Shanghumukhom Kadalpaalam

the kadalpaalam..

The kadalpaalam[seabridge] near the Shanghumukhom beach is one of the unmissable places on any trip to Trivandrum.It was the same this time too. Built many years back, this worn down bridge extends for some distance into the sea. Its the place to go if you want to get the feeling of being in the sea. Only this time, the bridge was the site of some violent action. The arrival of the monsoon had stirred up the sea.Waves with heights rivaling those of high rise buildings were pounding on the bridge with all its might. The age was beginning to show on the bridge.The steps on one side, where we used to sit during college days were almost fully gone. The waves were rising even above where once the steps were. When one of those mighty waves crashed, the impact could be easily felt on the birdge, a loud thud and then the slight jerk. Signs of danger. Yet, the beauty of the dark clouds and the raging sea and the worn down bridge drew large crowds. With no thoughts about safety, people were seen relaxing at the edges. When the occasional wave rose above their head, they coolly shifted position and continued the conversation. One old man came walking slowly from far away, came to the edge and gazed at the waves. The next minute he was drenched by a mammoth wave. He turned around as if nothing happened and walked back. Seems like he came here on purpose. The sky was blue on one side and totally dark on the other. A mist like cover made sure that the coast line was visible for only a few metres. Some shots from that incredible evening...when the waves just owned the bridge...

And now to a series of pics showing the attack of a wave on the small building at the edge of the bridge...

the calm before the....

the arrival

the survey..

the breach...

the intrusion..

the attack.

the victory...

the celebration..

the unchallenged..

the retreat...

your crusader Praveen

Jim Morrison Tribute in Trivandrum

Benny, Vivek,Nithin, Mithun- Break on through..

Last week, God's own country was in all its glory with the monsoon lashing out in its annual fury. Overflowing rivers, newly sprouting greenery, enchanting backwaters, cloud covered hill tops..it was heaven. A perfect atmosphere for the naadanpattu(country song) to add flavour to this already heady mix. But instead, Kerala rocked to the immortal tunes of a man who breathed his last 38 long years back. 'Break on through to the other side', a tribute concert to Jim Morrison, the enigmatic frontman of the legendary band 'Doors', took place at Taj Residency hotel in Trivadrum on Sunday evening.

'Avial' Rex

The idea of a tribute to Morrison in Trivandrum was frowned upon by many, as revealed by the organisers. But those were not enough to deter a bunch of inspired youngsters who soldiered on relenlessly under the name 'Magic bus'. The concert served as a successful debut for this event management company with big dreams. As I walked into the Taj, an unlikely venue for a concert, I could see all those familiar faces there, the leading lights of the Trivandrum rock scene. The concert started by about 8.30 and by that time the hall was almost filled up. That proved the fact that all the apprehensions regarding 'Morrison in Trivandrum' were misplaced.

'Motherjane' Baiju- Roadhouse 'carnatic' blues

Mary- Shaman's blues

The opening band was 'Kali', who did a decent version of 'Light my fire' to start off the proceedings. The words 'Come on baby, light my fire..Try to set the night on fire' were enough to fire up the proceedings. It was time for the main acts to take stage. Guitarist Rex and drummer Mithun from Avial came in alongwith Nithin, the lead guitarist of 'Rage'. 'Avial' bassist Benny and keyboardist Yakzan were the common factors for the whole show. Vivek, the vocalist of 'soulburn' sang the first 5 songs. The blast started with the 'Alabama song' asking for the way to the whiskey bar. Vivek's deep voice fit well to the mood of the doors songs. He also sang that highly energetic classic song 'break on through'. Nithin, who was back on stage after a pretty long time, slipped back into the groove as he revealed many flashes of his old legendary brilliance with 'rage'. Rex, Mithun and Benny, the avial team didn't have any problems in blending together seamlessly as always. Mary singing 'shaman's blues' was a refreshing touch to the evening. Its an irony that the actual song is in the form of plea by the shaman to his lover.

