Cherrapunjee Indigenous Festival 2010

If you been planning a trip to north east and if you also happen to be a die hard rock fan, next week is the time to go! The Cherrapunjee indigenous festival is on from Dec 8th to Dec 11th. You might all be familiar with the name 'Cherrapunjee', which was a constant in our school history books as the place which recieves the highest rainfall in India. The festival's aim is to showcase the traditional art and culture of Meghalaya. The display of traditional archery will be one of the highlights. But, what might be of big interest to all the rock fans out here will be the national level rock competition to be held on the 10th of December, where the winning band will take home a cash price of Rs. 1.5 lakhs.

The icing on the cake is going to be the performances by 9 specially invited bands. The list of bands performing are as follows.

1. Indus Creed- One of India's first 'big' bands 'Indus Creed' is making a comeback. And, one of the first set of concerts is going to be at Cherrapunjee. The rock machine fronted by Uday Benegal is coming together after a real long hiatus of 10 years. So, be there to witness what they've in store for you.

2. Soulmate- The blues duo of Rudy Wallang and Tipriti 'tips' Kharbhangar needs no introduction. I've already talked about them in this blog last month. This is surely an unmissable treat.

3.Abiogenesis- A rock fusion band from Nagaland who invented a genre of their own-'Howey'. Discover for yourselves what exactly that is, cos even I don't have any idea. BTW, They were nominated for grammys in the world music category last time.

4. Susmit Bose- Dubbed as the 'Indian Bob Dylan', he's a veteran who's been performing since the 70s. His songs dealing with human rights, non violence, world peace etc has earned him accolades and also at the same time highlighted important issues.

5. Lama Tashi- The former Principal Chant master of the Dalai Lama will add a dash of spirituality to the proceedings.

6. Gyomyo Nakamura- This Japanese Buddhist is a rock musician who is said to possess some insane guitaring skills.

7. Girish n the Chronicles- This Gangtok based rock band was the first Indian band to compete in Suncane Skale music festuval in Montenegro.

8. Colours-A Shillong based band formed way back in 2004.

9. Snow White



So, Booked your tickets to Cherrapunjee????

your crusader Praveen

Baiju leaves motherjane

Sad day would be an understatement to describe this day-Novermber 24, 2010. On this day, Baiju, the master guitarist, who is one of the pillars of strength of motherjane, left the band. When Nikhil called me up in the evening with this news, I was hoping that it might be a prank. But then as I headed over to the band's official website and saw the announcement in big bold letters, I was sure that my worst fears had come true. Words can't describe the emptiness that I feel right now, a feeling shared by thousands of die hard Janiacs all over the country.

We've all grown up reading about famous rockstars leaving the big bands. Friedman leaving megadeth, Slash leaving GNR and more recently Frusciante leaving RHCP and Portnoy leaving Dream theater are all fresh in our memory. But, in all this the sadness was distant. I never felt that tinge of pain that makes the sadness personal. Today was different though. motherjane is one band which inspired a generation of rock fans in India. Many young bands cite their name as the sole reason for their existence. From that day many years ago, when I heard 'maya', motherjane's been a part and parcel of my life. There was never a day untouched by their music. There are young die hard fans like Hari who goes to any lengths to watch the band live. More than any of their contemporaries, motherjane managed to touch our lives and connect with us in ways the band would never know. We found a special joy in painting our faces and swaying to the strains of carnatic rock. Those were occasions for us to unleash the spirits within and discover our true selves. Vocalist Suraj Chettan asked us once, "Don't you guys even get bored listening to the same songs in concert after concert?" We just laughed then. The truth is we were left craving for more after each of those concerts.

