When we put up an update (on http://twitter.com/metro_plus) last week, we said it would rain rock and metal during the weekend. It wasn’t meant to be weather forecast but at the Bucks Theatre at YMCA Nandanam, there was rain, rock and metal.

It doesn’t get better than JRO in the city if you want to sample the best emerging bands in the country — the 14 bands that played during the two days before the Motherjane concert on Saturday were chosen out of 40 demos.

Unwind Center did it again against all odds and the weather gods couldn’t help but play groupies. All those who stayed till the end were rewarded by Motherjane — one of the finest original bands to have emerged from the sub-continent.

Right from their packaging (the band members have half their faces painted, not quite Kiss but more like Kathakali-meets-Goth) to stage presence, infectious energy and their down-to-earth friendly vibe, Motherjane fed their fans with songs from their latest album ‘Maktub’.

The band started off with ‘Disillusioned’ sending the crowd into instant frenzy. “This is why we come to Madras,” said Motherjane frontman Suraj Mani at the end of their first song before launching into their popular psychedelic trip down ‘Mindstreet’ and ‘Chasing the Sun’ from ‘Maktub’ — these two songs are classic examples of the band’s ability to seamlessly integrate their Indian classical music influences without ever sounding like fusion music. It’s all hardcore rock and alternative — no blasphemy there at all — in fact, it’s the unique ethnic sound that gives Motherjane its distinct identity as a truly original Indian act.

In fact, Suraj Mani was awarded the Leon Ireland Outstanding Vocalist Award and ‘Maktub’ was judged the Best Album of the year during the LIVE Awards given away by Unwind Center during the finale. Benny Dayal got the Best Performance Award and Timothy Madhukar (Timmy) got an award for outstanding contribution to music.

Motherjane went on to play quite a few songs from ‘Maktub’, much to the delight of fans. “They are all available on motherjane.in. You can download them and pay what you want,” announced Suraj as fans cheered. “If this is what you mean, you can download them free, we don’t mind,” he added.

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