Guest Author: Prakash Rajgopal ( the guy in the Gulshan Grover beard).

BENGALURU, Bangalore or just same ol’ BANGY. Oh how fortunate art thee to have been the soil which played host to Rock in India. How golden is thy spirit to have seen history in the making!The biggest International Rock Festival India has ever seen! Nine bands! Two headlining acts! The chance to get 8 hours of thrash/hard rock drilled into metal heads! What a mouth-watering prospect! Which genuine rock enthusiast would miss such a historic event? One of the top four metal acts in the world, Megadeth was playing in India. Yes, MEGADETH!! It was the last leg of their United Abominations Tour Of Duty. March 14, 2008. Palace Grounds, Bangalore. After a month of eager anticipation since booking the tickets, the day had finally arrived! We all HAD to be there to witness it. And we did!

We (my friend Harshal and I) reached the venue well ahead of time, at 1 pm. As we arrived at the venue and were waiting for the gates to open, we could hear some sound checks going on inside. There were already some people loitering around, most of them wearing black tees. I could see lots of Maiden’s, some Slipknot’s, Children Of Bodom’s, Nirvana’s around along with the usual Megadeth ones. We also saw a girl and a guy walking in, with the girl wearing a Megadeth tee, and the guy wearing a… hold your breath… 50 Cents!! Yo mama, he was right in da club!!! I also saw a guy wearing a Master Of Puppets tee. I wonder what became of him. Soon, Sujoy arrived with his gang just in time for the gates to open, and we headed inside. There were two stages on the venue. A smaller stage that was meant for the Indian bands, and a bigger one up front, obviously for Megadeth and Machine Head .

Here’s a run-up of all the bands in the order of their appearances:

1. Casino Blues: The band from Guwahati formed by Joshua, the lead singer of the Independence Rock winner band-Faith. They might’ve rued the fact that their’s was the first act of the day. With the scorching sun was beating down everybody’s necks, most of the people preferred taking shelter in the shady corners of the ground to avoid being burnt. The band had some catchy numbers. But they didn’t catch enough attention. Enough said.
Verdict: Mediocre.
Sujoy’s Verdict: Joshua has got strong vocals, but it got sunburnt.

2. Prestorika:

This Delhi-based band sure knows how to get people’s attention! They started their act with the intro of Holy Wars, and that got everybody kicked up and in the mood to rock!! They belted out most of their popular originals. They were very tight. A special mention for their lead guitarist. The solos were blazing fast, and he ripped apart the whole venue! The guitarist might’ve used all the existing guitar techniques from tapping to sweep-picking. Super-talented. But the special mention is for another reason. His mannerisms were all Kirk Hammett-inspired. I mean, Kirk Hammett would’ve been proud seeing his antics on stage and would’ve taken him under his wings! Whether intentional or not, only he can tell.
Verdict: Good.
Sujoy’s Verdict: Best Indian Metal band I have ever seen live. Hint: I haven’t seen Bhayanak Maut perform live.

3. Junkyard Groove:

I’d heard a lot about this band. They had participated in the recently-concluded Channel V Launchpad. Let’s get to their music. What Prestorika lacked, Junkyard Groove made up for big time. Melody. The songs they performed were really melodic and got the crowd cheering, asking for more. The band’s stage presence was amazing. Especially the singer was great at interacting with the crowd, making wise cracks now and then. He also got the crowd to sing along to their well-known track “It’s OK”. In one instance, the singer said, “Say something. Say We love you, Fuck off! Say anything!”. Some attitude, and alcohol for sure. The drummer, IMO, was the best of the lot. His off-beat classical style drumming was effortless.
Sujoy had earlier mentioned about the unusually long fingers of their bassist! His bass guitar too was quite different in shape. Okay, let’s stop at that.
Verdict: Very Good
Sujoy’s Verdict: Ladies n Gentlemen, Vee are Jungayaarrd Groove. Welcome ..Wannakam! Vee khickd yur asses. Yuu know that!