motherjane is one band who has found success like few other in the Indian scene. But what sets them apart is that the success never went to their heads. Highly approachable, down to earth and lacking all the airs of being such talented musicians, these guys endeared themselves to us fans. And that explains why this band has such a big die hard fan base. Also, their music has a universal appeal with even my rock hating amma saying, "I like this", after listening to 'broken'. Many of the inspiring lyrics like 'walk on' brought in positive energy during tough times. And so, when this news came as a bolt from the blue, when the band are on an all time high, I found it hard to believe. It still hasn't sunk in. Though the band puts up a brave front saying its all on friendly mutual terms, we all know how hard it hurts. Yes, everyone has personal ambitions and we need to respect that. Still, we can just hope that the outpourings from fans will just bring back the man to where he truely belongs, amongst us, as the lead guitarist of motherjane. This is a plea from a true blue Janiac...Please come back Baiju chettaaa!

Its an irony that their own song 'Broken' explains it best, how we all feel right now
We’ve all, We've all been broken
Shattered, left mute with regrets unspoken
We’ve all loved and lost
Been forsaken, repented our deepest trust

We’ve all wondered why
Destiny picked us to cry
Why faith has to be tested,
And life doesn’t turn out the way intended

We’re mended to be broken
Yet human clay believes itself golden
Stunning in its courage to be happy
As wild elations tempered with black melancholy

your crusader Praveen

Tehelka, Leave alone Indian rock!

Tehelka. One magazine that was 'different' from all the others in the Indian market. They spoke truth. They were fearless. They wrote with conviction. Their long well researched articles were a treat to read. They exposed atrocities which few others dared to talk about. They lived up to their slogan of being 'free, fair and fearless'. But, a small mistake in the structure can take down a big castle. And thats exactly what is happening to Tehelka. In the issue dated April 17th, they decided to carry a so called expose on the media's hysterical coverage of the Indian rock scene. Inder Sidhu writes a supposedly path breaking article on how the whole Indian rock scene is a sham and says that everyone is desperately trying to sell a scene that does not even exist.

The introductory lines tell us how 'well researched' the article is. Leave alone 'well researched', I doubt if he ever consulted anything other than his 9th standard geography text book while writing this classic piece. Spiced up with quotes from unheard of bands crying loud on how the Indian scene will never take off, the writer goes on to throw mud on the face of every Indian rocker and rock journalist. Starting with the most outrageous of comments where he says thus about the one and only Indian ocean- "That one of the most original bands in the country has been working within the same musical framework for 30 years is, frankly, shocking." This one sentence shows the thorough lack of knowledge of this 'journalist'. This is like saying Zakir Hussain been playing tabla all his life and never tried anything else. Only an unbelievably naive person can make such a stupid comment. And to say this about one of India's widely respected band which has given us some timeless music, takes much more than the presence of duplicate rubber balls inside one's pants and elephant dung inside one's brains.

"The vocabulary and context for rock criticism does not exist in India"-Thats another main point of the article. And this from a man who has mentioned the Rock Street Journal in the same article. I wonder if has ever read one issue of this magazine or visited any of the 100s of blogs providing in depth analysis on new releases and on the concerts happening around. He says this 'shoddy coverage' is a reflection of the shoddy music. This is exactly where the lack of research shines the most. He must've got his hands on a bootleg CD by some startup college rock band and wrote a whole article thinking that this is what Indian rock is all about. He talks about the lack of depth in lyrics and amateurishness in music, all the while keeping bollywood as a reference for the perfection of all this. He says that the homegrown rock lacks character compared to its original roots in the American 'protest music'. He paints the Indian rock musician as an upper middle class junkie, smoking weed and bankrolled by indulgent parents. Mr. Inder, if you can hear sounds with your seemingly non existent ears, do check out a band called motherjane, one of India's top most bands. Their lyrics have more depth than any music you ever heard till now, their music is truely Indian and truely international at the same time and they are all middle class Indians who stays away from weed and the like. There are many more examples like that including Junkyard groove, Indian Ocean, TAAQ and many more. And these are the guys who rule the scene, the same scene which you says 'does not exist'.

