"Ashchhe bochhor abar hobe”; I literally uttered these words in my mind after Bandish got over.
The compassion shown by the musicians and the fans, along with the electric atmosphere proved that Bandish is the Durga Puja of Bengali Bands in true sense!
What is Bandish?
Bandish is a Bengali Music Festival organized by the top musicians in Kolkata in an honest effort to bring the community of independent musicians and fans together.
The first Bandish festival (Season 1) was started in 2018, by prominent city musicians Pranjal of Bad Trip, Apurba of Song Route & Nabarun of The Prophesor.
With the overwhelming response, Bandish grew stronger and continued with Season 2, this year.
The Bandish Season 2 was held at the legendary venue, Uttam Mancha, on August 3rd, 2019.
This years' Bandish saw 6 Bengali Bands, along with 2 special performances, doing their old and new originals.
I will be covering what each band had in store at this festival in this story, as we speak.
But before that, let me paint a picture of the excitement with which the fans gathered and queued up for the festival.
The Audience
It was a sunny day. Hot and sweaty. But the weather did not deter the fans to show up on time and queue up to grab the best possible seats.
By 2:30 pm, the outside area of Uttam Mancha was filled with fans lined up in excitement to get in. There were smiles and laughter on their faces as they talked about the bands that are going to perform.
There was this anticipation on their minds about - What songs the bands have on their setlist? Are they going to do any of their hit numbers? Or, are they going to perform some new ones that have not been released yet.
I could literally see that glitter of excitement in their eyes.
The Venue and the Arrangements
Uttam Mancha is a performing arts venue that hosts some of the best concerts, and plays, along with other cultural events.
The auditorium has two levels. One ground, and one balcony. With the stage in the center, and green rooms downstairs.
The sound systems are pretty solid and gave an exceptionally good experience for live music.
Team Bandish did an amazing job in setting up the entire venue to cater to, both, the musicians' and fans’ needs.
The stage was well equipped with mics, lights, screens, and monstrous speakers, and had enough space for the musicians to express their creativity.
In fact, the space on the stage was not a constraint at all. The show started with a 17-piece percussion band. So, you can imagine how much room the bands had. They could easily jump around, scream, raise the energy and connect with the fans.
And that’s what exactly happened!
Getting Started
By 3 PM most of the fans got inside the venue and took their seats.
The lower level was almost filled up, so, many fans preferred to take the seats on the balcony for a better view.
Kaustav (from The Grooverz) and Rudrani were the amazing anchors of this festival, and they kickstarted the event with an introduction on Bandish.
Bunty’s Percussion Methodize (BPM)
Soon after the intro the festival started with the special performance by this supergroup of percussionists.
There couldn’t have been a better way to kickstart the festival, as their performance was energetic to the core, and the perfect catalyst to warm up the audience for the rest of the festival.
Right from the start of this show, we could see the audience grooving to their beats.
They had huge set of instruments on stage, that included, tabla, khol, drums, and more. And they jammed as if their instruments were talking to the crowd.Â
BPM was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining performances of the festival.Â
Checkout them out on their Official Website.
Soon after BPM, the rockstar anchors Kaustav and Rudrani took over the stage and introduced the next band. The Prophesor.
The Prophesor
The Prophesor didn’t let the crowd slow down.
Their performance was like a nitro boost to a racing car, which made the crowd scream and dance with excitement.Â
The Prophesor took the energy of this festival to the next level, with their rap-metal singing and growling, groovy yet hard riffs and bass, and killer drumming.Â
It was a treat to see such an aggressive performance on stage.Â
They ended the show on a very positive note, and made the audience feel the worth of this festival right at the beginning!Â
Soon after The Prophessor, which was just for about an hour (and yes, I wanted more of them), the anchors set the stage to welcome and felicitate Anupam Roy.Â
Anupam Roy’s Felicitation
Kaustav and Rudrani invited Anupam Roy on stage to felicitate him for his ongoing contribution to Bengali music, and for uplifting the Bengali music industry altogether.
Pranjal, and Apurba did the honors.
Anupam Roy gave a very humble speech and thanked the audience for supporting Bandish, for supporting independent artists and Bangla bands.
Next, as was expected, no one would let him leave the stage without a song 🙂
Anupam da quite happily obliged to the audiences' request!
After the hardcore act by The Prophesor, it was time to take a dive into the melodious side of the festival.
Thus, the next band on stage was a renowned alt-rock band, Crazy Petals.
Crazy Petals
This 6-piece band oozes with melody, along with some punk style follow-throughs in their songs.Â
They started the show with a melodic number and memorized the audience.Â
Soon after that, they increased the tempo and went into a little harder version of rock n roll and punk.
The entire group displayed a very tight performance as a band.Â
The vocals was spot on. The Keys of this band was something to watch out for, as it added to the melody of the songs.Â
The guitars, with bass, leads and rhythms, were pretty tight too giving the right touch whenever needed in their performance. And last but not the least, the drumming was the backbone of all their songs.Â
All in all, it was a sheer pleasure to watch Crazy Petals setting the stage on fire!Â
Watch Crazy Petals on their YouTube Channel
As the day progressed, the audience wanted more and more from the festival.Â
The next performance was a special, solo performance by Indrajit Dey and then he belted out a few numbers in collaboration with Timir Biswas.
