Bruce Lee Mani and Rzhude David reunite for an intimate acoustic set in Chennai

Sixteen years is long enough for bands to dissolve, careers to change, and musicians to drift apart. Next week in Chenai, musicians and ex-band mates, Bruce Lee Mani and Rzhude David will make their way back on the same stage, closing a distance that last opened in 2010.

“Rzhude  and I last played together in 2010. It’s been sixteen years since we stood on stage as bandmates,” says Bruce. When they reunited earlier this year for an acoustic performance in Bengaluru, the ease of the collaboration surprised them both, setting the course for what followed. 

The show, part of Scarlet Nights at the Alliance Française of Madras, is deliberately stripped down. Two musicians, acoustic instruments, and a set that moves between older material, newer compositions written together and independently, and a small selection of covers. “It’s unusual for us to to do an acoustic gig,” he says. 

Rzhude David
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Behind Scarlet Nights is Pro Musicals, a name more often associated with music technology than live performance. For founder Sudhin Prabhakar, however, the series marks a return to an earlier impulse. “This is really about bringing music back to centre stage. Not the sponsor, not the lighting, not the flash around it. Just the music,” he says. 

Sudhin himself, a musician who played in Chennai bands through the 1980s and 1990s, traces the idea back to concerts he helped organise years ago at the Museum Theatre. These shows were mounted without sponsorship, driven largely by persistence and goodwill. Scarlet Nights, he says, draws from the same instinct. “We didn’t wait for sponsors then. We just did it. That’s the spirit we wanted to bring back.” 

The 150-seat Edouard Michelin Auditorium at the Alliance Française of Madras offers an intimacy that larger spaces dilute. “It’s the right size for acoustic music. There’s nowhere to hide for the musicians or the audience,” says Sudhin. The sound system, installed by Pro Musicals, is designed to serve clarity rather than volume, allowing the performance to stay unembellished.

While the concert is free to attend, the evening is not without structure. The performance will be professionally recorded using Focusrite equipment, part of an effort to demonstrate how live performances can translate into high-quality recordings outside traditional studio settings. “We also want artists to see how they can record at home. Live performance and home studios don’t have to exist separately anymore,” he says.  

The recordings will be archived, not released immediately, a deliberate decision. “We want people to come out, sit in a room together, and listen again.” Scarlet Nights is envisioned as a monthly series, each edition centred on musicians with experience. “We’re not a platform for first-time performers. We want people, especially younger musicians, to see what’s possible if you work at it. You don’t aspire to something you’ve never seen,” says Sudhin. 

Scarlet Nights, hosting Bruce Lee Mani and Rzhude David, is on at the Alliance Française of Madras on Februrary 5, from 7.30pm. Entry is free with mandatory registration on promusicals.com.