Intimate dwell music with a formidable indie line up, now at The Nook in Chennai

Anybody who enjoys listening to dwell English music in Chennai has had the identical outdated nagging grievance for years. A 2012 article in The Rolling Stones of retired electro-rock band Adam & The Fish Eyed Poets says, “The factor is there is just one venue in Chennai [Star Rock]. It’s very laborious for standalone pubs to operate right here, so the music scene is kind of lifeless.”

Musicians have tried tirelessly to foster a ‘new band performing on the native pub’ tradition however have solely had a handful of venues like Palomar’s Noticed Deer and Savera’s Bay 146, which have opened their doorways to performers. Let’s not even start talking of the acoustics.

An attention-grabbing phenomenon has nonetheless emerged to fill the hole not too long ago. Aficionados operating cafes and proudly owning personal alcoves have begun metamorphosing their areas to turn into patrons of the humanities. The Alwarpet cafe Vinyl and Brew and the travelling Sofar gigs have turn into alternate areas to get pleasure from listening to new bands and a wide range of attention-grabbing music. Extra importantly, each these areas appear to be demanding undivided consideration and participation from an invested viewers. This has led to reveals being wildly entertaining. One may also see musicians performing of their aspect, practically speaking with their devices.

The viewers tunes in
| Picture Credit score:
SHANTANU KRISHNAN

The most recent to affix this listing of intimate music areas delivering certifiably nice performances is The Nook. Positioned above Kawai Piano on Anna Salai, this new venue, common out of an outdated workplace area, was began by 4 musicians in June. Azan Sherif, Vishnu Reddy, Kashyap Jaishankar and Sahib Singh, met as college students of Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Pondicherry in 2013. After having performed with completely different bands for a few years and discovering their very own niches, the group of 4 determined that it was time to create an area of their very own to take heed to different thrilling artistes.

The primary official gig of The Nook on July 16 offered out days after they posted the announcement. Their Neo-Soul Night time with their in-house band ‘Room Service’ encompassing the 4 musicians, and different performers together with Ananya Gope, Rahul Vanamali, Pranav RV, Wesley Crispus and Gooth, delivered clean and weird covers of at the moment’s most attention-grabbing artistes. The set listing included a jazz model of the pumpy Return of the Mack by British R&B singer Mark Morrison. In addition to this, there have been covers of phenomena like Erykah Badu and Infantile Gambino. It’s protected to say that the 50-member viewers didn’t cease grooving. Assume NPR’s Tiny Desk Live performance however barely larger.

Drummer Vishnu Reddy
| Picture Credit score:
SHANTANU KRISHNAN

“Chennai lacks an area made by musicians for musicians. We have now performed the same old circuit together with the bars. The opposite spectrum is Museum Theatre. Unbiased musicians could not have the flexibility to hire and refill a 1,000-seater corridor. That’s when areas like The Nook are available in. We have now no PA techniques or mixers. You actually get to see what a musician is doing,” says Sahib, co-founder of The Nook and band chief of Jatayu.

Sahib says that one thing magical arises when a musician is really comfy in a efficiency area. Right here, one can contact, really feel and visualise the sound. It’s why they’re planning to open the area up for a number of attention-grabbing performances each month. Their subsequent live performance, scheduled to be on August 17, will likely be by the Tamil Jazz Collective. Led by vocalist and composer Harini Iyer, the efficiency will likely be a retelling of Tamil music set to jazz notes.

Wesley and Sahib, enjoying on the first gig.
| Picture Credit score:
SHANTANU KRISHNAN

“All of us from the band take heed to completely different sorts of music — jazz, rhythm and blues, neo-soul, hiphop. We need to talk about any experimental music and seeing how the area can match the vibe. We additionally wish to open the area up for occasions and to file our personal music-related content material,” Sahib says.

To observe particulars of performances at The Nook, observe @the_nook_chennai.