Menwhopause

Emmanuelle de Decker

The night didn’t pack in a full house. Most of Mumbai was preoccupied with its devotional duties what with the onset of the Ganpati festival. With only a clutch of people in attendance the night assumed a very casual air. Though Mumbai warmed up to the unwitting charm of the 4 piece band from Delhi, the gig suffered a glaring disconnect with the audience – perhaps because Mumbai was not as familiar with the band’s music ”“the assumed mosh pit mostly lay barren. Though the bands unflappable attitude saw through all that worked against it as it delivered to the T. The vocals were guarded by a thick wall of guitars – and Menwhopause’s signature sound presided in paced chopped rhythm sections and sporadic bursts of grunge outrage often cutting into soft numbers such as ”˜Downtown.’ Lead vocalist Sarabjit Chaddha, let his hair loose breaking into feverish dirges as the guitar rage took over the dome making up for the absence of head bangers in the audience. Bassist Randeep Singh was quite the surprise, as he pitched in on vocals as he broke into a mesmerising Robert Plant-like vocal sob on ”˜Fly Over.’ The visuals on display were very average and make do, unlike bands like Lounge Piranha who concern themselves with the cusp of sight and sound. There were numbered moments where the odd melting solo and rage on guitars woke the audience up. It made for an offbeat interpretation of Cobain’s brand of grunge and Alice in Chain-ish slow ballads. Though what we mostly infer is Mumbai needs to get familiar with the out of town band.