Next comes another blunder. Inder says Indian rock is concentrated in 'A-grade metros' like Delhi and Mumbai. The writer seems to be blind to Bangalore, the rock capital of India. There's only a passing mention of the north eastern states, where rock is there in every home and Bob Dylan is seen in as high esteem as Sachin Tendulkar. And while writing this article sitting in his a/c room in one of those A-grade metros, Inder seems to have also missed the rising rock revolution in small cities like Trivandrum, cochin, manipal etc. The young bands coming out of these places are so utterly creative and will surely carry the torch of Indian rock music forward. With this one article, you have mocked at all the hard work that these bands put to do what they like. You have mocked at the undying spirit and passion of an ever growing fan base. You have mocked at metal gods like iron maiden who have acknowledged the might of the Indian fan base. Just think about it, are these guys that foolish to come to our country 3 times in 2 years if we don't have a big enough fan base. And its not metal oldies alone who are flocking to our country. We had the progressive sensations 'opeth' and 'porcupine tree' coming down here last year. And this year will see one of the bands that defined this past decade in metal, 'Lamb of god' performing in Bangalore. I do wonder if you have ever heard of these names considering your knowledge in rock doesnt go beyond that stupid 'rock on' reality show in MTV.

A humble request to the media- Its ok if you don't cover Indian rock music. This movement has grown even without an iota of support from the mainstream media. And now that you've realised that this has grown much more than you ever thought it will, you are puncing on it so that you can also get a share on the big pie. Yes, even bashing can make the cash registers ring. Rather than writing such mis informed articles, you could spare us and let us live our own way. We were doing fine without you. And we will continue to be fine without you. And just like the title of your article screams-"Don't believe everything you hear". I'll think twice before I believe what 'fools without conviction' blurt out in the name of 'feature on Indian rock music scene'. You and your ilk of half baked heads may get orgasms over your careful wordplay deriding something mighty. But we just don't give a fuck for it. And it can't be said better than what was said by Thermal And A Quarter in that open letter to tehelka with that awesome quote from their own cult song 'Paper puli'- “Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.”

PS- Wrote this because I was saddened at this shoddy journalism on the part of one magazine which I care for. If it was any of those trashy yellow mags, I wouldn't have cared a bit. We expect much better from tehelka. Hope they don't carry such crap in the future and live up to their old name. And, I won't stop my subscription just because you let one idiot into your pages!

Recommended reading for Inder Sidhu-Ten commandments of Rock journalism. Am sure you'll get a 0/10.

your crusader Praveen

fRock/cock in India:when backstreet boys come to India

A take on the rock scene in India....and why backstreet(gaystreet) boys SUCK bigtime!!!

We thought its a prank. Even after press releases and ADs, we refused to believe it. It sounded more like a prank rather than news. But, now with just one day remaining to the event, our worst fears are coming true. Indeed, now its clear that its not a prank that the mighty backstreet(gaystreet) boys are performing at India's one and only rock fest, 'Rock in India'. The hallowed Palace grounds which was host to some of the gods of rock and metal will be thrown open to a band which has come to be hated unanimously by rock fans all over the world. DNA, the organisers has done a sell out of epic proportions, unprecedented in rock history. Or perhaps, it will remain unmatched in future too.

It all started in the 2nd half of the last decade, the slow but sure rise of Indian rock. Rock bands were around in the country much before that, from the days of woodstock. But it was never known as a 'scene' outside the country. The odd international rock band did make its appearance during the 90s and the first half of this millennium. But there was something missing. There was a sudden explosion in the number of bands in the later half of the decade. It was not an isolated revolution. It was a sweeping one, literally from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Would you believe that a small city like Trivandrum has more than 10 active bands? Then there are 'rock in the genes' kinda cities in the north east where there are more than 50 bands in each of them. And then there's the epicentre of it all, Bangalore. And with the advent of broadband internet and social networking platforms like myspace and facebook, it just exploded. From playing covers of international bands, Indian bands graduated to playing only original compositions. And the audience too matured with them and stopped screaming for covers. Infact, the crowd began singing along their original compositions at the concerts. Slowly, but surely, Indian rock found its feet.

