It's the city of joy and what better to rub off your midweek musings than a beautiful evening spread across the 6th floor of a Southern Avenue building, with a rooftop view and a live Bollywood musical band. Alcohol, breeze, a cloudy but full moon, friends and loved ones for company surely makes it all the more enchanting.
29th August 2018 saw such an evening for What's Up Cafe at Southern avenue where the stage was set by city based band, Som & Mates.
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| Som & Mates © Antaheen Partha |
Som & Mates is currently a 4 member band with members who excel in what they're doing for the past n number of years. Imagine a mix and match of guitar, flute, keyboard, percussions and soft romantic songs for company.
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| Soumya Ghosh © Antaheen Partha |
The frontman of the band, on vocals Soumya Ghosh (erstwhile band Inferno fame and the Som to his mates) was on fire. He let his hair loose (and quite literally at that) to make the audience croon melodies such as Guncha Koi, Chhu Kar mere man ko, Bhindeshi Tara etc…
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| Saptarshi Roy © Antaheen Partha |
On Keyboard was Saptarshi Roy (Sappy, for people who know him) whose expertise over the keys that he has honed with his knowledge won many hearts. Him, making a comeback after all these years of rigorous practicing and in such a great form made every music lover happy.
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| Ayan Mukherjee © Antaheen Partha |
The guitar and flute was helmed by Ayan Mukherjee. The introvert but the most interesting of the lot, he made sure that with every note of the flute every single person in the audience lets out an audible sigh of nostalgia and a connection with the roots we are losing with time.
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| Kingshuk Chakraborty © Antaheen Partha |
Kingshuk Chakraborty (aka Pickloo of Parashpathar and Sahar fame) took charge of the percussions. Dare I say he nailed it? In a note of a thoughtful gesture remembering Paraspathar for what it was, the band performed the infamous, Icchedana and I saw everyone with their eyes closed, singing out loud and him being in his zone. Getting the loudest woots for his percussions.
Having said all that, the biggest achievement of the band for the day was when, after a non-stop hour and a half when the band wanted a small break, no one in the audience wanted them to have one. Requests after requests followed and the break never came till the time the band promised to be back in 5 short minutes. The night ended with a beautiful medley at 11pm but the crowd didn't want to disperse. Such, is the beauty of Kolkata and Som & Mates.
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| Som & Mates LIVE © Antaheen Partha |
The backbones of this band, credited duly, has to be Tanushree Goswami and Abhirup Sen who work day and night for the love of music and with the thought of celebrating life through it. Without whom and I quote the band members here, “Som & Mates would've been nothing!”
Antaheen Partha, their official photographer, deserves a hearty and singular highlight for being the one reason that we all can cherish the evening and much more to come from them through his pictures. All the pictures mentioned here are shot by this man who, I have seen, have legit hung through staircases in uncomfortable positions to get that one special shot that we all take to heart.
Here’s wishing Som & Mates all the love in the universe. Thanking them, for a wonderful and well curated set and evening that we all witnessed.
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