Orange and blue: the colours of rock

Orange rock is one of the many genres that will be showcased at the third season of The Music Festival (TMF), starting 1 August.

“The event is bigger this time; spread across six days (and over two weeks), with 14 bands performing at three venues,” says Geoffrey Thomas, founder, Amaranta Entertainment, a music and sports talent management company that organizes the festival annually.

Bengaluru’s Mad Orange Fireworks, whose music can be characterized as “orange rock”—rock music with influences of jazz, blues, funk and pop—will perform on Day 1. The other performers of the day include Kerala’s Masala Coffee, who play “progressive folk” with a mix of Malayalam, Tamil, Sanskrit and Hindi lyrics.

The highlight of Day 1, however, is a performance by Indus Creed, referred to as “the big daddy of Indian rock”.

Their set will comprise a mix of old and new. The bulk of it will be favourites from their last album, Evolve. “We’ll also be doing a few new ones, including the single we released last December, called Thief, and a couple of new, unreleased songs,” says band vocalist and founding member Uday Benegal.

Day 2 (2 August) is a combination of acoustic solo (Chennai’s Nishant B.K.), folk infused with elements of rock (Bengaluru’s Lagori) and Carnatic progressive rock (Bengaluru’s Agam).

Blues rock band Kanchan Daniel & the Beards from Mumbai (performing on Day 3, 7 August) comprise the jazz blues component of the festival, along with Ministry of Blues from Bengaluru (Day 6, 14 August).

Having completed a tour of Australia in March and one of Europe in July, Kochi’s Thaikkudam Bridge are slated to be the crowd-pullers on Day 4 (8 August). Parody band Enna Da Rascalas—famed for their YouTube video, We Are South Of India—also find a place in the schedule, along with Mumbai’s alternative progressive-rock band Daira (on Day 5, 9 August).

The organizers began working on the festival about six months ago,
and contests on social media have helped generate a buzz. They are putting up a “Selfie Wall” and awarding prizes to audience members who post live updates on social networks during shows.

“We hope it will be much more receptive and participative this time around,” says Thomas.

The Music Festival will stage performances on 1/2/7/8/9/14 August. Venues and ticket prices vary. Click here for details.