When politicos strum the guitar

Sitting Member of Parliament Milind Deora is part of the instrumental collaborative act Axe-Tortion that will be in town to prove that guitar is indeed the king of this show

The city has music imports from Mumbai every other weekend. Whether it's alternate rock, soulful blues or jazz or even metal mania, we have had our share of Mumbai musicians. However, it's not everyday that a Mumbai politician decides to ditch his political rallies and instead decides to strum the guitar for the city audience. MP Milind Deora will be leaving behind parliamentarian speeches and instead let his fingers do the talking through his guitar. He will be jamming as part of Mumbai-based Axe-Tortion led by musician Chandresh Kudwa, an act solely dedicated to some mean guitar playing. City guitarists belonging to different bands will also be joining them at this show.


Chandresh Kudwa

The very name of the act Axe-Tortion has roots in guitar. Axe is a slang for guitar and Tortion, an effect used in guitar especially for rock music. "Axe-Tortion is not really a band but more like a concept or a property where I am doing collaborations with various guitar players from different bands across the country. It is a purely guitar centric show."

u00a0For the Bangalore show, Kudwa has got together guitarists like Bryden Lewis from Slain, Ananth Menon from Galeej Gurus and Deora too. Manas Chowdhury will be on bass guitar and Virendra Kaith will be on drums.
Kudwa himself has played with a couple of Mumbai bands like Freedom and Dream Out Loud in the past. Explaining the concept of his show, 31-year-old Kudwa says, "All the artists on the show play their individual guitar acts first with backing vocals, bass and drums. After which we all start jamming, where we give our own twist to covers and do some hardcore impromptu sessions."

Deora, who spoke to us from Mumbai says, "My busy schedule doesn't allow me to play full time as part of a regular band. Performing with Axe-Tortion is the perfect way to perform once every couple of months and keep playing." Though Deora has been very happy with his last performance at Blue Frog in Mumbai, he is looking forward to performing in Bangalore because according to him, the crowd here responds to music with a different kind of energy.

A popular concept in the West, instrumental shows is quite a niche concept in India right now. According to Kudwa, music lovers in India are starved for complete guitar acts and have given a warm welcome to Axe-Tortion wherever they have performed. Unlike other shows, there is screaming, it's quite ear friendly, there is a lot of interaction with the crowd and the gig itself is full of surprises.

Apart from Deora, who takes time out from his busy political schedule to make time for this act and is a great blues guitarist according to Kudwa, another highlight of the show is the use of Ukulele. Kudwa picked up the electric version of the Ukulele, which is like a small bodied non-classical guitar on a holiday in Japan.
u00a0
Kudwa, who taught himself to play the Ukulele, now experiments at his acts by playing both his guitar and the Ukelele together. The act mostly likes doing their take on popular tracks from genres like pop an rock and generally songs that you might never think can be done on a guitar. From Jimi Hendrix to even Stevie Wonder, Axe-Tortion covers it all.

When we asked Kudwa what Bangaloreans could look out for at the Axe-Tortion show, he finishes off by saying, "Watch out for some insane guitar playing. "

At: Opus, Palace Cross Road
On: October 29, 9 pm onwards
Call: 98440 30198
For: Rs 220 entry