4. Motherjane:

A little history first. This band is based out of God’s own country (that’s Kerala, for the lesser mortals). So it’s a rock band comprising of all Mallus. I don’t have anything against their community (hell, I’m a southie myself). But it’s just that one cannot picture Mallu’s playing rock. I blame Lola Kutty’s sidekick Alex for this. Anyway, I had never heard about Motherjane before. When they arrived on stage to get plugged, I thought both the guitarists could certainly use a makeover. Sporting bushy moustaches that looked Mallu-ish from every angle, they were dressed in really “simble” attire, and were very unassuming. We joked that when not playing, to earn a living these guys must definitey be fishing or rowing boats in the Kerala backwaters (Damn you Alex!!).
Well, we had to eat our words, and how!! Right from the first note, we were all blown away! Motherjane’s music sounded like an amalgamation of hard-hitting rock and mellow carnatic classical music! What an orgasmic combination it was!! Each song sounded like it had bettered the previous one. Quite amazing! Although one guitarist (Mr. bushy moustache) did take prominence, I can absolutey not label the other guitarist as a pure rhythm guitarist. Their guitar solo’s were laced with carnatic raaga-style pieces, and lots of harmonic ones which had to be played by both guitarists. Both complimented each other very well. Their song ‘Mindstreet’ still lingers on in my mind. The way they started the song with the carnatic piece really gave me goosebumps! This was easily the best act on that day among the Indian bands.
Verdict: Excellent!!
Sujoy’s Verdict: Since IIT Guwahati’s Alcheringa 2006, I hadn’t heard of what happened to Motherjane. Two years later, they rocked not as hard as what they did then. They rocked hardER.

5. Thermal And A Quarter:6. Millennium:
We chose to give these bands a miss, and went off to grab a bite. But we were hearing them play, and we thought we weren’t missing anything great.
Sujoy’s take: Long queue at the Men’s Loo. Killed time by taking the Pic below and chuckling. Also showed to everyone around.

7. Pentagram: The last of the Indian bands to perform on the day. One thing that struck everyone about their act was that it wasn’t completely live. Most of their song parts sounded pre-recorded and were played from source. To add to this, their singer (Vishal from the Vishal-Shekhar composer duo) was jumping around with all his might and his enormous belly!! That was some sight not worth beholding! Their songs sounded like some alternative-techno-rock-punk junk. I saw a couple behind that were dancing salsa-jive to their songs while we were trying to make sense out of them. We were just looking at each other in disbelief. Here’s Pentagram, one of India’s leading bands, and what do they come play?! Pretty unimaginative stuff.
Verdict: POOR!!
Sujoy’s Verdict:4u Vishal- Tera Paao Bhari Ho Gaya, Tera Paao Bhari Ho Gaya. 4 Pentagram-please stop churning out the processed noise aka shit aka bullshit aka Pentagram.

Alright, we said. Enough of the Indian bands. It was finally the turn of the real metal messiah’s to take centerstage. More people trickled in now, and the crowd gradually moved over to the main bigger stage. It seemed as if the heavenly gods were also a mood to headbang. The weather took a turn for the better. It became overcast, a cool breeze was running across the grounds, and a stunning lightning display played in the skies right behind the stage. The setting was perfect!! We were ready!!
But sadly it appeared as if the sound guys weren’t. There are some things you should really struggle to do at a heavy metal gig. Carrying out a conversation without blowing out your lungs should definitely be one of them. Well. when Machine Head and Megadeth came out to play, the sound system seemed to have a mind of its own. The volume kept going up and down, and the sound kept panning right and left. Hell, the Indian bands sounded louder and better than these guys. Anyway!

8. Machine Head: I had heard only two of their songs way back in college. Songs whose names too I had long forgotten. Machine Head shredded and shredded. Their solo’s were incredibly fast. I yearned for some melody in their songs. But they came and shredded the place down.
Verdict: Above Average
Sujoy’s Verdict: Why can’t I hear the guitars, or the drums or the vocals. I can hear him complain about the marijuana smoke from the front row. Damn you Penta’hose’gram. You played so damn loud. Now I can’t hear what I came to listen.