Sujith, Baiju, Mithun and Rex

JK blows the audience away

'Blues' Johny- 'people are strange'

'Avial' Tony- The ghost song

The much awaited entry of 'Motherjane' Baiju happened with 'L.A Woman'. The vocal duties were taken up by Sujith from 'Udaan'. The song which contains the famous anagram of Jim Morrison's name, 'Mr. Mojo Risin' was taken to another level by Baiju's individual brilliance. There were minute length solos amply supplied with his trademark carnatic flavour. The crowd which stayed back for the first few songs were now right in front of the stage. Particularly standing out was one sweet little girl from UK who was dancing around for all the songs. 'Chaos' JK announced his arrival with the most recognised and most played Doors song ever-'Roadhouse blues'. His good grounding in heavy metal meant JK's rendition gave some more raw energy to this great song. Also, appreciable is his ability to take the crowd into his hands from the minute he get on stage. Baiju blazed another killer solo in between this song. JK's 'maggie mcgill' was another notable performance of the evening. Amidst all this, there was Rex unassumingly delivering killer solos and precision rhythms. All through the show, he was the one who peppered it all up from the background. Not to forget, Benny's bass play. And, then there was Yakzan who handled the keyboards, one of the standout elements of Doors songs.

'Soulburn' Vivek- Light my fire

'Avial' Mithun

Trivandrum's own grand old man of Blues, Johny paid his tributes to Morrison with 'People are strange', one of the first doors songs I fell in love with mostly because of its simple lyrics. This short song was followed up with 'Love me two times'. 'Avial' Tony got 2 songs which best matches his usual onstage mannerisms- 'Riders on the storm' and 'The ghost song'. He was doing dance steps reminiscent of the legendary 'shaman's dance'. He also had this small bell like thing which he put to good use. JK was back again alongwith 'motherjane' John to finish off the tribute with 'changeling'. And to top it all, there was a surprise tribute to the one and only Michael Jackson at the end. Naomi took up the keyboard and singing duties joined by all the singers on stage to give a beautiful rendition of 'Heal the world'. It was a perfect end to a beautiful evening with the whole crowd singing along in respect to a true legend.

'chaos' JK- Roadhouse blues

'rage' Nithin n 'avial' Rex

Keyboard wizard Yakzan

Naomi and the whole crowd singing 'heal the world'

It was an one of a kind night in Trivandrum as some of Kerala's best rock artists ever came together to give us all a memorable evening. It was a true team effort wherein the absence of even one of them would've made the show paler for sure. For this day, they just put their busy schedules in the dustbin and dedicated to many days to practise. Special mention must be made of guys like Sabareesh and Rohit from 'magic bus' and 'rage' Nithin who tirelessly worked behind the stage to co-ordinate the whole event and make it a success of this scale. Bringing together such high profile artists, co-ordinating their schedules etc are no mean tasks. And this is just the start. More is in store, like tributes to Pink Floyd, Grateful dead etc already in the pipeline. This indeed is a new beginning in the Kerala rock scene. Best of luck guys!

More pics are uploaded in the picasa link here


your crusader Praveen

The Race

*****The Race******
Life's a heady highway, they say
Be in the race, else you pay.
People scramble to get ahead,
Of the nearest familiar head.

I lay there, on the divider
the glory of the open sky all over.
Wondering aloud on the mad fuss,
No one cares, else they miss the bus.

Why so serious?, the joker asked,
Hiding his sorrows behind the paint.
Why so happy?, the human asks,
Dipping his smile in sorrow's palette.

I have smiles to give,
hills to play, dogs to chase.
rains to dance in, grass to roll on,
And a family to share it all with.

They have careers to make,
bills to pay, goals to chase.
They also have the family to ignore,
And smiles thrown outta door.

They call me, a loser in life
They laugh at me from the finish line
I laugh back and say, you left 'life' behind.
Yes, I, life, was having all the fun
while you ran for that extra dollar..

