Begum Return To The Stage With Four-City 'We Are Okay!' Tour
The Delhi trio's first shows in three years ran through New Delhi, Goa, Mumbai and Bengaluru in October, and the band billed them as the start of a new phase.
Begum spent three years off the stage, and in that time a younger set of listeners found their records anyway. In October the Delhi trio of Kartik Pillai, Karan Singh and Dhruv Bhola came back to meet them, on the four-city We Are Okay! tour.
It opened in New Delhi on 9 October and went to Goa the next night, then Mumbai on 15 October and Bengaluru on 16 October. They were the band's first live dates since the hiatus began.
The run came in two pairs of back-to-back nights, Delhi and Goa first, then Mumbai and Bengaluru the week after.
The Delhi opener was at Odella, presented by Tarana Live by Nightvibe, a 21-plus night starting at 9 pm. Tickets went in four phases, from about Rs 529 for early bird to about Rs 1,059 for the final phase, and every phase sold out. It was the band's first Delhi show in years.
A band's band
Begum formed in Delhi in 2013 and came up through the city's independent circuit. Their three records, Bagh in 2014, W.A.E in 2016 and Are You Okay? in 2022, sit somewhere between experimental pop, dream pop and indie rock.
The songs have proper pop hooks, and then they wander off somewhere uneasy. Other musicians tended to notice that first, and the band was a musician's favourite well before it had a wide audience.
In 2022 the album title asked a question. Three years later, the tour title answers it.
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What changes now
The band said the tour introduces its "next iteration". No new album was announced with the dates, and the shows were billed less as a run through the old songs than as a first look at what comes after.
Three years is a long time on the Delhi independent circuit. Venues close, crowds move on, newer bands take the slots. Begum came back with four cities in eight days.
For the fans who arrived during the gap, it was the first chance to hear a band they already knew by heart, in a room, played by the people who made it.
Dates
- New Delhi, 9 October
- Goa, 10 October
- Mumbai, 15 October
- Bengaluru, 16 October
(Source: official press release, Tarana Live event listing)
