This Week’s Top Gig Picks

Indiecision’s picks of the best gigs to attend this week in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. Meaty and beaty.
Mumbai
It’s rare that one has five gigs to choose from on a single night in any city in India. Thursday night sees Mumbai play host to five different performances by five different artists at five different venues from Churchgate to Andheri. But more when we get there.

Kick off your gig week with metal act Reverrse Polarity at Firangi Paani on Tuesday, June 23. The Mumbai quartet are on a mini-tour of the country courtesy their Channel V Launchpad III win. Last time we checked, Firangi Paani has a dress code, so make sure you wear shoes and pants.

Head to the Blue Frog on Wednesday night to catch lyrical pop duo Sridhar/Thayil. If cerebral soundscapes aren’t your thing, head to il terrazzo at Juhu to catch electro-rock act Medusa, back from their mini-tour of the UK courtesy the British Council SoundPad project.

On the night of five, we highly recommend you check out PINKNOISE at Firangi Paani. The uber talented Singhs of the east play the first of their two gigs in Mumbai. It’s a free gig, part of Rolling Stone Live, that will feature new PINKNOISE material and some classic covers rendered in the band’s own inimitable style. We interviewed the terribly affable Jayashree Singh last year.

New Delhi

The capital finally gets some worthy gig-age. Head to Mocha Bar on Wednesday, June 24 for an acoustic performance by Sajid Akbar, frontman of Sajid and the Lost Boys. Akbar was one of our picks for Most Promising Indie ’08 on the back of a strong debut album Kid Without Candy.

On Thursday, alt rock act Half Step Down take stage at the newly opened Hard Rock Cafe. The band is gearing up to release their debut album Overtures to Outerspace, samples of which are currently online.

Close your gig week in the capital on Saturday (June 27) evening at the DLF Place Mall with East India Company and Indian Ocean – the biggest lineup of any indie gig in the country this week. We caught EIC earlier this year at the India Habitat Center.

Bangalore

All’s relatively quiet down south this week. On Thursday (June 25) night, electronica act Bay Beat Collective play Bacchus as part of their national BassMental tour. The DJ trio recently hit Zenzi Mills in Mumbai.

Jazz vocalist Radha Thomas joins guitarist Amit Heri on Sunday, June 28 at Kyra. Heri recently joined four other top guitarists from around the country for the Guitar Gurus gig in Bangalore last month that we supported.

These are our gig picks for the week folks. Have one.