Girl Power at HRC with Soulmate and Shaa’ir + Func
Hard Rock Café celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday and I went by purely because of their selection of bands. They picked two great acts, Soulmate and Shaa’ir + Func, fronted by two superb female vocalists Tipriti Kharbanga and Monica Dogra. Both women have strong, powerful voices, so much style and ridiculous amounts of presence on stage. When they’re performing, it’s hard to look anywhere else. They’re both undeniably sexy, but what I really like is that neither of them really play sexy, it’s just natural.
I honestly didn’t catch the whole of Soulmate’s set, but the Shillong based Blues band is always great to watch. I did manage to get some video though. The gig was also a fundraiser for the Akshara Centre so in between both performances, we heard a little about that. Genelia D’Souza, who was hosting the night seemed a little unsure of herself and got a little ribbed by the audience. She quickly introduced Nandita (from the foundation) and Rahul Bose, who both talked about Askhara, which works towards promoting a gender just society. Through their Empowering Dreams Programme, Akshara also provides financial aid to young women trying to pursue higher education.
Shaa’ir + Func seem to get more confident with every performance. They played a mix of tracks from their last three albums, as they’ve been doing recently and included my favourites Hard To Forget, Embrace and My Roots. Rohit P-Man Pereira, rockstar that he is, shook it up a little by leaving the stage and jumping up onto the little ledge (where the HRC staff does their YMCA jig each night) for a track and he was soon joined my Monica as well. I think Shaa’ir + Func is one of the best bands we have in the country right now. If you haven’t checked them out yet, you should. They play Red Ant (a new place in Bandra) on the 18th of March.
This was the most Page 3 I’ve seen HRC since the JD Rock Awards in Jan due in most part to Kwan and Guess. While I do prefer a gig-going audience, it’s always good to see new faces and I’m sure both bands have got more than a few new fans from that night.