DNA networks came as a godsend for the rock fans as they brought to India some of the best acts in the business. Back in 2007, when Iron Maiden came to India for the first time, 50,000 crazy fans filled up the arena. Bruce Dickinson and co. were overwhelmed by this response and visited us 2 more times in the next 2 years. In 2008, 'Rock in India' was born, a first of its kind fest in India featuring the legendary 'Megadeth' and 'Machine head' alongwith 9 other Indian bands. And in 2009, 'Iron Maiden' came back again to bless rock in India, though this time the support acts were below par. In between, the IITs brought in popular contemporary bands like 'opeth' and 'porcupine tree'. Then small rock fests began to emerge like the deccan rock fest featuring 'Amon amarth' and 'Textures'. We thought it couldn't get better. And towards the end of last year, DNA sent out a mail asking fans to select the bands which they want to see in 'Rock in India 2010'. It was a mouth watering list to say the least, boasting of bands like 'Slayer', 'judas priest' and 'Lamb of God'. We waited..impatiently..for 2010 to arrive.

Arrive it did, in the worst possible manner. DNA announced backstreet boys as headliners of Rock in India alongwith Richard Marx, a pop singer past 50, still singing songs about teen love. Nobody has a problem with them coming to India. But, why a rock fest?? That too, the only one the country can boast of. Agreed, even I did love their music while I was in school, before I realised how they are fooling us all. Its a band(not worthy to be called a band) which has never written a single line of lyrics on its own or composed its own music. Its all done by professionally hired men, whom you never get to see. All they do is lend their voices, which also is heavily processed to mask their lack of talent. The band was put together by a guy called Lou Pearlman, who wanted to convert his black money. And thus he created this band after a series of auditions and spent lavishly on the band. And, he did reap his benefits. He appointed the lyricists and producers. Yes, its not a typical band that came together because of their similar tastes in music. But a fraud man's brainchild to convert his black money. And all they sang about was love, broken hearts and the likes. All with mannerisms which caused them to be branded as a gay band. On stage, they lip synced. Nobody complained. Girls screamed out loud and their boy friends too screamed with them at the concerts. Its not for nothing its called POP. A corporate gimmick to manipulate popular culture to mint millions. And millions sang along, "I want it that way", the gay way, the lip syncing way, the sell out way. Its not a story of backstreet boys alone, but every other boy band. And most of their fans have grown out of that age and moved away to more mature music. Then, DNA tells India, 'surprise surprise..presenting before you, the backstreet boys live at Rock in India".

The Indian rock fans haven't taken this snub from DNA lightly. Head to any online forum, and you'll see hardcore fans ready to smoke the backstreet boys out of India. The Rock in India website was defaced twice. Renaming it 'Cock in India' and 'fRock in India'. Then there was the legendary Hitler youtube video where hitler comes to know about gayboys coming to the fest and all hell breaking loose. All we are asking for now is to change the name of the fest. Don't play with the self respect of the average Indian rock fan. Rock means much more than just the music. Its an ideology beyond money, religion and such things. Its origins can be traced to the protest music of the 60s. Sometimes its a call for revolution and sometimes its a call to break free. 'Rock in India' conjured up similar images and much more in us. It was a dream for many of us to one day see this fest becoming as big as 'Rock in Rio' or the 'download fest'. With this shameless sellout which the bosses at DNA described as "respecting the long standing demand for more commercial music from various quarters", those dreams lay shattered. And they say, its not a rock fest but a music fest and it will cater to music of all kinds. Then why the fucking hell you name it 'rock in India'? why not 'music in India' or 'pop in India'? Its an open secret that they wanted to popularise this fest among a 'different' kind of audience. But with this decision, they were digging their own grave. The previous times when they brought in pop acts like Enrique and Shakira for some independent fests, the crowd was maximum of about 5000. Whereas all the rock fests have somewhere around 30,000. Businesswise too, this is suicide. Another reason they are giving is that most of the international bands are on tour right now and many of them are also unaffordable. Give me a break guys! There are 1000s of bands available. Don't go for the big ticket acts if you don't have the money. Just give us a fest of Indian bands alone. Or just dont conduct the fest this year. Wait till your financial situation becomes better next year(which I doubt now).

