The second edition of Oddball Festival was a blast featuring a great array of artists for two days of tasty fresh music and unique international artists. Last year the festival featured Indian and international acts like Parvaaz, KOIAI ft. LI-SA-X, Blackstratblues, Bloodywood, and The Aristocrats across Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru.
This year the festival skipped the financial capital. Expectations were sky high with the big international acts this year being Norwegian prog rock band Leprous, Polish guitarist Jakub Zytecki, and Armenian jazz fusion pianist Tigran Hamasyan.
The festival faced several challenges in Delhi. Prog guitarist Jakub Zytecki misplaced his passport and ended up missing his Delhi flight. The Delhi farmer’s protests prevented any open-air venues and thus the venues were relocated indoors to the disappointment of some. While hitting several logistical hurdles, the Delhi edition featured supporting acts Sutej Singh, Zokova, and Salt Rock among others.
Luckily, for us, we got to catch this year’s Bengaluru edition which was a funfest.
The supporting acts in Bangalore included great acts like Bengaluru rock guitarist Arav, veteran indie act Black Letters, Zenguin, and Perfect Strangers.
Peekay and Steve Knight
Vocalist and composer Pranati Khanna with her band Peekay from Hyderabad really were a surprise with their incredibly fresh and solid alternative/indie rock set. Most of the songs kept you on your hooks with Pranati phenomenal vocals and stage presence and the solid tightness of the band. Definitely look forward to more from this act.
Steve Knight and members of 2000s alt hip-hop Flypside later joined the stage. Steve Knight’s music despite his rustic vocal delivery seemed out of place with other acts on the set and audiences responded accordingly with their seemingly being oblivious to their 2005 hit ‘Someday’ as it was being performed.
Inner Sanctum
Bangalore heavy metal act debuted with new vocalist Shashank Bhatnagar and boy did they hit it out of the park. Shashank performed the songs with his signature charisma but the same spirit. A tasty dose of extreme metal that got you geared up.
Avial
Kerala rock veterans Avial played their classics such as Chekele, Nada Nada, and others. Guitarist and music director Rex Vijayan and rest of the band was on form, while the vocals as usual were subpar. Except for when Job Kurian joined on Karukara, that was awesome!
Tigran Hamasyan
I need to be honest and state that Armenian virtuoso pianist Tigran Hamasyan’s was an underwhelming set of directionless technical wankery. While they did gladly play some favorites, but the set was mostly underwhelming as the improvised sections in each song felt excessively self-indulgent. They began with their usual opener Levitation 21, the phenomenal ‘Entertain Me’, which left much to be desired except for most diehard fans and lovers of purely technical music. Hopefully, I get to witness a more dynamic and musically engaging prog technical set from them in the future as Tigran’s music is definitely cutting edge.
Jatayu
Chennai jazz rock fusion band Jatayu enchanted with their solid tunes which beautifully blended Indian classical and jazz. A perfect balance of the cerebrally exciting and challenging sounds with engaging phrasing kept both technical and fans of non-technical music enchanted. A great fusion rock act!
Job Kurian
Malayalam indie folk and rock and playback singer Job Kurian had a phenomenal set playing his originals including hits like Roots and Padayatra. The arrangements and tightness of the performance kept you engaged especially with the solid compositions. The best overall Malayalam act on the roster!
Leprous
In terms of emotional variety of the performance, Leprous swept you away with the sheer amount of emotions you felt in their set. May it be pensive, cathartic, energetic release, madness, rage beauty. Definitely one of the best performances I have witnessed and many others in the audience agreed with that sentiment.
Having watched them in IIT Bombay back in 2018, this set was on a whole new level of tightness and musical storytelling. The flow of the songs on the setlist, the stage presence, the sound mix all were the best one could savour out of a prog rock/metal live performance.
Jakub Zytecki
Bengaluru fans were lucky to witness guitarist Jakub, a privilege Delhi fans missed at least for now due to some logistical tragedies. As one would expect, with such sonically and experimentally rich studio recordings, the live set did manage to deliver some really ethereal sonic soundscapes and playing which satisfied both cerebral and emotional palettes. Sadly for fans, the set was too short and lasted around 5 songs. Would definitely love to catch Jakub again.
Overall, Oddball 2024 was a great two day music festival for fans of some of unique cutting edge international and domestic acts. Hoping that the next edition keeps getting better!
