The second edition of Humming Tree’s Backdoors at Bangalore was a sight to behold, with a roster of both local and international artists taking the stage to an incredible audience that poured in large numbers.

The festival which was conducted in the Indiranagar Club on the 17th of February, a few days after the Mumbai Edition, was by all means a complete success. While a lot of metal fans and prog-heads were disappointed at hearing that progressive metal band, Tesseract would not be making it to the show, the final line up had everyone in awe. Amnesty International had teamed with Humming Tree for Backdoors to spread awareness and curb violence and harassment against women on the internet. This cause was widely supported by all the performing artists and audience alike.

First up, on the Amnesty stage, was Los Angeles based indie/pop singer Charisma.

Getting the crowd moving to her catchy tunes, like her single “King”, she served as the perfect opener for the fest. Followed by her was the Bangalore based singer-songwriter who dazzled the listeners with his soul and folk influenced music. His meaningful lyrics and deep, insightful songs had the crowd completely captivated. As the afternoon carried forward, more people had begun pour in towards the Amnesty stage. Meanwhile, the Kochi rock outfit, When Chai Met Toast had brought their upbeat and infectious rhythms to get a lot of smiles going in the crowd.

San Francisco based rapper, George Watsky bought sick flows to the audience at the Bira 91 main stage. Backed up by a band of incredible musicians, his distinct delivery and relatable themes over some banging instrumentals had the audience really grooving. Prateek Kuhad once again had the crowd at the Amnesty stage to daze them with his pop rock and folk arrangements.

Back at the Bira 91 stage, British pop rockers got the crowd dancing and headbanging to their jumpy alternative rock riffs which were pumped out over the ambient soundscapes. At this point, the Indiranagar club was almost full, entranced by the soaring vocals and the hard hitting rock drums. The final act to play on the Amnesty stage was Danny Goffey. The singer-songwriter and his band pumped up the crowd and got them ready for what was to come.

Gathered around the main stage, the crowd had gathered eagerly to catch the headlining performers, Anderson Paak and The Free Nationals. The singer and rapper hit the stage with his hit song “Come Down”, and the crowd which completely occupied the entirety of the club by this point was now dancing and jumping to groovy rhythms. Apart from being an extremely tight rapper and having a dazzling stage, Anderson Paak was an absolute beast on the drum kit. Weaving complicated flows while effortlessly wrecking it on the drums, he had the crowd moving to his tracks from “Malibu”, “Venice” and “Yes Lawd!”. The keyboardist, Ron Tnava Avant, played some absolutely amazing melodies, very tasteful jazz influenced solo sections and also brought a futuristic vibe with some vocoder sections. It is safe to say that Anderson Paak brought Backdoors 2018 down to a close at an extremely grand note.