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