Tonight, the crowds will sing along to the voice of Jascha Richter as he sings Someday, Someway, causing the ideal winter air to buzz electric. Only, it’s going to be in Kolkata and not Bengaluru. But the fact that pop favourites like Boney M featuring Liz Mitchell and Michael Learns to Rock have given our city the miss in their India tours has not phased Bengalureans who are always eager to travel for music. Not only do they not let distance come in the way of experiencing a great concert, city music fans have had quite the eventful year when it comes to travelling to swing to the music of their choice.
Contributing the highest number of people to the groups who travel out of the city to catch a concert are, of course, musicians themselves – no matter how famous. Vats Iyengar, who heads the city band Rainburn, says, “I went to IIT Chennai twice to catch Opeth (who then did come to Bengaluru for a subsequent show) and Pain of Salvation. Metal bands usually come to the city because they know that there are many young fans of metal here. So it’s usually the pop sensations who will be missing the city. Let me tell you that it is very grueling to go on a trip dedicated to a concert. Any one can have a bad show in this industry and the minute you organise a whole trip for just one band’s performance, the expectations climb up really fast!”
Very often a famous name is all that youngsters need to make a trip with friends out of a far flung concert venue. Rohann Mathews, a city footballer and student who took such a trip earlier this year, says, “When Ed Sheeran came to Mumbai, my friends and I knew that we had to be there. So we took just one backpack, caught the earliest flight to Mumbai, roamed about the city for the whole day and in the evening went to the best concert that we had ever been to in our lives. Then we came back to the airport and waited for our flight on the same night! It was Sheeran’s presence which made it all worth it. I will always remember the moment when while singing Thinking out Loud, Ed said the words, ‘Mumbai won’t remember my name’ and the crowd went absolutely crazy.”
With yesteryear outfits Boney M and MLTR, the nostalgia factor is and was strong in those who decided to schedule a trip around their concerts. City businesswomen Vibhinta (30) and Anuradha Verma (32) are sisters who had spent most of their growing up years either dancing to or singing along to the songs of these two bands. Anuradha says, “The Boney M concert featuring Liz Mitchell actually coincided with a business trip that my sister and I would be making to Mumbai, so we booked tickets on a whim and really had the best time of our lives. So when MLTR was coming to four other cities but not Bengaluru, we decided to book tickets to Goa for the concert on the 19th as it’s neither too far from the city, nor a concert we are ready to miss – being huge fans of all their love songs!”
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