PS- The snap was taken during last week's visit to Palakkad. Yes, I would like to do my life's race in this one. A slow bumpy ride enjoying the simple pleasures of life.. :)
For more snaps from my Palakkad sojourn, head over to my photo blog

Weekend info- If you are a rock fan and if you are in Trivandrum this weekend, Hotel Taj in Vazhuthacaud is the place to be. 'Break on through the other side', a tribute concert for Jim Morrison, the legendary vocalist of 'The Doors' is happening on Sunday evening. The event is being conducted by Magic bus, the event managing company. Prominent rockers of Kerala from bands such as Motherjane, Avial, Rage, Chaos etc will be there to entertain you with Jim Morrison's immortal songs. Yes, If 'Roadhouse blues' rings a bell for you, then head over to Taj... Am heading to TVM morrow evening :) Wish you all a happy weekend..

your crusader Praveen

Rage- Making Chennai bang
Yeah..am at it again. Writing another concert review. After I wrote the report on Motherjane concert, someone commented, ''That is the most Amateurish write-up that I have read in my whole life about a concert''. So, here is another amateurish stuff on an awesome band coming your way.

Rage, the band been ruling the kerala metal kingdom for sometime. No one played the way they played their covers. Over the years, they've built up a legion of fans all over the state. And it was just a matter of time before they crossed the boundaries of the state and won fans beyond the borders. And cross they did... with a majestic show at Madras Christian College[MCC]. As we all know, MCC is a place where almost all the top bands in India have performed at some point or the other. And, so Rage getting a call to play at this very same venue is a matter of pride to its loyal fans down here. So, we [me, raja, nikhil, pappu, jk] decided to go with the band to chennai.

We reached there on Saturday morning, the day of the concert. The campus, with its vast greenery blew us away. In the morning itself, Biju chettan and pramod chettan were called upto judge some acoustic competition. The other rage fans like govindan potty arrived in the afternoon. The soundcheck started around 3 30. And tell you one thing, the whole sound system was a piece of shit. The band had a hard time getting a presentable sound out of it. The soundcheck took close to 2 hours to complete. After the soundcheck, the local band Udaan performed. It played some Hindi rock stuff, somewhat like 'jal'. The band got ample support from their home crowd. It was over in less than 30 minutes, and now it was time for the all out attack from our very own RAGE.

The crowd was slowly building up when the band got on stage. Most of them preferred to sit in the gallery at the back. Only a few were standing in the front. And then, rage started the blast with '2 minutes to midnight'. In 2 minutes, the whole scene at the grounds changed. People were rushing to the front and banging their heads in tandem. The crowd was composed mainly of guys from the north east, whom we all affectionately call 'chinkis'. In recent times, the Chennai scene was dominated mostly by funksih bands. And Rage was a whiff of fresh air for them, as one of the students there told me. Biju Chettan was the most active on stage, running around, jumping and displaying all his 'Dickinson inspired' mannerisms. Abi chettan and Pramod chettan competed with each other in coming right to the front and proudly giving a wavy display of their long locks. Nithin Chettan preferred to let his guitar do all the talking, cutting out all the show off. Mithun chettan was all smiles as he attacked the drums with all his might.

The sound system was the one bad element in the whole show and any other band would have wilted under the pressure, but not Rage. The guitar lead parts were getting somewhat drowned because of the improper mixing and the sound system's limitations. The S & M version of 'one' gave keyboardist Biji his own time under the spotlight. It was all going along well until Nithin chettan's cable got separated from the processor towards the end. It happened when he, in a spirited mood, tried to come on to the front seeing the frenzied crowd. And, for a minute Pramod chettan's guitar[the processor was having a bad tone], the keyboard and the drums were the only things audible. But, they somehow pulled it back and ended it. Another untoward incident was the breaking of Nithin chettan's string towards the end of 'Master of puppets' lead. Barring these two incidents, there were not much human errors to speak about. And that is a huge credit to the band, since the whole show happened in trying conditions of sweltering heat and a sound system that could boast of nothing.

They also belted out 'Holy wars', 'aces high', 'back in black', 'gets me through', 'caught somehwhere in time'. The crowd were screaming out the names of all their favorite songs especially from Maiden and Metallica. Maybe, they thought that this would be their only chance to hear such near perfect covers which even the original bands themselves find difficult to perform on stage. Some nu metal fans were obviously in the audience as there were calls for 'killing in the name of', 'toxicity' etc. The crowd had a great time swaying to all the songs. Biju chettan and abi chettan played their part in bringing the crowd to its feet. Biju Chettan even hurled a bottle full of mineral water at the audience, a really thoughtful move considering the crowd who were getting tired with constant screaming, banging and jumping. And, so the show came to an end by 7pm, which was the time limit set by the college authorities. After that, there was the band interview with SS music, which also covered the entire show. Those who missed the live show should try to catch them on SS music sometime soon.

