Third Edition of 2Stroke Tour to Kick Off Next Month with The Circus and Street Stories

Delhi experimental rock band The Circus. Photo: Rahul Lal

The third version of the multi-city 2Stroke Tour will feature two bands who will release their new material on the road. Delhi experimental rockers The Circus and Shillong pop punk act Street Stories will play in eight cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Shillong, Guwahati and Gurgaon, between March 2nd and March 13th.

Now that they’ve got to the third time of putting together a multi-city nation-wide tour for alternative bands, 2Stroke Tour founders Uddipan Sarmah and Ramakrishnan Krishnan say they weren’t really looking for sure-fire crowd-pullers this time around. After programming the likes of Chennai rockers Skrat and Kolkata disco pop/rock band The Ganesh Talkies, Sarmah says he always wanted to pick one band from the North East.

Street Stories frontman Pezo Kronu adds, “I met Uddipan back when 2Stroke came to Shillong last year and he asked us if we’d like to be a part of the next one. This is going to be amazing; we haven’t done anything like this before and it’s still sinking in.” Street Stories, who released their debut EP The Apple and the Clown in 2012, will launch their second EP Deaf Punk on on the tour. Kronu adds about the five-track release, which includes synth work by Haflong-based producer/singer Daniel Langthasa from electro group Digital Suicide, “It’s one of our most un-punk EPs. It’s just more pop stuff, and the lyrics are more about our lives.” The band will release their lead single “Bedroom Horror” with a lyric video later this month.

Shillong pop punk band Street Stories. Photo: Naman Saraiya

For the members of The Circus, though, they’ve got used to touring with their own respective solo projects, whether it’s guitarist-vocalist Arsh Sharma’s work with electro duo FuzzCulture or frontman Abhishek Bhatia’s electronic producer avatar Curtain Blue. Says Sharma, “We’ve done it [touring] on our own, but never as a band.” Their third album With Love, the follow-up to 2013’s Bats, is much more diverse, not necessarily preferring the frantic pace of songs such as “Japanese Rebellion” or “In This Laboratory There Are No Rules.” Sharma adds about the seven-track album, “It’s a lot slower and groovier. If you hear it, you’ll probably almost think, ”˜Oh these guys have got old now’.” Sharma says songs like “Goodbye, We Won’t Meet Again” are moodier and “Lions & Wolves” has a prog rock edge with downtempo elements.

They’ll perform the entire album on tour, with “Discourse” being the only song they’ve ever played live. Sharma adds, “We spent two or three years on these songs, so you can either call us stupid or really good.”

Unlike previous years, there’s also a certain relaxation of rules set by Sarmah for 2Stroke. They didn’t necessarily push beyond their means to make stops in Chennai and Kolkata, but they are accommodating two bands on two days to close the tour at Guwahati’s Café Hendrix, which allows only one band performing each night. Sarmah adds, “We’re flexible, the bands are flexible so that’s what is good about this tour.”

Poster: Denver Fernandes

2Stroke Tour ft The Circus and Street Stories

March 2nd ”“ Antisocial, New Delhi

March 3rd ”“ Hard Rock Café Andheri, Mumbai

March 4th ”“ The Humming Tree, Bengaluru

March 5th ”“ Houz of Blues, Hyderabad

March 6th ”“ High Spirits, Pune

March 10th ”“ Hard Rock Café, Gurgaon

March 11th ”“ Cloud 9, Shillong

March 12th ”“ Café Hendrix, Guwahati [The Circus]

March 13th ”“ Café Hendrix, Guwahati [Street Stories]

Event details here.