Swarathma at Baajaa Gaajaa day 2

If I had to say what my biggest gain from Baajaa Gaajaa was, I wouldn't think twice to answer - The discovery of Swarathma!

Pictures of Swarathma from last year's Baajaa Gaajaa had caught my eye because of their funky clothes and the vocalist's afro haircut. I had heard that they are a pretty good band but never got to listen to them before. I also missed out on their Sutasi episodes(Sutasi is a competition that aims to bring out some of the best musical talent in Asia. The episodes were broadcast in India on Zee Cafe). So i really did not know what to expect when I heard they would be playing at Baajaa Gaajaa.

As the band walked on stage, one couldn't help but notice the interesting combination of clothes. The band members are Vasu Dixit(vocals), Pavan(percussion), Sanjeev(violin), Montry(drums), Jishnu(bass) and Varun(guitar).

Before the show we were greeted with news that Swarathma have won this year's Jack Daniels Awards for Best Album, Best Song and Best Band. Woa, that is something! It reminded me of Avial's win last year. The band started their set wearing Gandhi topis for "Topi Waale", a song about the Indian political situation. Next, came "Tibet" with some very good violin work. It starts slow with some bells and a flute. I could see them using some of those instruments I had mentioned about in my earlier post. I wonder if they got them from the store before the show. The song soon builds up into a very lively tune and Vasu starts jumping around the stage like crazy! I am glad that they played these two songs first because first impressions often are the firmest and I couldn't have had a better one. They are my two favourite songs by the band. When the next song, "Patte saare" was played, a small crowd formed, clapping and cheering right under the stage and interestingly some of them even seemed to know the songs and lyrics! I was surprised to see that this Bangalore band had such a following up here in Pune. Some of the other songs they played were "Yeshu, Allah aur Krishna" (which won the JD award), "Ghum" and a song that was composed by Vasu for a movie. They ended their set with "Ee bhoomi" a Kannada song about peace, love and all that :) . For this song they invited onstage one of the Rajasthani folk drummers who had performed earlier, for an impromptu jam session. They also got the audience to sing along with them in Kannada, most of whom couldn't make head or tail of the lyrics but seemed to be enjoying themselves very much nevertheless.

At the end of the day I had another addition to my list of favourite Indian bands. Swarathma brings with their music a freshness that is infectious and they have an amazing stage act. Looking forward to seeing more of them. My only resentment after the show was that ironically, the real fans didnt get a good aural experience because they were standing in front of the stage, where they missed the sound from the main speakers. What they heard was only the sound from the monitors.

Swarathma - Action Replay

Swarathma has a concept called "Action Replay" where they play a show free for every paid show that they play. Accordingly, they were slated to play a show at The Poona Blind School a day after their gig at Baajaa Gaajaa. One of my friends had missed out on the gig the previous day and so we decided to go see if they would let us in at the school. A lady in the Principal's office was kind enough to let us go to the auditorium "as long as we didn't create any trouble".
On the way there we met this smart kid who asked us "Bhaiyya aap orchestra ke saath aaye ho?" He took us to the auditorium and I noticed the stage setup paled as compared to the previous day. That is because renting a high end audio system would require quite some amount of moolah. There I also happened to meet this guy from a local thrash metal band who had lent their gear for the gig. He kept wondering if, being from a metal band, it would ever be possible for him to play for such an audience. I guess not.

The band came on stage, gloriously dressed up and someone from the audience shouted "Hamein Hindi gaane chahiye!". Bassist Jishnu reassured them and the band started playing . The kids were apparently having a great time, going into applause at random points in the songs when they liked it, especially when during "Tibet" Vasu jumped off the stage and got a group of children to hop around with him. It felt good to see this amazing band play to bring a day of joy and fun to these underprivileged children . Sadly I was not able to catch the whole show as I had to be at another place soon.


Here are some other pics from
1. Baajaa Gaajaa
2. Poona Blind School

Here are some Swarathma links
0. Their site
1. Listen to their songs
2. Buy their album.
3. A video of Topi Waale, not the entire song; and the cameraman seems to be having a lot of fun with zooming and turning the camera but you can still hear the song.
4. Some very badly recorded versions of Topi Waale and Tibet . Just so you can get a preview of the new songs.