Not just jazz by the way

A glance through NCPAs musical calendar over the past few months reveals it to be the usual mix of ballet performances Hindustani classical recitals and fullblown operas with a particular focus on jazz outfits both international and homegrown Yes it has dabbled with other regular indie genres in the past having for instance hosted singersongwriter Prateek Kuhad and electronic producers Anish Sood and Dualist Inquiry some years ago But such performances are not the mainstay of the venues music curationThe Experimental Theatre at NCPASo it came as a bit of a surprise when we learnt that Kitchensink a Delhibased experimental synthrock band is playing a gig on the launch tour for its debut album Harmless Things at this SoBo venue Is it a sign that these haloed doors will be opened up more for straightup indie acts Lets find out we thoughtMaking movesSo we made a call and the spokesperson for Farrahnaz Irani general manager of western music at NCPA told us This hosting Kitchensink was definitely a conscious decision See us being a venue that promotes international music jazz is something that we had to constantly keep pushing since it was an almostdying genre about a decade ago But its becoming a lot more selfsustaining now with new venues opening up Its doing its thing by itself having come into its own So that leads us to phase two We had tried to experiment with EDM a few years ago which led to an interesting amount of feedback But yes there is a conscious decision for us to now slowly move more towards bluesrock neofunk and indierockHe was quick to add however that it isnt that there is no past precedence for such music being played at the venue But the difference this time around is that NCPA plans to use more marketing tools to push such genres out in a way where the organisation isnt sticking steadfastly to its traditional approachOne of our biggest selling points is the amount of tradition we have going for us But it is imperative that we head towards different genres of international music Im not saying that we are going to have a metal concert here But we do need to look at younger audiences he concededSomething to sing aboutThe idea is thus to gauge the sort of response that the Kitchensink gig gets and then keep an open mind about the requests that pour in from other indie acts Iranis spokesperson revealed that talks are already afoot with two bands that have been around for a while and dont fall under the jazz bracket that NCPA is famous for there is also some big news slated for October he said but since its too early to reveal what that is watch this space for more So as things stand all of this should come as music to the ears of the citys indie music fraternity since frankly speaking they suffer from a paucity of venues where the focus is more on the music than the drink in your handHolding out hopeLocal indie mainstay Raxit Tewari says I guess every musician whorsquos gone there to watch recitals has dreamt of playing at NCPA An artsfirst venue where one goes only for the music is a rare commodity in our cityON August 30 7 pm onwardsAT The Experimental TheatreNational Centre for Performing Arts NCPA Marg Nariman PointCALL 66223724ENTRYRs 500