9. Megadeth: I couldn’t believe I was seeing Dave Mustaine in person. Megadeth played some of songs from their latest album United Abominations, and many of their popular ones like In The Darkest Hour, Skin Of My Teeth, Symphony Of Destruction, Tornado Of Souls. Dread And The Fugitive Mind wasn’t played, ading to the disappointment of a lot of people.

I’ve always felt it takes great skill to sing while executing some of those wrist-bending riffs, and Mustaine showed why he is one of the best! He was flawless in his solo’s and played them almost exactly the way they appear on the records. Chris Broderick, the new lead guitarist, was a tad disappointing though. No doubt, he was exceptionally talented, what with Mustaine drawing analogies between him finding Chris to Ozzy finding Randy Rhodes. But he seemed to lose control and fly away while playing some solo’s, and didn’t interact with the crowd very much. Probably the long tour must’ve taken its toll. But Marty was sorely missed.

They also did their Holy Wars/Mechanix mash-up which they have been doing recently at other concerts. Overall, although Megadeth were awesome, the sound screwed it all up. Mustaine’s closing words would be in memory for some time atleast: “You’ve been great, we’ve been Megadeth!”.

Sujoy’s take: It is a bad BAD thing to play and fuck around with the sound console during a concert. It’s considerable if it’s a Pune gig, punishable if it’s I-Rock, and sinful if it’s the Gods who are playing. I could hear someone shift the balance from left to right to left again. That was actually all that I could hear. Not the vocals of Mustaine, not the shreds of his guitar and not the bullets fired from the Drums. Damn you..whoever responsible.

Sujoy concludes: The skies were with us. It was dark and the clouds were roaring for Metal. They flashed the lightnings. They roared like they should. But then, nothing else could roar or was disabled from roaring. I am rocked to the core, but I still got some more room to be rocked. Boo you sound guys. Now you lady, I am cheering you to bunjee-jump.

PJ of the Day: What do you call a girl who is bunjee jumping? Think! Think! Wink! Wink!

Answer: Bundee Jumping.

Extension of the prior joke: Courtesy Praxy:- What do you call an elderly lady who is bungee jumping? Think.

Answer: Behenjee Jumping.

Praxy concludes:
Overall, it was an average concert. It was really heartening to see all the Indian bands perform. It showcased the abundant talent that we have in our country. I also thought Megadeth playing with so many other bands on the same day wasn’t really a good idea. They appeared like just another band that came and went. Something other major bands would probably never do. Aerosmith’s June 2 concert at the same venue would definitely rate way higher than this one. (Save it. Not debatable at all!).
And now that Megadeth’s come and gone, it’s definitely time for a certain metal band to take note and consider touring India. DNA Networks, get the clue.

And now for the Winners of the Rock in India concert. Ladies ani Gentlemen, please applaud- OneKnightStands with Boras.

If you are a rock-addict( I mean music, and nothing related to Geology or Paleontology) in India, and you love Beer and the subsequent alcoholic preparations, and your wardrobe fashion is dominated by those Black tees flaunting the GnR, Metallica and Sabbath prints, you know which is the best place to hang out. It is Bangalore! Especially when it’s concert season. I was there for the “Rock in India” concert and the air was breathing and smelling rock , I mean grass, I mean the fragrance of beer burps, I mean all of that. We’ll talk about the concert later, here we are talking about the eternal escapism for a Rocker like me, on a Rock weekend at the Rock Mecca of India-Bangalore.The journey begins on 15th March 2008, a day after the Big-Rock in India Concert-at 6 pm from my friends’ place at Jayanagar. There’s rain and there’s Bangy’s infamous,static and most irritating traffic jams. But I was more than ready to brave all of them for the Booze, the Bass, the Beeotches at the Bar and of course Bang Bang Headbanging. Do you know the concept of Party hopping where you are so restless enough to be at more than one party on a single night. Try that when 5 glasses of LAGER are already down your throat. Anyway, first venue- STYX at MG Road. It’s still raining. Thanks to my pal’s Raincoat, I am 70% drenched. I am waiting for my friends -Praxy and Harshal to arrive.And here they are (see pic below, I am the chinki guy).