Even more sad is the fact that some Indian bands have actually agreed to open for backstreet boys, which includes 2 bands I admire, 'swarathma' and 'Indigo children'. When I conveyed to 'swarathma' about our displeasure at such a promising band doing a sell out, what I got was a robotic reply saying "we dont care about who plays before or after us...come if you respect us". No band worth their self respect would agree to play at such a fest and here we have these guys talking about us respecting them. SHAME! Frankly, am thinking of destroying their CD though I love the songs. Already, there are talks of protest marches by rock fans at the 2 venues, Delhi and Bangalore. And there are every chances of small riots. And even a chance of some people actually buying the tickets to get in and throw bottles at Backstreet boys. I only pray that they get a really bad reception so that no pop band will ever think of visiting India. And its time the corporate assholes at DNA learned a lesson or two. Never mess with Indian rock fans. And thanks to these widespread protests, the Indian metal fans have come in for appreciation in various international rock forums. Hopefully more bands will be attracted to this wonderful audience here. Rock is not a passing fad, unlike pop. You'll never get to hear a dialogue like, "I used to listen to metallica in college". Once a rock fan is always a rock fan. You dont leave it behind and move on to other music as you leave the teens(which is the case with pop bands). DNA has betrayed such a loyal fan base. Their move is against the very idea for which rock stands for. DNA can better quit event management and go for PIMPING. Even pimps have more self respect. So, rock fans of India...raise your middle fingers in unison to the pimping corporation that is DNA. Let anarchy rule. Let gaystreet boys run for their life...\m/

and for rock in India 2010...the metal symbol becomes /m\ ..picturise it, what it conveys! :)

your crusader Praveen

Porcupine Tree: Live in IIT Bombay

Steven Wilson- 'way out of here'

Note-All pics taken in my LG mobile cam...

Porcupine Tree is a band which I fell in love with 2 years back, after my old band's bassie Mahadevan handed me a cd of all their albums till date. Me being a heavy metal addict and not much of a progressive rock fan, I never heard even the name of this band before that. But that day changed it all. Once I finished with my first set of 20 odd songs, I was sure that those who classified them as progressive rock was not giving full credit to the band. Most of their songs were so refrshingly different that each of them could find mention under different genres. Though am not much of a genre classification fan, I would say they are turely genre benders. Last year, I added their name amongst bands which I wanted to see live. And so when IIT Bombay announced that PT is gonna headline this year's annual fest, I was sure I'll be there.

So, we 4(me, Raja, Nikhil, Sabarish) set out from Bangalore on Dec 18 Friday and reached Mumbai on 20th night after a short trip of Pune and Lonawala(detailed photo posts on those trips coming soon). Unlike usual rock fests, this one was on a monday, thus making sure that I maintain my zero leave balance. We got into the venue after some serious adventures and altercations with the organisers, about which I'll write at the end of this post. Thanks to a strict rule, I had to keep my camera outside in safe custody of my friend Meenu, who's studying there. And thanks to her, we could fill up our stomachs as we waited in the long queue. By the time we got in, all the opening bands had got over and Parikrama was half way through their set. My sincere thoughts on them is that the vocalist Nitin Malik should refrain from opening his mouth when he's not singing. He has this quality of rubbing the crowd the wrong way with his tongue(no pun intended :P ). The crowd which was waiting for PT had welcomed them with 'BC,MC' chants. It was understandable and he should've kept his cool. Anyway, thanks to the brilliant violinist Imran Khan and guitarist Sonam Sherpa, they did put up a good show. By the end of their show, we were slowly moving ahead in the crowd. Dead centre front being our destination..(special mention-Guitarist Sonam sherpa's T shirt with SC-ST printed in AC-DC font)

Time flies

Wilson at arm's length...no zoom used..

