While most of the folks at the Humming Tree had come for Parvaaz and Prateek Kuhad, there was a very interesting opening set by a band known as Opposite Sex. This was the first time I’ve heard of them and I’m quite impressed. The band is a simple three-piece ensemble with Ragini Ramanathan handling vocals and bass and Siddharth Gautam along with Pradip handling vocals and guitars. The band sticks to writing simple songs of the world around us that looks at things like people in a relationship but working in different shifts, people who ‘faff’ their way through work and other more relatable topics. I did enjoy how the band did not complicate the sound with too many electronics (a trend that seems to be picking up faster than it should). Ragini’s cheerful demeanour and interaction with the crowd made everyone like the band almost instantaneously. While their sound was a little off on the vocal harmonies and the guitars got a little loud at times, it was still a very nice gig. I’m hoping the band matures with time and continues to stick to the simple guitar-singer-song writer formula.
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| Opposite Sex |
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| Ragini from Opposite Sex |
Next up was Prateek Kuhad with his band. I’ve been in love with his recent album ‘In Token & Charms’ and have been eagerly looking forward to see him play live. Prateek’s performance is exactly like the album - very chilled-out and enjoyable. Prateek is clearly in love with his music which comes across as extremely personal (even on the album) and is on stage just sharing the same. This simple three-piece band kept everyone grooving right from the first song. No time is wasted between songs, not even to talk to the audience or to address the one annoying person who kept screaming that he wanted to listen to Artist from the album. Prateek played some of the songs from the new album and mixed it up with a few Hindi numbers. The overall performance and sound was fabulous and I’m looking forward to more music and live gigs from Prateek Kuhad.
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| Prateek Kuhad with his band |
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| Prateek Kuhad |
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| Prateek Kuhad |
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