Next up was - Song Route
Are you a fan of 80’s glam rock?Â
Having seeing Mötley Crüe, White Snake, Alice Cooper, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi - live in concert, I can easily say, I am!
Song Route
The reason I mentioned Glam Rock is that the next band on stage, Song Route, took me back to the 80’s hair metal/glam era with their music.
Their guitar riffs, drums, and the follow-throughs were enough to wake up the glam rock beast inside me.
They started their set with a super energetic song, Swadhinota.
As they progressed through their set they connected well with the audience and got them to groove to their tunes.Â
They also introduced a song called Jalshaghar, which was different from their original sound. Jalshaghar is a song that has a latin influence. Although, I started raving about this band because of their glam rock style, this was one of my favorite songs from their setlist.
With their impeccable guitar solos, high pitched vocals, tight bass, drums and keys, Song Route proved to be one of the gems of Band-ish. Â
For more Song Route songs, explore their Official YouTube Channel
It was now time for the audience to feel the music of the darker, more intense side of life with, Bad Trip.
Bad Trip
They are known for their dark and heavy lyrics which challenges your decisions and directions in life. Hence, they identify themselves as the Lyrical Rock Band.
They also advocate that music is a relief to your pains that you encounter in the journey of life.Â
In terms of music, Bad Trip has a bluesy sound with an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, a bass guitar and drums set up.Â
They also spread into hard rock and grunge style progressions with solid riffs in some of their songs.Â
Bad Trip stormed the stage with "Mithye".
For the very first time they performed "Megh Khuji". This is a romantic number. And the crowd responded to this song by putting on the torches from their mobile phones, rendering a firefly effect.
Bad Trip continued to play a mix hit and new songs, and kept that chemistry with the audience intact.Â
It was a solid one hour of top class musical performance after which they concluded their set with, Aami Jaani Tumi Ki, and thanked the audience for supporting independent Bengali music.Â
After the lyrical rock band, Bad Trip, the show delved into another lyrical performance by the band, Somak er Gaan.Â
They performed the song - “Paanch Minute". It was written keeping in mind all those people who are stuck in their 9-5 mundane jobs.
The song was meant for those who want to do something different in life other than their job. They want to chase their dreams, but somehow can’t because they are dependent on their job.Â
For such people, the “5-minutes” term is a sense of relief when they bring that term up for every task they have to deal with.Â
Next up on stage was Tamal n Trip, which is a musical project of pianist, singer, songwriter, Tamal Kanti Halder.
Tamal n Trip
Tamal n Trip is a progressive rock band, that experiments with various instruments and music patterns.Â
The band has a very popular YouTube Channel with more than 7000 listeners and they have quite some major hits in their bag.
They started their set with an unreleased song, “Paarbe na Chhute”.
Tamal n Trip performed this song exclusively for the Bandish audience; and this was a treat for them, as they heard this song for the very first time.
Then they continued with “Chharte Raji”, “Ghumie Poro Raat”, followed by another unreleased song, “Juddher Gaan”.
“Judhher Gaan” had some heavy content, as the song is based on the ongoing war in Syria. The set up for this song was epic, with war footages shown in the back on huge LED screens.Â
This song along with the entire set up, virtually took the audience into a zone where they could feel the suffering of the people facing the situation in Syria. It touched many hearts in that auditorium that night.Â
After that they went on to play their most popular song, “Joker”.Â
Tamal ended the set with a melodic version of “Khuchro”, just on the keys; and the blue ambient lighting on stage, made the entire experience truly magical. Â
Check out their Official Website
Finally, it was time for Goshai Gang, for which the audience waited for a long time!
Goshai Gang
Led by the one and only Goshai Da, Mr. Saurav Chattopadhyay, Goshai Gang stormed the stage with their hit song "Aaj Raat"
Goshai Gang is known for their original rock n roll sound. And they proved that they are pioneers at that, at the festival.
The setlist included hit songs, such as, "Shudhu Tomay Bhalobashi", that has a very popular music video, "Bhalobasha", and "Kobe Shobdera Pran Paabe", which got a standing ovation from the crowd.
They also did a brand new song, "Jontro Na Manush".
Saurav da went back to the Rikter Skale days, and did a couple of metal songs, "Bhoy" and "Astitwa", and these were just treat for the ears. The audience was hearing these songs after ages.
Finally they ended the set with "Maya".
Want some Goshai Gang music? Check out their Official YouTube Channel
Thank You đź’•
August 3rd, 2019 will be one of the most important days in the life of independent Bengali musicians, and their fans.
A festival of such magnitude, with more than 50 artists and 500 audience rarely happens in the city. That said, such festivals should happen more often.
And I cannot thank the Bandish team enough for starting this trend!
Their hard work and passion was evident right from the start, when they started promoting Bandish Season 2 on social media.
Right from organizing the venue, managing the artists and fans, and finally providing us with mind blowing musical performances, the festival exceed the expectations by leaps and bounds.
I just have one more thing to say - Aashchhe Bochhor Aabar HOTEI Hobe!