The venue was very small for a concert of such magnitude. And the crowd also numbered to less than 7000, partly owing to it being a monday. But the crowd that had turned up was no less in spirits. Chants of 'PT, PT' and 'steven, steven' were heard from all around and we also joined in. As expected everyone wanted to be in the front and this resulted in many people being jammed against the front barricade. The atmosphere was heating up with anticipation as the stage was being setup for PT. And then suddenly it all went dark and the crowd let out a loud cheer. The strains of 'occam's razor', the opening track of Porcupine Tree's new album 'The Incident' were heard. In came Steven Wilson and his band of British rockers. Magic was set in motion. They followed it up with the 2nd track from incident 'Blind house'. For a minute, we thought they are gonna play the whole album in its entirety. The next song 'The sound of muzak', describing the fall in standards and the hypocrisy prevalent in modern music, put to rest any such thoughts. The old classics began to flow. And then there was this funny scene of the organisers unnecessarily unleashing cops amongst the crowd. They behaved like jokers there and normalcy settled in once they left. 'Hatesong' was going on then.




Then came 'Time flies', my favourite from the new album. Wilson perched himself on a chair and strummed on his acoustic. As the lyrics went 'I was born in '67, the year of sgt. pepper', we realised this guy's 42. But he looked so young that he could pass off as a college student. 'Lazarus' was one of the highlights of the concert with almost the whole crowd singing with him. It was heaven to listen to those sublime keyboard work from Barbieri. A little known fact is that opeth's vocalist mikael akerfeldt has sung backing vocals for the original track. As the song concluded, my friend remarked, 'i was tripping on the song'. It couldn't have been said better. A writeup on this concert is not complete without a mention of the visuals in the background. Some songs had visuals exclusively made for concert and some had the actual music videos projected on the screen. The most notable among the videos was the one of 'way out of here', about 2 gals who were fans of porcupine tree and got crushed under a train while they were taking pics on the rail. Many of the videos were mysterious and confusing but just watching those were sheer pleasure. The only problem was concentrating on the artists and the video at the same time. By this time, we were right in front, hanging on the barricade. Steven wilson was at a hand's length as he came right to the edge of the stage a couple of times. His eyes glowed like those of a saint's as he sang those profound lyrics. Infact, lyrics is one of the highlights of the 'PT' experience. Also suprising was the scene of him playing barefoot.


Most of the familiar songs like 'blackest eyes', 'open car', 'start of something beautiful' and 'russia on ice' were played. Two stalwarts whom I didn't mention till now are drummer Gavin Harrison and bassist Colin Edwards. Precise,complex,thumping...these are words that fit both of them. But they were at their unassuming best and all happy that Wilson was in the limelight. Rhythm guitarist John wesley also did a great job. In between the old classics, the band mixed some more new tracks like 'octane twisted' and 'the seance'. I was surprised that there were many who sang almost all lyrics perfectly, especially one beautiful girl standing behind me. At the end of these songs, they stopped abruptly, said thanks and left. And as expected they were back for the encore, which was surely THE best part of the concert. As Wilson played the evergreen 'Trains', the crowd roared in delight. It was followed up with a mindblowing rendition of 'halo'. And that was the end..Impressed by the crowd, Wilson said they'll be back pretty soon. Yes, we are waiting... If you still haven't listened to porcupine tree, do it right now...