Thus, Rage has made a mark outside the state too. Hope many more big concerts come their way in the near future. Best of luck to the godfathers of metal in Trivandrum...rock on RAGE..\\m//

your crusader Praveen

\m/otherjane- The homecoming

They Came...They rocked...and they conquered... That would aptly sum up Motherjane's sojourn in Trivandrum. Titled 'The coming home' tour, this was really a coming home for the band after having conquered more than 100 venues all over India and being featured in numerous international radio stations and compilation albums. Its a little known fact that their first album 'Insane biography' have sold out. Now with the second album 'Maqtub' ready for release, the band is at the threshold of even greater success. Even before the 2nd album released, everybody knows all of its songs by heart. And that was evident from the crowd singing many of the lyrics alongwith them yesterday..

So..Here is a brief description of the day. The day started with me and Raja going to Hotel Maurya, where Motherjane was staying. After meeting them all, we went with them for the soundcheck at Nishagandhi in the afternoon. Sooraj chettan satyed back nursing his sore throat. John Chettan had already gone there. A glance at the stage had all of us laughing. It had a broken bullock cart, many small pots[like folk dance set] and some raised platforms made of cardboard at the back. Motherjane's great sound engineer Fali got to work. After tweaking it all around, the band started the soundcheck. We got a sample of what to expect when they played 'broken', 'chasing the sun' etc. They kept on doing it until it all sounded perfect. After the soundcheck, me, Nikhil and Raja returned to the hotel with them. Baiju chettan enlightened us with some great tips and some interesting anecdotes. Deepu chettan was his usual self cracking some really intolerable jokes that made everyone burst into uncontrollable laughter. Sooraj Chettan was radiating positive energy all around although he was suffering from some throat problems. The band had a private meeting behind closed door before leaving for the show. Once they came out, we posed for some snaps with them.

Raja n me with John chettan

Me, Nikki n raja with Mother

And, now it was time for the real show. We reached Nishagandhi around 7pm. The crowd was only starting to build up. Maybe beacuse of lack of ads in newspapers and banners at the venue gate, the crowd was not as big as expected. Anyway, I was really happy when I got my prized possession, the Motherjane t-shirt. I saw some of my non-rock friends among the crowd. They all became Motherjane fans recently after the wide coverage in rosebowl. The screen which was set up in front of the stage was constantly playing the motherjane rockumentary produced by rosebowl. At around 7 30, the band appeared on stage sending the crowd into a frenzy. They all rushed to the front. If not for the wooden barriers, they wud've stormed onto the stage. Sooraj chettan started the show in a thoroughly professional manner with some pep talk and then bursting straight on to 'Disillusion'.

Baiju Chettan on the lead was the cynosure of all eyes. The crowd was chanting 'baiju, baiju' everytime he started one of his legendary leads. John chettan with his brown tinted goatee was not giving any respite for the hapless drums as he pounded on it mercilessly. 'Mindstreet', in the new version with heavy eastern influences was a favourite with the crowds. Not to forget, the now cult classic 'Broken' from the new album. One quality which i found with this song is that everyone who heard this loved this song[including those who never listens to rock, even my mom]. Clyde chettan, though not at all talkative off the stage, was attitude personified on stage with his bass doing all the talking. Deepu chettan with his infectious smile, provided the rhythm support and also was singing all the songs along with sooraj chettan. Sooraj Chettan carried the show wonderfully well and no one there would believe that this man was nursing a sore throat all day. He punctuated the introduction of each song with some wonderful anecdotes. The one I loved the most was about 'Walk on'. A foreign guy having cancer used to listen to this song everyday because this inspired him. After his death, his brother wrote a letter to the band thanking them for giving his brother hope while he was alive.

