On a Saturday night in New Delhi last month, the ghost of Janis Joplin took up residence in the tiny body of Tipriti Kharbangar. The deep, soulful voice belted out song after song to an enraptured crowd of lawyers, students, artists, and even a CEO or two at Haze in Vasant Vihar. Kharbangar and her band, Soulmate, spun the audience dizzy with hard guitar riffs, and a mix of classics and original music. By the end of the night, the entire audience was following Kharbangar, singing at the top of their lungs: “The blues are back!”
In Mumbai, Naresh Fernandes, editor-in-chief of Time OutIndia, watched in amazement as Mango Blue—an Afro-Latin band from New York—blew on horns and trumpets, fiddled on their guitars and turned the audience at the new music club, Blue Frog, into a swirling salsa machine. “I was astonished at how many people in Bombay know how to salsa, and know how to salsa well!” Fernandes says.
Bandwidth: Afro-Latin group Mango Blue at Mumbai’s Blue Frog. (Courtesy Blue Frog )
Another night in New Delhi, hundreds packed into the central park in Connaught Place on a chilly winter evening to shout, stamp their feet and sing along with the wild rock music of bands from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Maldives.
Live music has suddenly become the hottest ticket in town.
In the past year, live music venues have opened in cities across the country; a strong line-up of home-grown rock talent has begun touring the country (and the world); and new music festivals seem to spring up every month. As you read this, India’s first International Electronic Music Festival is being held at Goa’s Candolim Beach.
For years, live contemporary music always took a backseat to popular Bollywood tunes or traditional music. A government ban on live music in bars meant bands really could only play at college campuses or in five-star hotels, covering Western hits. A high entertainment tax kept out foreign acts. And no cohesive music scene united aspiring musicians.
But that is no longer the tune rock fans are singing. Café Morrison—a popular south Delhi live music venue—is but one of many bars catering to the musical set around the country. Mohit Panicker, an event manager, says: “When we started in 2005, it was only one or two shows a month. Now there are at least 50 shows a month across Delhi.”
The past participle
Since the 1950s and 1960s, India has had its underground fans of rock music. Amit Saigal, founder of Rock Street Journal (RSJ), India’s first music magazine, says: “For the most part, cover bands were around the scene. From 1965 to 1995, you had maybe five or six original rock albums. It was a second-hand culture.”