about the organisers- Frankly speaking, I haven't seen a more arrogant bunch of organisers at any of the rock fests in India. We reached there at 4 15 PM to exchange our print outs with tickets and they coolly told us that they wont let us in since we are late. They told us about their rule that passes wont be given after 4PM. This, after we had already paid money online for 3 tickets, thats 3000 bucks. We begged to him, telling him how we came there 1000km away from Bangalore after taking 2 leaves. The arrogant guy asked us such stupid questions like, "why cant you take more leave and come early?", "if you love the band so much, why cant you sacrifice your time for them", "we gave you enough time". For about 30 minutes, we had a big fight. He even went to the extent of saying that we wont even get our money back. Losing all my temper, I called him an MF. But as it happens usually when you are losing your temper, it all came out in malayalam. Anyway, he got the message and he was shouting to the security to throw me out. Thankfully they didn't. More losers of his ilk showed up to tell us we wont be let in. By then, more people having the same problem gathered there. Then the main organiser, an young lady tried to cool down the situation by offering to sign in all the sheets and let us in. And, there comes another bloody loser advising her not to jump into trouble. After so many such negotiations, they let us in late through the VIP entry. A big thanks to those sensible souls among the organisers. And a big finger to the bespectacled guy wearing an Iron Maiden t shirt who seemed to have shitted his senses off during his last visit to the loo. Guys, its ok if you dont respect your guests. But atleast dont mistreat. These are the things you should learn in nursery, not in IIT. Better take some of those lessons now. To end it all, thanks to those wonderful guys at IIT Bombay who made this landmark concert happen. Barring this ticket fiasco and the late admission of the crowd, it was a well conducted rock fest.. CHEERS!

your crusader Praveen

Deccan Rock Fest '09-Amon Amarth & Textures

Amon amarth on stage

Indian metaldom is hot and happening. Many of the top billing bands seems keen on visiting this newest addition to the metal map. And, this saturday saw 2 more additions to the growing list of international acts to have performed in India. Textures from Netherlands and 'Amon Amarth', the godfathers of viking metal from Sweden performed in Bangalore this Saturday. Titled 'Deccan Rock', the fest featured 6 Indian metal bands and the 2 headlining acts.

The fest got to a delayed start. I was supposed to shoot for the band 'Eccentric pendulum', who got a chance to open the fest after winning a competition. As the start got delayed, me, Pappu and Nikhil decided to take a walk outside in search of ATM, a loo and an eatery. Let me confess that I was the only one who was in dire need of all the 3 items. We walked on and on and on, almost 4-5 kilometres in random directions until we got all 3. And by the time we finished it all and got back to Palace grounds, 4 bands had already finished playing, including EP. Thanks to Nikhil from 'Eccentric pendulum', I managed to sneak in my camera. And it was a new experience, shooting from the midst of a pretty violent crowd. More than a dozen times, I was hit badly thanks to a non-stop moshpit just near us. And it was pretty hard to focus which is evident in the 100s of snaps I deleted.

Coming to the concert, I've n't heard much of textures or Amon prior to the concert. But I instantly liked both bands for their raw energy. Though I found headbanging to textures a tough ask considering their constantly changing beats. The star of the night for me was Johan Hegg, the vocalist of Amon amarth. With his booming bassy vocals, flowing beard and king like stance, he just stole the show. It was a night of metal mayhem that will be remembered for a long time. Only bad thing was that the headlining act got to perform only 7 songs.
Now to the pics

Textures

Amon Amarth Pics






your crusader Praveen

Octoberfest:motherjane,TAAQ n Indian Ocean! A Treat!

Octoberfest 2009, the annual rock rock fest of Bangalore modelled along the lines of the famous German Ocktoberfest was a veritable treat this time around. 23 of India's best bands were in town to give a treat to Bangaloreans over 3 days. Due to my trip to Manipal for another rock fest, I could catch only the last day of the fest. I missed out on bands like avial which played over the first 2 days. But that one evening was enough to satisfy my apetite as 3 of my all time favorite bands played on the same stage one after the other on the final evening. motherjane, Thermal And A Quarter(TAAQ) and Indian Ocean made palace grounds the place to be on oct 25 and left the audience craving for more.