'Maya', the song about a girl of big dreams, who ends up as a prostitute also struck a vibrant chord with the audience. My other favorites were 'Chasing the sun', 'Questions' and 'soul corporations'. The innovative 'shh..listen' had the audience hissing 'shhh' all the time. The band also belted out 'prison chains', 'blood in the apple'[about 9/11] and 'karmic steps'. But the ones i missed the most were their 2 short songs... 'An Ode to life' parts 1 and 2 from the 1st and 2nd albums respectively. Both the songs consists of only just 4 lines each. But the story behind the songs were amazing[saw that in the rockumentary]. 'An Ode to life' is about losing loved ones to death and it was written after the death of sooraj chettan's mother. 'An ode to life 2' is about new life. This was written after the birth of his son. These songs are an example of how much you can convey in an one minute song. As soon as the last song ended, I held out my hand at Baiju chettan asking for his guitar pick and he promptly obliged. Now, that is a souvenior for life.

sooraj chettan n baiju chettan

And so that was the story of Motherjane conquering their home territory after a long journey out of the state. An analysis of what endears them so much to everyone, we can find many reasons. The strong eastern influence in baiju chettan's guitaring, the underlying melody in all of their songs, the thought provoking lyrics or the innovative progressive stuff, the reasons are just too many. But the thing I find most remarkable about them is that they were able to pull in some people who have been known rock haters. I salute them for that single achievement more than any awards or recognition won abroad.

PS- After writing this post, I happened to read today's Indian express and found that the opening line of this post matched word to word with an article on motherjane that appeared in it. It read , ''They come, they rock and they conquer''. And mine went, ''They Came...They rocked...and they conquered''... Needless to say, I was astonished at the similarity. Maybe a case of great music bringing the same thoughts in two different minds. ..


For more concert pics, checkout my online album
http://picasaweb.google.com/blazeofglory2007/MotherJaneRocksTVM

your crusader, Praveen

Moshpit- God's own rock

Once upon a time, they used to say..Oh, what a place..always in a slumber..and what kinda people..the most sleepy unappreciative dead crowd u can ever have..and a rock show here..forget it... Now, to all those who used to say that or ever said that, here's our answer. We, the rockers community of Trivandrum is proud to say that, your perceptions or claims won't stand any longer. Because, today something happened which can be said to be an epoch making event in the history of rock in Trivandrum. Because today, MOSHPIT happened.

Billed as 'God's own rock' in 'God's own country', Moshpit broke all apprehensions about the feasibility of a rock concert in the city and also exceeded all our expectaions thus turning out to be one of the best things to have happened to the local rock scene in a very long time. When we started off with Moshpit last year, the scene was totally different. Not many were ready to shell out hard earned money for a rock show. Still, people came out in satisfactory numbers to cheer the 3 bands rage, rubbur band and afterdeath. But, now it has all changed for good. The number of new bands that have come up is a testimony to this fact.

In the morning itself, local metalheads were present at the venue, VJT Hall, happily doing all the small small chores. It was raining heavily from the morning itself thus proving right our decision to conduct the fest indoors. And to provide us security, there were a bunch of policemen from the world famous Kerala Police. The expressions on their faces during the show were great to see. They were as if standing on some alien land. Small groups of metal freaks started trickling in the afternoon. And by the time, the show started rolling towards 4 pm, the hall was filled up with a sizeable crowd, most of them wearing the traditional black t shirts and sporting long locks.

The proceedings started off with the band 'Xitropy'. As the guys from my band 'Stoneage' was having exams, I played guitar with xitropy. The set list consisted of 4 original tracks and 2 covers- distubed's voices and deftones's my own summer. The new age stuff did go down well with the audience. Nirmal spirited up the audience with his heavy screaming. The combination of weirdo lighting and smoke provided a great atmosphere to play in although sometimes the lights blinded me. Alex was pounding real hard and tight behind the drums. Cliffy put in some nice solos though the guitar tones kinda sucked. And Robbins did good work on the bass although he could've avoided delaying the whole event. The decision to play one more song Deftones's 'My own summer' was really unnecessary as it didn't add anything to the nice performance till then but only served in diminishing the effect. Next up was the band 'Soulburn' and they did burn the place with some tight numbers. My favourite was their cover of Pearl Jam's 'even flow'. Another notable one was Alice in Chains's 'would'. Lead guitarist Arjun's shirtless act attracted loud cheers from the crowd. Chippu did amazing work on bass. Vivek was aggression personified as he pointed at the crowd and said ''I want a f***ing mosh right here in the front''. Sabu, the drummer needs special mention as he was the one behind designing the posters, brochures and tickets of moshpit '07. After soulburn's grunge attack, the gospel band 'Live jam' came on stage. But I cant write anything on their show because I had to leave for some urgent work outside and couldn't watch it. I heard from someone who watched them that they played songs by POD. If anyone has more info on their performance, please do comment.

