Ray-Ban Never Hide Sounds: Winners Announced

Modern Mafia Photo: Tushar T Dhanawade

The list of five winning bands to perform at the second edition of Ray-Ban Never Hide Sounds this year has been chosen from 145 entries and includes a fantastic mix of sounds from  progressive rock to garage pop punk.  We announced the 15 shortlisted bands in August and the winners for this year include alt-rockers Modern Mafia from Mumbai, pop-punk band Street Stories from Shillong, alt rock band The News from Bengaluru, hard rock band 83 Miles Per Hour from Chennai and prog metallers The Uncertainty Principle from New Delhi. The 75th anniversary celebration of Ray-Ban at Bandra Amphitheatre in Mumbai on December 1st will see these bands take the stage with Indian rock vets Parikrama and Indus Creed headlining the event.  

Mumbai boys Modern Mafia’s performance won them a place at the Fully Fantastic Stage at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender in Pune [they will play the 4.10pm slot on November 3rd] and now they are set to play at Ray-Ban’s 75th anniversary celebration. “It’s a huge surprise, we didn’t expect to get shortlisted,” says vocalist and guitarist Varun Das. As for their plans to step up the game at the finale, Das says, “We have a new song that we wrote especially for this show and we’ll premiere it at the finale. We’re in the process of jamming and polishing it.” The song, titled “Chewbacca’s Revenge” is a Star Wars tribute, which Das says will sound very different from their existing tracks.

A different challenge awaits Bengaluru’s pop rock act The News. “Mumbai hasn’t seen us yet, so we just hope to rehearse a bit before we get there,” says guitarist Pradeep Gopal. “It will be out first time in Mumbai  and it feels lovely to be playing there. It’s probably our biggest gig,” he adds.  Besides a platform to perform, all bands get to take home equipment worth Rs 50,000.

The five winning bands to perform at Ray-Ban Never Hide Sounds 2012 are:

Street Stories

The News

The Uncertainty Principle

Modern Mafia

83 Miles Per Hour

The 75th anniversary celebration of Ray-Ban takes place on December 1st at Bandra Amphitheatre, Mumbai. Parikrama and Indus Creed will headline the show. Entry: Free.