I've no more words to say about motherjane. They've used up all my words with show after show of unparalleled brilliance. The story was not much different here. We, the janeheads, went with our faces half painted and wearing our custom made 'AMAJANIAC' T shirts. motherjane's following has increased manifold over the past year and it was evident from the big crowd which was there screaming out their names and singing along the lyrics. As always, it was a clinical performance peppered with their trademark friendliness and warm vibes. There were many moments when I thought of hurling the camera away and jumping to the middle of the crowd. Yes, concerts are best enjoyed when you are right in the middle of the pandemonium rather than just walking around clicking from inside the press box. Towards the end of motherjane's show, vocalist Suraj came down from the stage to meet the audience.

motherjane on stage

motherjane-suraj-chasing the sun

motherjane fans in high spirits

suraj with the crowd

The second band of the night was Thermal And A Quarter(TAAQ). Bruce Lee Mani and his funky band is easy on the airs. Be it the song that describes the life of a software engineer or the funny drinking song sprinkled with bruce's burps, they had the audience in a 'forget-everything-else-and-chill out' mood all the way. Their regular bassist was not available but the replacement guy was also as precise as a machine. A highlight of this year's fest was the visuals that accompanied each song in the background. motherjane's visuals were a shade better than the others because it was mostly exact representations of the song's theme.

TAAQ-Bruce Lee Mani

TAAQ-Rajeev Rajagopal

TAAQ-Bruce, up close

TAAQ

TAAQ

The final band of the night was Indian Ocean. From the time I heard Kandisa many years back, its been a dream to watch this socially conscious band live. And that long wait was worth it. They were missing their lead singer cum Tablist Ashim Chakravforthy rom the line up because he suffered a heart attack and was in a coma back in Qatar. His deep vocals were surely missed in this show. But the stand in vocalist and the tablist did a good job. Rahul Ram was oozing with passion as he sung his throat out and at the same time churning out those majestic bass lines. Hearing him sing the lines 'kise kaafir kahega...' from the black Friday song 'Bandeh' gave me goosebumps. Anyone who has ever heard Indian Ocean won't have any doubts on the brilliance and uniqueness of their guitarist Susmit Sen. All those legendary solos were reproduced to perfection on stage. And Amit Kilam, the drummer sometimes left his drums to play some weird percussion instrument(the name of which I dont know), most notably in the song 'maarewa'. And, he proved to be an allrounder as he played the flute in one song too. The crowd went berserk for the most popular song of theirs, 'Kandisa'. Surely this was one of the best ever nights of Indian rock in Bangalore.

Indian ocean- "Kise Kaaaafir Kahegaaaaaaaaaaa"

Indian ocean-Amit Kilam,Rahul Ram,Susmit Sen and the 2 stand in artists for Ashim

Indian ocean-Amit on the flutes, Rahul Ram taming the bass

Indian ocean-Rahul Ram...intensity personified

Indian ocean

The only bad thing was that the 'great indian rock fest' also happened on the same day at the same venue. We could hear the sounds from there when the music stopped here. And sometimes the lights too. The GIR also had a great lineup including international bands from Norway and Sweden. But it was never hard to decide which fest to attend. Yes, Indian rock is too hard to resist. And it has begun its much awaited rise...

Now to the posing part!!!I switched off the cam and gleefully posed with the stalwarts!

me,Raja,Navi and Nikhil with Bruce Lee Mani of TAAQ

me,Sanjeev Thomas(Guitarist-A.R.Rahman,Rainbow bridge),motherjane Clyde,John,Nikhil,Navi

janeheads with Amit Kilam, Indian Ocean's drummer

me,Navi,Nikhil with motherjane Baiju and Benny Dayal

Nikhil and me with Rajeev Rajagopal of TAAQ

with Indian Ocean

Sorry to bombard you with such a big collection of pics. Forgive me until the next big rock fest :)

your crusader Praveen