Kiran Jonnalagadda’s Blog

Clio Karabelias performing at the Fireflies Festival of Music, April 14, 2007

I shot over 500 pictures and need more time to process them. For now, please enjoy this picture of Clio Karabelias playing the harp (another). She appears to have been the most photographed performer of the evening, judging by the number of pictures I’ve seen. There’s a comment or two to be made there on the nature of publicity.

More in a few days.

The Fireflies Festival of Sacred Music is happening this weekend, from 6PM on Saturday, April 14th, to 6AM the next morning. These pictures are from last year (a report).

The festival is held at Fireflies Ashram, some 30 km south of Bangalore on Kanakapura road. Here’s contact information, a map, and the location in Google Maps. The schedule is up on Wikipedia. Tickets cost about Rs 200 and can be purchased at the venue.

Some of us have been considering using Fireflies as a location for barcampish events over an extended weekend. This will be a good chance to go check out the place.

Reggae band T-Bone performs at Saxophone Pub, Bangkok, December 2005.

In December 2005, I spent two weeks wandering around the streets of Bangkok. I was being decidedly unadventurous, restricting myself to visiting street markets, shopping malls, foreign embassies and some historical sights, all in the name of experiencing local culture.

Then Klaikong decided to give me a taste of local hospitality too, and suggested attending a concert. I expected the Bangkok equivalent of Bangalore’s Palace Grounds, a large open field with temporary stage and sound arrangements. Instead we landed at this place called Saxophone Pub at Victory Monument, where popular reggae band T-Bone was playing that evening.

Not only were they very good, I was also impressed by the ambience at the pub. The typical live music-in-restaurant arrangement I’ve seen anywhere in India keeps a clear separation between performers and patrons. At Saxophone, as you can see in this picture, this is not the case. We were seated on the upper floor from where we had a great view of the scene.

Sunday Jam is a free rock concert held on the first Sunday of each month in Bangalore. The events lead up to Freedom Jam, an annual all night event on August 14. Both Sunday Jam and Freedom Jam serve as a platform for upcoming bands to find their audience (and often their voice). As a result the quality isn’t very high, but there are occasional gems.

This month’s special feature was Carnatic-Jazz musician Guitar Prasanna who performed several tracks from his new album Electric Ganesha Land.

The events are organised by Guruskool Music. See the full set of pictures at Flickr →