A cover charge of 200 bucks on a Saturday Night-pretty decent. And as we walk up the stairs, I can see a few chicks trying hard to speak on the phone and a few others staring at them. The doors open and I am hit by a WALL of shreddding guitars. It’s Hetfield and his army and the black tee brigade with the long hairs is echoing -Master ! Master! Instant reaction : Yeah with a devil’s horns Up!!! Walk straight to the Bar. There’s hardly any room here to stand. The seats are filled and there are some firang backpackers too. Next song (that I can remember)- predictably Megadeth – Symphony of Destruction, and the crowd just goes berserk. I gulped down the chorus line with a Smirnoff blended with Tropicana Orange. And that was when my entire gang joined in -Enter Ravikanth, Mandal and Satya. Next up-Bora, Mohanty and Barik(I have to mention their names or else I might get slaughtered SAW style). More beers with Chilly Chickens and some more vodka shots, I get my first kick already. All this while we were being hit by the Metal of Slayer, more Megadeth, Godsmack, Soulfly and Sepultura. Special Mentions: We got to see a new video: A Little Piece of Heaven by Avenged Sevenfold. Have a look at the video and you’ll get a new mashed up enlightenment of animated gore and gothic rock with growls.

It was time for us to hit to Party Zone 2. No rickshaws in the vicinity and we had to walk to Purple Haze at Brigade Road. It was already 9:25 pm and the only bad thing about Bangalore’s ( I will NOT call it Bengaluru) night life, the upper limit of 11:00pm, was hanging on our heads. The clock was ticking, the beer was gurgling in our bellies as we tried to WALK to Purple Haze. I see a lot of BRANDED showrooms with Kannada hoardings. And I could only make them out with their Logos. Seemed like a visual round at a Brand Equity Quiz. Nevertheless, we reached there in almost 20 min, at around 9:45pm. Another 300 bucks for the cover charges, taken care of by my extremely generous friends. And as we walk in, we are greeted by Mr.Robert Plant on the vocals and Mr.Jimmy Page on the Guitars, exclaiming – Wanna Whole Lotta Love!!!!!

If STYX was heavy, this was ROCK. Rock as I Love it most. Oh, I can see some familiar junta from aamchi Pune who have come to Bangy on the same bus, for the concert. Purple Haze belted out the quintessential Rock playlist featuring : Metallica- Unforgiven II(I had my Metallica Tee on, see the pic), Cranberries-Zombie, REM-Losing my Religion, Pearl Jam- Alive, Deep Purple- Smoke on The Water and God I can’t remember anymore. Coz I was already too drunk. The only mishap that happened -Harshal’s credit card got swiped thrice and he signed only once, but he was debited for all of them. Dispute raised but case not resolved yet. The damned clock struck 11 and all the music was shunned. Bollocks!!!!

I could still see people getting really jubilant, and some not so jubilant. Even at an elevated state of mind, my analytical brain was surveying the workings of the drunk rocker. And trust me, it is a delight! Either they do get extra happy and extra generous while paying off the bills, or they get extremely selfish and act sloshed and sit in the corner -acting depressed. I can also see some loser crying. Ugh! why? And oh, there’s yet another aspect that I haven’t covered. And that is Mohanty. For him, when he gets drunk, all he does is crack jokes, and not just simple plain jokes, but the most filthiest ones and of course the jokes are on the person next to him. Beware of him when he has the slightest amount of alcohol content and he strolls near you. You could be his next victim. It was like literally he was on a roll, as if some nuclear reactor was providing him a non-exhausting source of energy of Jokes. And this continued right through dinner and the walk on Brigade Road, until Mohanty’s mouth started forming foams and Barik was eternally humiliated with the color jokes.( BTW Mohanty ridiculed about my website saying: Click the pic. We’re gonna be on OKS. We’re gonna be famous. Now who’s laughing?) That’s the infamous Mohanty in orange with the specs next to me. Look at Bora.Don’t go by his looks, he is completely sober.

