September is the month when American businessman Robert Talbot (played by Rock Hudson) hung out with his mistress Lisa Fellini (Gina Lollobrigida). That was in the 1961 romantic comedy, Come September . In present day Bangalore, however, September is the month when music starts to flood the city’s soundscape with mind altering shows, gigs and concert all the way to February.
Kicking off with the third edition of the Bangalore Open Air festival at CounterCulture this weekend that will feature some old school Greek and Italian metal bands as well as trash metal bands from Kolkata and Bangalore, the music scene in the city is up for a stormy start. Heavy metal city band Girish And The Chronicles will play a set of originals from their new album Back On Earth at this festival. Frontman Girish Pradhan says every festival season starts in September.
“If I think about it, all the festivals and cultural events even in my hometown of Gangtok, Sikkim, starts in September. It’s a magical time of celebration of the season changing.”
On the Bangalore Open Air fiesta, he says they are excited and a bit nervous sharing stage with some legendary bands. “We’ve been following them for quite some time and they are really good and extremely heavy trash metal bands. We are more classic heavy metal. Hopefully, the mix works out and everyone has fun.”
Arati Rao, who runs BFlat – a popular music joint in the city, echoes Girish’s thoughts. “I don’t know what it is about September except that the monsoon is almost over and it’s the beginning of fabulous weather in Bangalore. Right up to February we have great weather making this magic time in the city. We all feel like going out, enjoying the ambience and everything makes you feel energised. Maybe it’s the post-monsoon energy.”
She recalls that while October is a dead month for music venues thanks to all the festivals, July and August don’t work because of the rain and people just don’t feel like going out.
On their line-up for the coming weekends, Arati says: “We’ve got some really lovely programming done and pooled in bands that have never played at BFlat. The Saturday Night Blues Band that has been performing live every Saturday night at Someplace Else, India's ‘Music Mecca’ in Kolkata since January 2000, are just one of the many shows we’ve planned. There are also a series of stellar performances by veteran and contemporary bands lined up.”
It’s not just bands but also choirs that bloom in the music month. Neecia Majolly says: “From my point of view, when it comes to choir concerts, this is the perfect month. There are examinations in early summer, then it is holiday season and only after that do we get to bring everyone together and start practise. In October, we need to work around the festivals and we can’t have concerts on any public holidays. So September is a nice in-between month since we don’t really have these things to deal with. This is the best time to programme our concerts and float it to get a good audience.”
The Majolly Trust has a three-weekend bonanza with its festival of music from this Saturday. “We will also have an outperformers singing competition and an original musical in the coming months.”
