course. Randeep jokes that they brought Delhi’s windy, stormy weather with them, but it’s kind of fitting to hear them pace their songs from acoustic-led openings to all-out noisy endings. Their new song, ‘On A Boat’, from their upcoming album Neon Delhi , was exceptionally danceable, yet with a downcast outlook with the guitars crashing down riffs by the end.
Faridkot, were soulful too, but with a different level of energy. Incidentally, their vocalist shares the same name as Menwhopause’s IP Singh, but there was no mistaking a frontman. With his near-perfect vocal range and ability to work the crowd into a frenzy, Faridkot were out to please every one of the hundred-odd people who were drawn to the performance area at the mall. With a strong emphasis on melody — whether it was Singh’s vocals, guitarist Rajarshi Sanyal belting out solo after solo, or Anil Chawla’s delicate work on the keyboard — Faridkot also talked the crowd into everything from clap-alongs to sing-alongs on songs like ‘Laila’, their new addition ‘Subah Subah’ and more.
They certainly had a bit of a fan-following show up, including a young one who was identifying band members to her father as they set up. The band nearly got a musician’s worst nightmare — a request for a song — but thankfully, no one was asking for the latest Bollywood radio hit, they were just asking for the Happy Birthday song. Singh obliged as part of his plan in winning the crowd over. He raised his hands and the crowd worked up a roar. This was a band that knew how to make their mark in listeners’ minds, whether they were watching Faridkot for the first time or for the fifth.