I came back right in time for one of my favourite bands 'K.OS'. Now, let me tell you, these guys mean serious business. The crowd really came alive to the fullest with their soundcheck playing Metallica's 'sad but true'. Then came 'Seek and destroy' and their original track 'Coup d etat', which now most of the rock fans here know by heart. The highlight of their performance was the awesome cover of Pantera's 'Cowboys from hell', which they dedicated to the late Dimebag Darrel. Nikhil, wearing his trademark torn jeans did some great work with the solos. Raja sporting his heavy mop of hair and ever present smile regalled the audience with some great rhythm work. This was a special performance for him and nikhil as their parents were present among the audience. Weirdo bassist Pappu was as weird as ever on stage. Wikiboy Basil did some amazing work as he slammed the hell out of the drums. Then, there was Mr.Louda JK with his powerful vocals, although he could've done better with less of the swearing. K.OS signed off with the crowd Favourite ''For whom the bell tolls''.

Next up was 'Heretic', the band from Ernakulam, which is quite famous in the Kerala rock circuit. I could watch only a couple of songs as I had to go for another urgent work. The ones I watched confirmed the fact that these guys have real substance. Their cover of SOAD's 'toxicity' was great. I heard that they also did some slipknot songs. Really missed the whole show. Guitarist Abhijeet's processor 'POD XT Live' did turn a few heads. My envious eyes also had a look at the jumbo sized processor. The next band in the non stop show was 'Rubbur band'. The highlight of their performance was the cover of Iron Maiden's 'fear of the dark'. Kripa should henceforth be called 'the lady dickinson' for this performance. The crowd chanted along with her during the chorus. Izak did some powerful vocal performances singing Slayer's 'Dead skin
mask' and Pantera's 'This love'. Sadly for Duttan, there was no one to sing the 'this love' chorus on stage as he had planned. But he did do some great work with the lead guitar. This was a special performance for the great Sunil as this was his last show with the band. We will all miss this innocent looking elephant on stage. Hari did amazing work on the drums. But the one who stole the show was 'Death Nithin' with his growling vocals. His vocals in Arch enemy's 'we will rise' and Iron Maiden's 'hallowed be thy name' deserves special mention. Not to forget was crazy Rahul on the bass. They ended the show by officially announcing the vacancies for vocalist and rhythm guitarist.

Now, it was time for 'slingshot' to liven up the fest with some funky stuff. This band's been in the news lately after winning the 'Kingfisher Kerala rocks' competition. They burst on stage with RHCP's 'hump de bump'. Professionalism was one element that shined through their performance. My favorites from yesterday's performance were ''country liquor'' and ''way back home'', their original tracks which are really different from what you usually hear from local bands. Fad was as high spirited as ever with his energetic vocals and also with his mic stand circus. The really fat Kaushik was too small for the big bass he was holding but he proved that size doesn't really matter as he blasted out some real cool bass lines. Then there was thalaivar Jhanu on guitars. I really love his unique playing style. Vineeth provided great support behind the drums. The guys came on stage wearing 'che guevara' t shirts, the symbol of revolution. Indeed, a representation of the revolution that is happening in the Trivandrum rock scene. The guys had their own unique way of interacting with the audience with some interesting games like 'Name-sucks or rocks' and 'Jump', when they made the audience sit on the floor and then jump back to life together. This was innovative performance at its best. Some other notable numbers were 'Blow' and 'get in line'.

