Photos: Bombay Black at Blue Frog, Mumbai

Nineties’ experimental band Bombay Black took to the Blue Frog stage after almost a year. Photo by Suraj Nongmaithem.

Talk about a #ThrowbackThursday — Nineties’ experimental band Bombay Black took to the Blue Frog stage after almost a year, resurrecting their electro-rock meets jazz meets hip-hop attacks. The all-star crew was formed in 1999, when a bunch of the city’s most talented musicians came together to record Vol. 1 of their self-titled album [Bombay Black Vol. 2 followed in 2002]. But even a 50 minute-long set to a less-than-packed venue was enough to prove that almost two decades later, Bombay Black can still kick indie ass.

The six ace musicians hit the stage at a languorous 10.30pm and were greeted by a sparse but attentive crowd of old-timers and expats. There was Lindsay D’mello keeping a steady beat behind the kit, Abhijit Nalani on the keys, axeman Tyrone Fernandes, funk factory bassist Jaideep, rapper/guitarist Paresh Kamath alternating between slick verses and equally slick guitarwork, his brother Naresh Kamath shuttling between the bar and the mic to join in on most tracks. Starting out with an instrumental that was half alt-rock, half jazz and entirely funky [much like the rest of the set that followed], the band went on to perform a slew of originals–including premiering the boisterous hip-hop thumper “Boing Boing” and a cover of pop royalty Prince’s “Sign O The Times.” “Songs that we grew up with, you know,” surmised Naresh. Even though they closed out their set within an hour –making way for late-night DJ sets by Samrat B. aka Teddy Boy Kill and Randolph Correia aka Func–Bombay Black brought back their sonic experiments with the same energy that got them all the way to Inland Invasion Festival in California back in August 2001.

Photos by Suraj Nongmaithem.

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