As the temperature dropped, the decibels soared on the cool February evening. One stage, two judges and multitude of talent made the NXg Rockstar a musical extravagenza to remember. Judges Sudhin Prabhakar and Timothy Madhukar had their work cut out; having to choose the winning band out of five extremely good bands was no easy task. But they did eventually. Following the crowd favourites Goldfish's performance, who proved again why they were adjudged so, the competition hit the high note. Pakoda, Shadjaw, Borrowed Halos, Frank's Got The Funk and Point Blank gave their best shot on stage. Emcee Rochelle too did a good job of getting the passive crowd up on its feet.
Ultimately it was the energetic bunch that made up Frank's Got The Funk who walked away with the title, a cash prize of Rs. 50000 plus loads of other goodies. Borrowed Halos came a close second and clinching the third spot was Point Blank. They earned their cheques worth Rs. 30000 and Rs. 15000 respectively.
Just when you thought the evening couldn't get any better after being treated to some rollicking rock music complete with its jargon, the headliners took over. Indus Creed had the crowd enraptured with their performance that spelt variety.
In the end, it was music that prevailed over the competition; evident in the camaraderie between the competitors off stage.
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Look out for the rockstars!
Frank's Got The Funk and the cheque too! So it was but natural for them to say, “We're feeling rich!” But seriously, “We are really excited and feeling great to have won. We weren't sure of winning but we were confident.”
Getting the visibly excited bunch to speak was going to be tough, but they did spare a few words.
Speaking of the competition, “Competition-wise, everybody was good, but I think Borrowed Halos were pretty close. We have been competing on a lot of similar platforms.” The fact that the competition was only limited to the stage was obvious when they went about congratulating their competitors post-event.
The next natural question would be, ‘what are you going to do with the money?': “We are cutting an album this summer, so the money will help. And do watch out for the album!” We sure will!
The line up
Bjoru Surrao, II Year, Loyola College
Vikram Ashok, II Year, Anna University
Sajith Setya, XII, Don Bosco
Shashank Vijay, II Year, Loyola College
Rajan Chelliah, XII, Don Bosco
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The level of competition was quite good. I was happy to see a lot of the bands performing original compositions. Apart from the technicalities, bands also have to focus on their presence on stage. They should just have fun. Who you let yourself be inspired by very important. It is important for bands to take a wise call on that because if you look to a mediocre band for inspiration then it will show.– TIMOTHY MADHUKAR, judge
NXg Rockstar is an event that is really needed today. It is a way of shoeing people that west-inspired music is growing and it is a career option as well. It is important for media to encourage such thoughts. Overall, I wish that bands would learn to handle sound, apart from just playing their bit. They should work as a team and concentrate on sounding better as a group.- SUDHIN PRABHAKAR, judge
