India’s college/young adult festival culture has been a curiously unmentioned one as far as indie music is concerned (watch this space for more on that, of course). Many, many bands actually came to understand that there was a slim chance of making a career out of playing music through this; getting that first cheque in a competition against a bunch of other bands was a taste of ‘the dream’. Even Skrat, a band we all know of and listen to, won Channel V’s Launchpad competition in the 2000s; this was a step in their journey. This was a time of young artists just throwing themselves out there in front of college crowds that were just glad to not be worrying about their credits. Luitwaters is a band from Guwahati that has been a thing for six years and put out their first single ‘Miss Axha’ recently, and they exude that very energy.

There’s a sense of freedom that is very associated with ‘artistic’ youth, and the band nails this. There are some really nice riffs and the makings of a barn-burner with the guitar tones and the big (albeit sterile) drum production (apologies for the wording). There is a decidedly blues-rock bent to the song’s short interlud, and there’s some arena rock in the little buildup that leads to the refrain that you are expected to (and will) sing along to. The band does stick a solo in there to satisfy those listeners that enjoy a bit of guitar spice, but above all, the band is satisfying themselves, and this is possibly the most important attribute of the song. Yes, it’s pretty rough around the edges; tangibly so. But you can’t listen to ‘Miss Axha’ and not feel the energy of a band just being themselves and having fun. One couldn’t say that about too many songs these days. The fact that it will sound good live is a bonus. Turn your volume knob up.