I know, I know. This is a closed-circuit post and I might not quite find any potential readers taking interest. but c’mon. No matter the city, no matter the names, you’d always be able to identify the characters mentioned and the events depicted. Just replace that Mohanty with a Juan or a Pablo or an LC Saikia, and Purple Haze at Bangalore with probably some bar at some street at some city. And there you go, you have your drunk Saturday Night with your drunk mates and your drunk self, banged heavily to the Rock Anthems and the Molten Hot Metal. Oh look at me so satisfied.

Confession: For me “Rock in India” was the curtain raiser to the Saturday Night Blast . Peace. \m/

Image courtesy: Praxy’s PICASA Album.

Venue Courtesy: STYX, Purple Haze.

Hospitality Partners: Satya Swaroop Sharma, Sidhharth ‘the pudhiya rolling” Bora, Orindam Mandal, Ravekanth “Co-ordinator” Kosuru, Sarthak ” Kalaprasad” Barik, Swagat “@$%^&#” Mohanty and finally ,oh! I think the list just got exhausted.

If you are one of those lazy bums who just can’t sit through the 1285 words of my previous post on the Maiden Gig in Mumbai, this is for you. And for those Maiden Maniacs like me, this is definitely for you. And for those who missed it, burn , burn, burn in ENVY!!!

The Story in Pictures .
=============================================

The Pass

The Prophet

The Place

The Playlist

The Percussions

The People

The Pandemonium

IMPORTANT LINKS:
More Pics at Flickr.
Playlist Pic courtesy Slaytan 666
IMAGE COURTESY: abhijeetkin hpiramal Satya’s Multiply Site

In the beginning, there was darkness. And the Devil said,” Let there be Metal”. So Sir Winston Churchill speaketh, “…. we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender,” and the cymbals hit hard with the guitars riffing. Mumbai screams in unison, the bass commands us to Jump, the lights go haywire, and Bruce Almighty jumps out of nowhere , over the monitors in his army cargos, and orders

“Run, live to fly, fly to live, do or die
Run, live to fly, fly to live. Aces high.”

I was there. HELL YEAH! I look around to see only one reaction, the headbanging, the fingers closed perfectly to show the devil’s horn and the music taking control. IRON MAIDEN ripped us all apart. And when you just wanted to take a breather, the shredder reveals another killer with the drums rolling to the Anti-War Anthem “2 Minutes to Midnight”. The crowd goes frenzy, and chaos prevails. My first bruise, my first kick on a guy’s back (now his T-Shirt reads the mirror image of Size 9), and even more jumps and pushes. Ladies who were expecting some sort of courtesy and ahem, respect, got the unexpected answers. Hilarious it was, when a lady started to roam around searching for her lost boyfriend, and my pal told her, Auntie, you won’t be able to manage yourself in the first row. It took her not more than two minutes to realize that.

Track 3: The very AC/DC-ish Revelations. The crowd responds as Bruce commands and that’s what you expect at a Maiden gig. Personally, not one of my Maiden favorites, and add to that, the great fall of Sujoy. I do a “Konhi to Konhi” (elbow to elbow) Dance to stand up, to be pushed down furthermore. And before I could even realize, I was at row 10 from the barricade. I somehow managed to get a breather when Dicksinson engaged the crowd with his English English. My dear neighbors thought I had passed out , I replied , not yet!! Yeah right! Unaware of what was coming up next. Track 4: “The Trooper” and you know what that means to “We, the Maiden Maniacs”. How many times have we blasted our stereos with that track, how many times have we airguitared to that riff, and how many times have we been scolded by the nasty neighbour auntie- Mrs.Shukla for making her ears bleed. And to see that song come alive in front of me, can be best described as next to Heaven. The crowd goes O-o-o-o-o-o-O-o-o, and I go completely dry, I mean dehydrated. As Mumbai faces the Charge of the Maiden Metal Brigade, I try to somehow keep myself in senses . And as the song descends, I am yet again doing the Konhi to Konhi dance to find a way to the nearest Pepsi stall. 10 bucks for a glass of water, 30 bucks for a glass of Pepsi. Gulped down, I donno how many. And before I could realize, Maiden had already opened the envelope to “Wasted Years”.

