Freedom Jam back in Bengaluru to celebrate Independence Day with desi rock

Freedom Jam is back in Bengaluru with mid-week offerings to celebrate Independence Days

One of Bengaluru’s most beloved music mainstays, Freedom Jam, returns to the stage on August 14 at Bangalore International Centre in Domlur. Keeping with their ethos of a free gig (“no bread!” as the concert series is subtitled), Freedom Jam is built on the back of 26 years of live music, with the band being sformally active since 1997.

Often holding performances on Independence Day and Republic Day, this year the long-running series will host four bands across generations and genres for a mid-week jam like no other.

Part of the lineup are Sarjapur Blues Band with founders Dr. Shekhar Seshadri (also a renowned psychologist at NIMHANS) on vocals and guitars alongside guitarist Vinoo Mathews. They call themselves the “workingman’s, underground, back-street, original, eclectic, rhythm and blues kind of band.”

Expect songs like ‘Don’t Drop Your Ego,’ ‘Bounce It’ and ‘Lady Nicotine,’ all of which align with Freedom Jam’s theme for this edition of performing original music.

The Sarjapur Blues Bandwill be joined by seasoned rock band The Unknowns, whose set will pay tribute to their late guitarist Stephen Joseph aka Steve. According to the organisers, The Unknowns will perform songs off Steve’s Carnatic fusion album Welcome To The Journey at Freedom Jam this week.

“Steve had not only made The Unknowns the city’s finest classic rock band, but he also pioneered many innovations to make the electric guitar sound like veena, mridangam and violin. Now the next generation, Steve’s multitalented sons and nephews continue the tradition with Sunil Steven adept at all the fusion techniques,” the event description adds.

Alongside a celebration of Steve’s life at Freedom Jam is equal amounts of fun, courtesy Baja, which counts Freedom Jam founder Siddhartha Patnaik among its band members. In their own words, Baja “cannot play a cover to save their lives”. They instead offer up remixes of songs such as ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Surangani’ as well as their long-running numbers ‘Money Runnin Out,’ ‘AlooGobi Rhythm’ and more. Baja’s style includes “a blend of desi ‘tapankuthu’ rhythms with rock blues chord patterns.”