Rolling Stone Stage: Rock Music Unplugged at R-City Mall
Here’s what went down at the third edition of the gig series
Fat Yellow Moon at Rolling Stone Stage. Photo: Sairaj R Kamath
After two successful editions of RS Stage, the shoppers at R-City Mall, Ghatkopar, have been looking forward to new music every weekend. As a result, there was already a small crowd milling around the stage in the outer lawn of the mall, waiting to see what the gig series would bring next. The lineup this time around featured solo musician Abhishek Chandran aka Fat Yellow Moon, guitarist Arnold Panting, and Mumbai rock bands Table For Three and The Rock Roads Project playing unplugged sets.
Fat Yellow Moon was cheered on by his own little fan following of friends as he took to stage on the night of May 9th. While the guitarist played some cover songs like Stone Temple Pilots’ “Interstate Love Song” and Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World,” he was determined to show off his original material as well. Chandran even switched between his acoustic guitar and a ukulele for original tracks such as like “Carcinogen”, “Magnetic Pull” and “Crazy Eye”, adding some variety to his set.
Arnold Panting had a different game plan as he took to stage with his two-piece group. Panting went all out mainstream and his set at RS Stage included several Bollywood tunes like “Gulabi Aankhen.” He also covered pop hits ranging from Bryan Adam’s “Summer of ”˜69” and Enrique Iglesias’ “Hero.”
The second night of RS Stage on May 10th was the night that rock ruled the stage, with Table For Three performing first. Singer Amilo D’Cruz warmed up his audience with some easy banter and covered songs like Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of your Life)” and Coldplay’s “Yellow” and “The Scientist.” Barring two original songs ”“ “Kindergarten Judgment” and “Rock Band” ”“ theirs was a cover-dominated set, but Table For Three managed to get the crowd singing along to classic rock favorites like “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Sweet Child o’ Mine.”
The next performance by singer Amey Gawand and The Rock Roads Project was by far the most energetic. Gawand performed a mix of original tunes and covers like Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.” All of this was topped off by Gawand headbanging and dishing out some dating advice to all the guys in the crowd as part of their song “All About Tonight,” which was about how to woo a girl on the first date. [Tip #1: Never take a date to a bar you frequent, lest your friends show up and embarrass you on your date night.]
What was special about this edition of RS Stage was that it was the first unplugged gig for all the artists on the bill except Fat Yellow Moon. Said D’Cruz after Table For Three’s set, “We spent last night reworking all the songs on our setlist for an acoustic setting. It was something we had never done before, but I’m glad we’ve done it now.” Gawand of The Rock Roads Project said, “We didn’t want to reduce the number of musicians onstage like groups normally do for an acoustic setting. The crowd and the open-air setting were amazing.”
Photos: Sairaj R Kamath.
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