Indie pop and Hindi rock emerge as favourites at Kasauli’s music festival

Indie pop and Hindi rock music stood out amongst a lineup that included western genres of Jazz and Blues on the second day of the Kasauli Rhythm and Blues Festival.

Indie pop and Hindi rock music stood out amongst a lineup that included western genres of Jazz and Blues on the second day of the Kasauli Rhythm and Blues Festival in Kasauli. While Lesle Lewis made the audience dance to his remixes of retro Bollywood songs, Delhi-based indie- rock band, ‘The Local Train’ turned out to be the highlight with its Hindi rock music.

Lesle Lewis made the audience sway with his retro mixes.

The hills came alive once again at the fifth edition of the music festival as soon as the band set the ball rolling for the upcoming performances of the international act, Massive Vibe. The band paid a tribute to A R Rahman with its rendition of the latter’s famous song, Dil Se Re.

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“I’m really glad that the people enjoyed our performance. I was feeling nervous because there are a lot of Jazz and Blues bands and we are the only Hindi band in play but it turned out to be good as we got people singing and dancing with us,” lead vocalist of ‘The Local Train,’ Raman Negi said.

“We have grown up listening to songs like, Ole Ole and Baazigar, so we could not fool ourselves with anything else and that’s how it came to us. We play rock and roll, it’s just that the lyrics are in Hindi,” Negi said.

Its performance came after Mumbai-based blues act, ‘Kanchan Daniel and The Beards’ opened the fest with an electrifying performance on day two of the Kasauli Rhythm and Blues Festival. “I think it’s a good initiative because it’s connected with a cause, not many music festivals do that and generally to bring together so many artists from all over India to such a nice place is wonderful in itself, when there is such a great vibe and energy from people we feel great,” a band member Daniel said.