Track 5: The Number of the Beast:

I left alone my mind was blank
I needed time to think to get the memories from my mind
What did I see can I believe that what I saw
that night was real and not just fantasy
Just what I saw in my old dreams were they
reflections of my warped mind staring back at me
Cos in my dreams it’s always there the evil face that twists my mind
and brings me to despair.

And then the inhuman scream that tears every mortal soul. Bruce Dickinson at 49, pierces through every fucking metalhead’s heart with as much ease as he could always.And if you thought you’d get some time to settle down, behold, coz Run to the Hills was next, and for those who missed the United Chorus of MMRDA’s rendition of Run to the Hills, you’ve missed D-Moment.Talking about the showmanship stunts, Bruce rules with his costume changes, dry Brit humor, and his jumps which would put any athletic teenager to shame. Steve Harris and his stunts with the Bass have always been popular, and he doesn’t disappoint us. Adrian Smith – the most sober, the most calm guitarist ever and makes his job look so easy , even while executing some of Metal’s most complicated guitaring. The next three tracks that followed were- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Powerslave , Heaven Can Wait and Can I play with Madness ( never expected them to play that). Some unexpected additions to the playlist, and the crowd grew more and more impatient to listen to the most awaited song –Fear of the Dark, and as the silence ambience resonated to the four hits by Nicko on the Hi-Hat, the guitars lead the path to the crowd’s hum. The most recognized crowd song comes alive, and Bruce says: Fear of the Dark, You…Fear of the Dark. And then, the British Wave washed us down, and I jumped high with my glass of PEPSI. Spilled it on some bloody mindfuck who pushed me. Neither did I, nor he gave a fuck about it, and as the song rose to a crescendo, all of us sang along the O-o-O-o-O, and my head refused to go along, but the headbanging was inevitable and uncontrollable. I knew I had to save some for Hallowed.

This was the time when I actually so wanted to hear to Phantom of the Opera , or may be Bring your Daughter, which Maiden, surprisingly skipped. But then, how much can you ask for. Dickinson says Good Night, Thank You Mumbai, and we aren’t surprised. Because we all know, NO MAIDEN concert is complete without Hallowed, and so before even the most ignorant Maiden Maniac started screaming “Maiden ..Maiden”, we all knew that the Band is gonna come back for their encore. And yes they were.Track 13: Iron Maiden: Eddie is brought back to life, as the 12 feet cyborg Eddie walks around in his “Somewhere in Time” avatar with his muscular system showing and his gun in hand. Mr.Harris lets his bass rest against Eddie’s gun (see below). Now that’s Diabolic.

Moonchild and Clairvoyant play next, and all I can NOT feel now is my legs. Bruce Dickinson continues to go Higher and Higher and run and jump around. GOD, what does he eat (or rather DRINK)? And then…. the final nail in the coffin, the last blow, the Bazooka… as the Bell Rings and Darkness prevails, there comes a blue light, and an image singing to ME-

I’m waiting in my cold cell when the bell begins to chime, Reflecting on my past life and it doesn’t have much time.

And as Dickinson goes from running Looooowwwwwwww to Hiiiiigh…the song ascends to a level which cannot be experienced anywhere else but a Maiden concert.

