The middle of the week has always been an unlikely bet for bands, but some of them are going beyond the trope of ‘a gig is a gig’. They are making as much of an event out of a Thursday gig as possible. As part of monthly gig series Unscene at the Humming Tree in Indiranagar, two city bands –rock ‘n’ roll band White Mug and stoner rock duo Diarchy – join Mumbai rockers Gumbal for a special night.
Diarchy, who have been around since mid-2015, bring their chunky psychedelic-leaning rock – stoner rock – to celebrate the release of their debut full-length album Here Lost We Lie . The duo— drummer Gaurrav Tiwari and vocalist-guitarist Prakash Rawat bring a hazy atmosphere to their seven-track release that reflects their live performance accurately. Over the past two years, Diarchy have gained footing in the city, bringing the most incendiary riffs to clubs as well as festivals such as NH7 Weekender and Indie March. Prakash recalls, “Playing at Indie March and having Stefan from Colour Haze (one of my most favourite bands) in the audience was quite special.”
As for Here Lost We Lie , Gaurrav says there is a theme, but won’t give away much. He even takes it as a chance to trip on his bandmate, saying, “Thematically, the seven tracks going on the album are each a part of a larger story to tell. Prakash doesn’t like to romanticise stuff though, so I will just say, we are all about riffs.”
Adding to the mind-expanding sounds of the night are White Mug, who recently launched their own trippy video for their single ‘Backward Track’. For a band that has been around since 2011, White Mug released their debut EP in 2014 and then, a full-length album called Clown in October 2015 and have been keeping it together despite lineup changes. Frontman Mathew says, “ Clown was an important juncture for the band in terms of establishing the sound and also being on the map.”
The singer goes on to explain, “We are not unfamiliar with line-up changes and hence we were on it immediately. The real challenge was the numerous kind of sets we play. We do our sets for indie gigs, we do corporate and hotel gigs with 75 percent covers. Amidst this, we had to let go of our drummer as well, which eventually took away almost six months for the band to arrive at what we have now.”
White Mug currently comprises Mathew, drummer Deepak Raghu, guitarist Louis Moni and bassist Ravi Nair. The focus right now is on promoting material of Clown and showcase new material at the same time, which explains the decision to release an animated video for ‘Backward Track’. Mathew explains, “The video, as the song name alludes, has a sense of the need to go backward in time. Are we as humans moving forward or backward? The video is about what we did with nature in the name of development.” For their show as part of Unscene, Mathew says, “With the release of our new animated video, we realised the power of having visuals for a psychedelic rock kind of a set, especially when we want people to groove with us. So, we are bringing in live visuals based on our travel experiences that blends with the song themes and of course, we are dying to play our new tracks to the audience.”
Gaurrav from Diarchy is equally excited to be part of Unscene. With admiration for its creator Ramakrishnan Krishnan, who has previously brought around tour series such as the 2Stroke Tour and Progworks On Wheels across the country, he adds with a laugh, “I feel privileged to be playing at one of Ram’s properties. Doing ‘chance pe dance’ and capitalising on this opportunity to formally launch the album too.”
Unscene 3 with Diarchy, White Mug and Gumbal takes place on March 9 at The Humming Tree, Indiranagar. Tickets: Rs 300 available on Insider.in
