by Jayant Thatte
CLT (Cental Lecture Theatre) echoed as much with the cheering as with music, as Lit Soc WM (Western Music) Solo competition progressed through the evening of Friday, 24th February 2012.
Although scheduled to start at 5:30 pm, CLT was completely deserted till less than ten minutes before the scheduled time. The setup started only at half past five. At six pm, finally, considering that CLT was still almost empty, the coords urged the audience to call up their friends and fill the place up. WM started off with non-competitive performances by Vidya from Sharav (piano), followed by Ruchir ‘Fungus’ Jolly on guitar and Kaushik for vocals.
The first competitive performance started by 6:15 pm, with Anand from Alak singing The Reasons by Hoobastank, followed by Poker Face which was sung really well by Prakriti from Sharav. A while later, one of the coords announced from the front corner of CLT “All those participants who are yet left to perform, come to this area”, to mocking laughter from the audience (only 3 out of about 4 dozen participants had performed by then). By this time CLT was almost full and WM went on performance after performance – some sublime, many good and very few not so good.
Some of the performances really stood out. Chendrasekhar’s (Alak) performance was exceptional. CLT witnessed a pin-drop silence while the audience was enthralled by his Nocturne in D Flat by Chopin, enjoying every note. Glucon’s (Saras) performance was something everyone in CLT had been waiting for. The noise was deafening as cheering, hooting and whistling filled CLT after Glucon’s rendition of The Storm by Yanni. Another performance which stood out for its uniqueness was Rohit’s (fresher, Narmad) rap. Although his stiff posture and expression didn’t exactly match with the song, on the whole the performance was good, and certainly a novel one, and was applauded by an enthusiastic audience. Manaswi (Narmad) won first position for his impressive rendition of Black Jesus.
There were a few other glitches in the organisation of the event. Many participants complained that the amplifier was right behind the performer, causing problems while playing. Similarly, for some of the performances, volume of the main instrument being played was either too low or drowned by the background rhythm. Some other participants complained that the hall was just too cold, and that playing of instruments became difficult due to shivering hands. Apart from these issues, WM went on more or less smoothly.
Videos can be found on the Litsoc Youtube Channel (courtesy Institute Media Club).
The final results were as follows.
Vocals:
1. Manaswi (Narmad): Black Jesus by Everlast
2. Rajarshi (Jam): The Time of my Life by David Cook
3. Aarathi (Sharav): Yer Blues by Beatles
4. Akshay “IP” Acharya (Saras)
5. Asmita (Sharav)
6. Sanjay “Pojo” Guruprasad (Saras)
7. Deepak “Flashing” Sahoo (Alak)
8. Prakruti (Sharav)
Instrumentals:
1. Anirudh “Glucon” Gurjale (Saras): The Storm by Yanni
2. Chandrasekhar “Half KG” (Alak): Nocturne in D-Flat by Chopin
3. Vidya (Sharav): Fantaisie-Impromptu by Chopin
4. Danny (Brahms)
5. Ramit Dey (Tambi)
6. Swapnil Basak (Mandak)
7. Aparajit (Tambi)
8. Surej Simon (Tambi)