I stay numb, helpless, not understanding what to do, and awestruck by the sheer power of Metal that can make so many lonely souls, who have been complaining about their mundane daily routines of 9 to 6 jobs, come together and exhale the same emotion and experience the same state of mind, simultaneously. Hallowed Be Thy Name marked the end of the first concert of the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, but the Metal was far from over. As I walked out of the venue, I see around smiles, angry faces and happy faces and well, T-Shirts soaked in sweat and dirt all emoting “Hell Yeah! I JUST FUCKING SAW MAIDEN LIVE”. If you weren’t there, where the fuck were you? Dream realized! End of Story. Peace!

Coming Up Next: The Story in Pictures.

Prelude: It all begins at the Volvo stand of Pune, near Nandu’s Paratha house, on Jan 31st, the day before the gig. Or is it, umm, Jan 21st, Planet M, MG Road, when I bought the tickets? Screw it. The excitement all began with the first rumors that emerged on various online forums that the Devil’s Official Children-Iron Maiden were coming, yet again, to make our ears bleed and reign our souls with their Metal-this time, not so far from here. I reached Mumbai on the 31st at 1:00 am, thanks to Neeta Volvo’s extremely “relaxed” pace.

Feb 1 Morning:10:00 am. Shit!Shit!Shit! Waking up to a Stomach Upset on a Maiden Concert day. Things weren’t as “green” as I wished they were. I mean the day. I had to rush for breakfast, coz I wanted to reach the venue ASAP. Had Chole Bhature for Breakfast cum Lunch and two glasses of water. Took a Bath, got into the Auto, oh yeah! got dressed, not in that order. Auto Waala was Shaana and knew that I didn’t know squat about Mumbai. So he took me for a RIDE. Ghatkopar West se Bandra Kurla ke beech main 3 flyovers paar kiya. ( He crossed 3 flyovers from Ghatkopar West to Bandra Kurla). And so I reached BKC somehow, amidst all the chaos of Kurla. The Namaaz was going as usual; the Mikes were playing the usual Himmess. And the crowd as busy and lost in the hustle- no one with any idea of the Mayhem that was about to get unleashed. But then, as I approached the venue, things seemed a little more familiar. Auto Rickshaws, Cars, and People Walking towards a Banner that read- To Iron Maiden Concert Venue. And before I knew, I had my devil’s horn on my right hand.

As I stepped out of the Auto and paid him his unworthy 102 bucks, I looked around, and all I could see was Black. No, not as in skin color. C’mon, me not racist! Black as in Uniform. Seemed like March of the Penguins, with denims and cargos below. Almost all of them read Iron Maiden, quite obviously. But then there were certain exceptions too with the very rare appearances of Black Sabbath, GnR, Nirvana, Metallica and even Pink Floyd! What made me wonder was, the variety in the prints of the Maiden T-Shirts itself. I could hardly find any two T-Shirts having the same print. And then I realised, I should stop thinking about it. I was surrounded by an Army of MetalHeads, no Maiden Heads, a proper Eddie Regiment. But yeah, as usual, nothing pisses me more than the fake posing junta that throng such events. I’m talking about the whore-leather booted, micro-minies, black-gothic kaajal, and black nail-polished “woman” flaunting their tempo-tattoos. And yeah, that goes for the guys too! I mean c’mon. Get a life!

4 HOURS TO MAIDEN:

I had the tickets in my hand, and was guarding it with my life as I stood in the queue braving the sunlight, waiting for my friend. And he calls me up to ask for my co-ordinates. I asked him,”What are you wearing?”. And then I realised, that’s why they call me D-Moron. And as you can see from the Picture above, if an aeroplance flew over BKC at that very moment, all they could see was a piece of earth turned completely black. What they failed to notice was that, that piece of earth was now soaked in Maiden Mania, and may be a little Beer too in the queue. I finally managed to locate my friend, and as the gates opened, we rushed to the barricades. Just missed the first row, and we were happy to be in the third row. Well for the time being! And as expected, bloody noisy soundchecks which ticked me off. Parikrama doing Soundcheck. Can’t hear Nitin’s vocals, neither Sonam’s lead. But ain’t bothered. That band from Chennai, Nervewreck, came and went, ain’t bothered. The crowd continues to daunt my confidence to sustain my position in the thrid row. The pushes increase, and the First Fall of the 3rd Row happens. Thankfully, zero casualties.

