City band to open Bryan Adams concert

Highway 61, a city-based band comprising techies, won Rockathon; contest was specially organised to find a local band to open Canadian rockstar's concert on Feb 11

City band to open Bryan Adams concert

Highway 61, a city-based band comprising techies, won Rockathon; contest was specially organised to find a local band to open Canadian rockstar's concert on Feb 11

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The stage was set, the music was high and the energy unlimited, as 12 bands from across the country competed at Rockathon, a two-day contest organised to find a local band to open the Bryan Adams concert on February 11.

City-based band Highway 61 has won the competition. The six-member band comprises five IT professionals and a music teacher. Their songs are primarily in Hindi or Urdu. Mostly into Sufi rock, heavy metal, alternative rock and progressive rock genres, the band calls itself a thinking band.

The members ufffd Mohammad Muneem (vocalist), Jatin Kale (lead guitarist), Rohit Vasudevan (lead guitarist), Hardik Waghele (keyboard), Ragul Majumdar (bass guitar) and Ananth Joshi (drums) ufffd find it difficult to believe that they have beaten 45 bands to win the finals. "The winning feeling is yet to sink in but it feels great. We are excited about two things. Firstly, performing at a Bryan Adams concert and secondly, performing in front of 25,000 people. This is going to be the biggest concert of our life," said Ananth Joshi.
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The band members say that all they wanted to do was to go on the stage and have some fun. They have already performed at a reality show for an entertainment channel. Most of the members of the band pursue a different profession ufffd software engineering ufffd for a living.

"Music remains our first love. We are trained musicians and have been into music for more than eight years now. Two and a half years ago, when we started the band, we practised at the basement after work, mostly at nights from 10 pm to 3 am. We keep jamming regularly," said Joshi.

The members want to give their best shot on the D-day. "We haven't decided on the music but we will start working on it soon," said Joshi.

The participating bands, which played on January 15, were Kaash (Delhi), Pip of the First Mother (Shillong), Eternity and Infidels of Sanity (Pune) and Tripwire (Mumbai).

The bands, which played yesterday, were Something Relevant (Mumbai), Tantra (Delhi), The Hourglass Inversion (Pune), The Page (Kolkata), Highway 61 and Soulstrings (Pune).

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