Daira Band wins the Mumbai leg of ‘Hornbill On Tour’

The first leg of the competition started with a bang, with some of Mumbai’s most talented bands across genres wooing the packed house at Hard Rock Cafe. The Mumbai edition of Hornbill on Tour saw six of the city’s best independent bands battle it out for a chance to fly to Kohima to participate in the Hornbill International Music Festival and Rock Competition 2015.
The chief guest for the evening was Parliamentary Secretary for Youth Resource & Sports, Music Task Force, Khriehu Liezietsu, who had flown down to inaugurate the first leg of the competition, while the jury comprised Indus Creed frontman Uday Benegal, musician/actor Luke Kenny, and music journalist Lalitha Suhasini.Blues/rock act Kanchan Daniel & the Beards were first up on stage, and delivered an energetic set, undeterred by the lukewarm response from the audience. Up next were punk rockers The Lightyears Explode, who played a mix of originals and even threw in an uptempo cover of rock outfit Pentagram’s “Nocturne,” followed soon after by electro-rock act Laxmi Bomb with frontman Keegan Pereira rapping and singing his way through the dance-friendly set.
Alt-rockers Daira were next to take the stage, playing a fierce and well-rehearsed set of originals, that would later be deemed their winning performance. College alt-rock band Unohu put up an equally impressive performance, and were followed soon after by fusion/rock band Anand Bhaskar Collective.
The evening ended with Daira being announced the winners of the Mumbai edition and Unohu as runners-up.