Ok, its time for the final act. The one and only kings of Trivandrum rock- 'Rage'. There's a saying that goes here in the city- 'If u are doing covers, you gotta do it the rage way'. Such is the perfection with which they cover popular metal songs that you would mistake it for the original ones if you just hear the sound. They came for moshpit with just one practise session under their belt. But not once did that show in their performance. They soundchecked with Megadeth's 'holy wars' that send the crowd into a frenzy. The whole crowd was headbanging when they started iron Maiden's '2 minutes to midnight'. Rock Biju, the new vocalist blew away everyone with his vocal range as he rendered 'aces high' perfectly. His stage act reminded me of Bruce Dickinson during the recent Iron Maiden concert in Banglore, although once he almost fell on the ground as he jumped from the drum raiser. Next up they performed Ozzy osbourne's 'gets me through' and ACDC's 'Back in black'. Abi on the bass and pramod on the rhythm looked like twins as they banged their long haired heads in tandem. Mithun on the drums was bang on with some heavy drumming. The final song was Metallica's 'Master of puppets'. Now I have to mention one man who made this song all the more special. Lead guitarist Nithin chettan. The soloing was perfect to the core. He never missed a note in the whole performance. And his behind the scenes work for moshpit was exemplary. Without him, this fest would never have happened. He even sacrificed his practice sessions to run for various organising activities connected with the fest. Now, this showed why the whole rock community here respects this man so much. And the whole show showed why 'Rage' are the uncrowned kings of Trivandrum rock.

Oh no..I forgot 2 names. 2 awesome drummers who made this festival all the more worthwhile- Vlad Jayesh and his student Manu. Their solo performances were the highlight of Moshpit '07. I've no words to describe what I saw there. Some of the best drumming work I've ever seen in my life. Altogether, Moshpit '07 was a real fest of pure music that again underlined the fact that the rock scene in Trivandrum is alive and kicking. Can u believe that a mosh actually happened here in God's own country? Thankfully no one ended up with broken legs or jaws. And this was the first time stage diving happened down south. It was during Rage's power packed performance. I never knew that there were so many metal freaks in this city. The guys who came all the way from Ernakulam and Calicut also made the atmosphere lively. We've to thank the sponsors 'attitude' and 'cellular world' for coming forward and supporting our cause. As I said earlier, Moshpit '07 exceeded all our expectations and turned out to be a grand success. Going by this, I can very well guess how big Moshpit '08 gonna be. Those who missed it yesterday, am sad for you. Hope you can catch when its shown on 'rosebowl'. Still, U had to be there to know what it really was. If you were there you would be having a sore neck and sore throat now. Really 'god's own rock' in 'god's own capital'...

a big thanks from trivandrum rockers to all those who came and supported us..and to all those who helped us in some way or the other

your crusader Praveen

STONEAGE live


Hello people,

Checkout our band stoneage performing live at Taj green cove, Kovalam. The event is kingfisher kerala rocks fest. Two of our original songs are shown in this video. The 1st one is called ''the mob''. Its against the pointless destruction caused by aimless mobs everywhere. The 2nd song is ''the return''. Its the story of a man who goes to prison for a crime he never committed. After 20 years he gets out from jail..but the soceity doesn't accept him...he begins to miss the jail and his friends there as he had become so used to the life there....he goes insane...and he commits a real crime and returns back to jail...

The lyrics are posted below

The Mob Song

Like a herd of unchained mad dogs
They storm the cities
With hearts so young and limbs so old
They roam the streets.

Destruction is the motto,
Revolution is the warcry,
''Revenge'', they cry out,
But where's the man at the hench?

Aimless to the core,
But no less is the roar,
Spilling blood on the road,
Still crying for more.

Leaving behind a trail of destruction,
Walking back with pride, on their contribution,
Little realising, its their own damnation.
I wonder, will there be a retribution?
****************

The Return

Behind the bars, I repent,
For what I never did.
These walls been my home and shelter,
These outlaws been my kin.

Behind the bars, I wait,
for the day has arrived
for me to bid goodbye,
to my abode of 20 years.

Walking the streets, it feels so new,
But the faces which smile at me are so few,
Is it just that am one not to be known,
'cause am the sign of a life went wrong.

I don't belong here, my heart says,
Now the bars beckon me,
For a crime I did,
I smile as the bars close behind me, one last time
*****************

The band members are as follows-
Vocals- Santhosh aka Mojojojo
Drums- Govind aka wolfrider
Lead guitar- Sreemon aka sreemon
Bass Guitar- Mahadevan aka Nimrod
Rhythm Guitar- Praveen aka ME...

SO, thats $+oή€@g€ 4 u....
Hope u enjoyed the show...

with love,
your crusader Praveen