CHENNAI: On a sultry Wednesday evening, commuters were in for a surprise at the Koyambedu Metro station. The Unwind Center School of Music performed fusion music as part of The Metro Music Edit 2019 organised by Chennai Metro Rail Limited.
From Bruno Mars to AR Rahman, around eight indie bands entertained the crowd with their medleys and originals. The foot-tapping music drew a large crowd. “We’re in collaboration with CMRL and also want to use this opportunity to promote The Road to GIF — an indie festival for new and talented independent artistes at YMCA ground on January 4 and 5. The aim is to encourage indie artistes and keep the culture alive. The new trend is that there are many hip-hop artistes from north Chennai who combine meaningful lyrics and gaana music. We have genres like rock, acoustic and psychedelic rock — 26 artistes will be performing,” Venkatesh Prasad, media manager of Unwind Center School of Music.
Unwind Center’s first open space music concept for the year was a couple of weeks back at the Pedestrian Plaza in Pondy Bazaar. The other one was at the Chennai Central Metro that garnered a crowd of 600 members. “Music festivals are happening everywhere in the city. Here we perform for the people and also get to display our individualistic styles. Our people must encourage these artistes to take this forward,” he said.
Bands such as The Unofficials, Joint by the Sea, Sarah Black and Othasevuru performed. Among the highlights wa s a karaoke performance by Prabha Karan, a staff member at the Metro station. “The organisers were kind enough to spare five minutes for me to perform. I’m performing after six months and I’ve taken part in a few stage shows. I’ve learned Carnatic music but couldn’t pursue it further because of work. I feel thrilled to perform today,” said Prabha. Passersby paused and enjoyed the performances. “Seldom do we get to witness musical activities for the masses. All of us don’t have the money or time to go and watch a concert in a hall at leisure. When musicians like these come in search of the crowd and perform, we need to motivate them. I felt relaxed listening to these songs after a tiring day at work,” said Selva Ragavan, a 50-year-old government employee.
Unwind Center’s next show will be at Pondy Bazaar or at one of the Metro stations.
For details, visit Instagram page: Unwind Center