Blackstratblues To Preview New Material At IIM-Bangalore

Warren Mendonsa. Photo: Karan Patil

Campus gigs have always been one of the biggest litmus tests for musicians. Mumbai blues band Blackstratblues frontman Warren Mendonsa tells us that college gigs are also the biggest adrenaline highs. Says the guitarist, “There’s always an audience at colleges who’s really into it with that genuine excitement. Sometimes, club gigs end up being the same people who’ve seen you a few times before. But in college gigs, you have a lot of kids who haven’t seen you before. And also there are some kids who are hardcore and they know all the songs.”

While it has been four years since Blackstratblues released The New Album, the second album,  the group has been performing new tracks such as “Renaissance Mission,” “Anandamide” and “Folkish 3” that might make it into the next album. Mendonsa, who jokingly referred to his third release as “The Old New Album”, says Blackstratblues will play another new track at the Unmaad festival. “We’ll be playing a song from the new album called “Newness”. It’s one of the songs that Karsh [Kale] has heard, and then he sent me this drum n bass kind of version. And yeah that’s actually something cool to try out live,” he says. Kale has stepped in on the drums for a couple of songs on a few gigs including the BITS Goa festival Waves, last year; but this is the first time that he will perform an entire set with the band.

Other acts performing at the festival include the six competing bands of the B-School of Rock competition and Bengaluru-based thrash/groove metal act The Down Troddence, who will be playing their first gig following the release of their debut album How Are You? We Are Fine, Thank You earlier this month. Bands such as Bengaluru death/thrash metallers Inner Sanctum, Bengaluru psychedelic rock band Parvaaz, Bengaluru prog metal band Eccentric Pendulum and The Down Troddence have competed in the B-School Of Rock contest previously. The competing bands this year include Bengaluru-based metalcore act Cheisrah [who released their debut album Deafbreed earlier this month], Chennai jazz fusion act Chrome.O.Soul, Darjeeling-based progressive heavy metal act Head Motif, Bengaluru alt rock act 30ton Capacity, Bengaluru-based rock act White Mug and Indore heavy/thrash metal act Zero Gravity [who competed at Hornbill International Rock Contest in Nagaland last year].

Catch Blackstratblues featuring Karsh Kale, The Down Troddence and B-School of Rock competitors on the 31^st of January at the Open Air Theatre, IIM-Bengaluru. Entry is free. Register to enter here.