The lights were dimmed, alternative music was playing in the background, and people were scattered across the vast space on armchairs and sofas-feet up with plates of chocolate cake in hand; chilling in the true sense of the word. At the entrance to the third ‘Melomanic Sessions’ last week, one is asked to make a donation of choice-from rupees fifty to a thousand and the contributions rolled in. Walking into the massive, but very cozy, space that is the Maradana Warehouse Project, the atmosphere-though very laidback-promised good things to come. Good music, to be precise.
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‘Melomanic Sessions’, the brainchild of Asela Perera and CC, is a bi-monthly event that has slowly but surely garnered itself a faithful following. Asela explains, “for the longest time CC and I talked about how there was no platform for people to perform stripped down, uncomplicated and very chilled out music. I mean you had your acoustic gigs but nothing recurring that offered to give the beginner just as much opportunity as those who performed regularly. We wanted it to be something that exposed listeners to music they don’t necessarily hear on the radio.” With the help of their friends Natasha and Kavya, who came up with the name, things kicked off and the ‘Melomania’ was born.
CC was first up, doing covers of Alter Bridge’s “Watch Over You” and “When the Rain Comes” to an enthusiastic reception. This is a guy who knows his vocal chords in and out-he knows which notes he can hit and sang with sense. Next on the stage was newcomer Jeremy De Zilwa; who surprised the audience by singing three of his own songs, a very, very brave move. An audience is always guaranteed to like covers of popular songs, and will always be more critical and unreceptive of new sounds. Jeremy surprised us all; ‘Criminal’, ‘Black Pepper’ and ‘Dark Cloud’, relatively longer than your average song, were on par with works by seasoned writers and were sung with passion-the occasional pitch problems here and there didn’t take away from the overall execution.
Krishni performed next, followed by Kei who used the ukulele to step the beat up. When compere CC introduced the act he said that they, Kei and her friend who accompanied her, had a certain apprehension about performing for a room full of strangers as their act was something that had been experimented with last year but hadn’t gone down too well. They covered a Blink 182 number and an original song. The music, though unusual, was played with passion.
Event creator Asela was up next with his guitar. Asela, a tall guy who has a constant aura of simmering energy, is too tall for the mike. Once those technicalities are dealt with, he begins with a lighter version of Switchfoot’s ‘Dare you to Move’. It was certainly a risky dare-the vocals on that song are not easy to pull off. Asela handled the challenge beautifully, reaching the high notes with finesse. His other songs ‘Follow You’ and ‘Skinny Love’ were executed with equal passion and forte.
He was followed by Gihan and Magic Box Mix-Up. The latter, a two-man act comprising of Sean and Shamin, livened up the beats of ‘Sunday Morning’, ‘Forget You’ and Gnarles Barkley’s ‘Crazy’; they had the entire audience tapping their feet. Kavya, an old melomanic, sang ‘With or Without You’ and ‘Save Me’. Her clear voice lent to an amazing performance-maybe there is something to be said for experience and the confidence it brings after all.
CC and Cynosure (well, half of it) performed together as well. Singing Florence the Machine and Foster the People, their guitar playing was something else and again, the vocals were pretty much pitch perfect.
The Melomanic Sessions is probably one of the most chilled out evenings you could have. Their next one is in May, so get ready to grab some hot chocolate, put your feet up and listen to some of Colombo’s best performers take the stage to serenade you with their beautiful and equally tranquil music.
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