Crossroads 2011 at SRCC

We hadn’t played in Delhi in a while and we most certainly haven’t done too many college shows in Delhi and so when the guys from SRCC got in touch for this show, I think I was a lot keener than them to make this show happen! After a lot of back and forth with dates and budgets and what not, we managed to work things out and there we were on a chilly Tuesday morning in Delhi for what promised to be a great evening.

One reason, as a band, we love doing college shows, is that if you take away everything else, it is a great experience; the kids have really worked hard to put the show together, they have taken time out of their college schedule, gone out and convinced brands to put money into their fest, called and negotiated with the bands, booked everything required, and nine times out of ten, they have called you because they really like your music and all they want is to ensure that your band played at their college when they were in college!

This time was no different! If not anything else, I was reminded enough number of times how big fans they were of the band and how much they really really REALLY wanted us to come and perform in the college.

Now SRCC is in Delhi University’s North Campus and for some reason, they had a curfew time of 7.30PM like all college fests in that area. And they had to finish one of their most popular competition events, the group dance finals just before we got on stage, and there were about 18 teams they had to get through in a little under 3 hours time! With a lot of time management, a great deal of luck and some “Jugaad“, they managed to give us the stage just before 6PM.

We got on stage and a quick line check sorted out our sound on stage and we were all set to rock and roll! and then, mid way through ‘Hey Bhagwan’ our first song, Raghu’s cut a string on the guitar. So a quick 2 minute break at the end of the first song saw Raghu change his string and from there on, it was a proper party! The students were all set to have a great time and we were in no mood to let them down, we ran through a pre-dominantly Hindi set, but were pleasantly surprised and at the same time happy that we got quite a few requests for our Kannada songs, especially, ‘Gudugudiya Sedi Nodo’.

In a set timed to perfection, we wound up and finished with ‘Har Saans Mein’ just as the cops got on stage to ensure that there would be no encore and as we left that night with a smile on our faces, it was a fantastic feeling to have gotten back to the basics of live music – a great audience + a band that has fun playing its music = an incredible time!

Everytime we are in Delhi, we request, cajole and sometimes order Shiv Ahuja to be there photographing us on stage and he is always around each time and never lets us down! All photos you see in this post are taken by Shiv and he will be joining us a lot more often to document our shows so we can show all of you what is happening when we are on tour.

Thanks to Shrey, Keshav and every one else who got us to SRCC and we wish we can do this more often!

For now check out the rest of the pictures from that evening and see the rest of Shiv’s work here.

The Raghu Dixit Project at SRCC – Images by Shiv Ahuja