Healing touch for Voodoo rocker - Rock bands to jam at fund-raiser for injured guitarist Ambarish Saikia

A rock band performs at a programme organised to promote peace in the state, on Sunday. Picture by Eastern Projections

Jan. 22: They say music heals. Some of the city’s rock musicians are tuning their guitars to do just that — only, on a more literal note.

While young Ambarish Saikia, lead guitarist of city-based rock band Voodoo Child, languishes in hospital, his friends from the music industry have come together to foot his medical bills. Ambarish met with an accident recently, which left him seriously injured.

Eight rock bands of the city — Faith, Celestial Doom, Lucid Recess, Wind X, Antizen, Eclipse, Sweet Ashley and The Cannabies — will jam together at Care, a rock concert, at the Shilpgram complex on January 28 as “Integrity”.

“The concert will be a fund-raiser to help out Ambarish,” explained Nibir Bhuyan of Celestial Doom. “We are completely devoted to music. Music is known for its healing power. So, now, when a dear friend of ours is going through a lean phase, only music can only come to the rescue.”

Rock bands in the city have matured over time, winning awards on the national stage as well. But the young musicians agree on one thing — it is difficult to make a living by performing in concerts alone.

“The city is yet to take rock music and musicians seriously. They want us to perform, but they are reluctant to pay us our due. Thus after Ambarish’s incident, we formed Integrity, a group to look after the welfare of the pop music fraternity,” said Tonmoy Raychoudhury of Lucid Recess.

The group is planning to approach government and non-government organisations to sponsor rock events. In return, the bands will help the sponsors by taking their cause to the public through music. “It will be a give-and-take policy. If they sponsor our shows, we will help them raise awareness about social causes through our concerts,” said Raychoudhury.

Members of Faith, who sang their way to the first runners-up award at the National Campus concert in Goa last year, rued that even excelling at the national level had not helped much to change people’s perception of this genre of music. “Hardly do we get an opportunity to perform in the city. But we have travelled to different Indian metros and other cities of the Northeast,” a band member said.

The bands have been busy for the past few days, writing lyrics and music for the show. But ask them about their plans for D-Day and you all get is a wide grin. “Let music buffs come and enjoy the show. We are sure to rock them with some great music,” Bhuyan signed off.