That’s how the cookie has crumbled, but the point remains that all those moons ago, college fests were indeed a fertile space for indie aficionados to discover new acts — be it rock or metal — that were worth their salt. So, the fact that there is still at least one nationwide competition that is dedicated to finding the country’s best college bands means that all hope is not lost just yet. And after scouting the four regional zones and identifying the finalists, the grand finale of Parx Hunt 2018 will be held in the city this evening.

The acts that will vie for top honours are Hidden Identity (Kolkata), Oddsox (Chennai), Alchemy (Mumbai) and Common Thread (Delhi). They will each play a short set before the judges, after which Kolkata heavyweights Underground Authority (UA) will bring the curtains — and the roof — down with their action-packed brand of rap-rock music. Curiously, UA is a band that cut its teeth in college festivals when they first started around a decade ago. Dhanbad, Asansol, Durgapur, Bhubaneshwar — they considered no city or town infra dig enough to build their popularity in. And this eventually served them splendidly, because over the years, the sort of numbers they have racked up in their fan base would make most existing indie bands pale in comparison (their Facebook page has 2.4 lakh likes, for example).

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But when we speak to Adil Rashid, UA’s guitarist, he agrees that the heydays of rock music in college festivals are well and truly behind us. "I think that the graph of such fests has properly dipped. I mean, when we were doing these competitions, the headlining act was the highlight of the festival. It was also a place where people actually searched for indie music. But the nature of the beast is such that Bollywood artistes have started playing with bands now. And colleges are getting more sponsorship money than ever before. So, they have to justify it either by getting a famous [and not indie] name, or by inviting a popular DJ to cash in on the electronic music rage," he says, pointing out how the times indeed are a- changin’.

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