3 HOURS TO MAIDEN :

First Opening Act: Nervewreck. The same old Alternative Formula sound. They were tight no doubt. But, when you go to a Maiden gig, do you expect your mind to be as accepting as say, a Campus Rock finale. NO! Unless, well you are the next Metallica to take Ozzfest by storm. Won’t waste time by talking about Nervewreck. Only thing mentionable. The crowd went “Hare Raam..Hare Raam, Hare Krishna Hare Raam” (from the Bhul Bhulaiya Soundtrack) on one of their tracks. It was me who started that, and I feel so proud to have been comfortably fit in that into the song’s groove. Collars UP! My friend asks me- How the Fish do they maintain such good and silky hair-style? Look at mine. My reply- Dabur Amla Kesh Tail.( Didn’t sponsor the event, nor this post). Anyway, NEXT!

Lauren Harris- the chick born to -the Steve Harris -the Bassist. Okay, I’ll talk in syllables to describe her band. I hope you get this. Hot Chick- No one Listens-Her Music- Everyone Stares-You Know Where- Hot Leather Pants- Could Count Her Veins on …- Perfectly Shaped Bunnies- Not So Perfectly Shaved Armpits- Rock Chick Formula of Swaying- Bassist straight out from Motley Crue/Poison/Any Glam Metal Band-Only Thing Missing was Panty Hose-Purple Bass with Silver Star-Guitarist–>Zakk Wylde Clone- Drummer–>Some Old Blonde fighting with His Baldness, but hasn’t forgotten “her” Roots. Songs – Umm, something that had to do with, I want YOU, and she climbing up the Monitors and Jumping, and Shaking Her Booty and her well-conditioned Hair, and shouting Mumbai-how are you doing? You know it. All of THAT! NEXT! And sorry guys, no Pics.

Enter PARIKRAMA. Fourth time opening for the Metal Lords. But man, they have come such a long way from the last time I saw them perform live in 2005. An all original set- all kickass songs. How I want the album to get released! “In the Middle” kicks start their set. Rhythm n Blues- my favorite track, follows. By now, am surrounded by a wall of hard rock, and a Berlin Wall of nervewrecking sweaty smell. Soaked in sweat, smelling the dirt, trying to raise my mose to breathe in a fresh breathe of air, only to inhale another draft of exhaled weed. Cough!Cough! And before I could realis, Parikrama were playing their Countdown song-But it Rained. Imraan on Violins just kicks ass. But yeah! I was totaly not in the mood of hearing anything else but Maiden. They play another song -Tears of the Wizard based on Gandalf ala LOTR. Awesome groove man, especially the climax with the Violins and Sonam’s Les Paul doing a Jugalbandhi. And well, Chintan on the bass goes mad and starts playing the bass like percussion, literally. No tapping or slapping, just beating the strings like you’d play a bongo. Ok, now that I’ve let Parikrama tak up enough space, I’m just gonna shut my mouth, on Parikrama ie, and let you know, that it was still almost 45 minutes after Parikrama finished their set, until the METAL of MAIDEN was unleashed.

And what exactly did we do until then? We were fed to the commercials eh! One of the management guy had his 15 seconds of fame by making himself look like Michael Kaemen as the crowd sang to the tunes of the Reliance Mobile Commercial,” You got the Whole World in your Hands”. DNA kept reminding that they have been organising all these events for the last couple of years; round of applause!!!! And SRK and John Abraham on that Pepsi-My Can ad-More on that Ad, may be later (for now, the Ad just sucks). And well, can you believe, even after we all survived the boredom of Nervewreck, when I actually started to have hopes that there wouldn’t be any stampedes or wreckless pushing, me hopes got crushed with my legs, as a lump of 120 kilos rested his arse on my right leg horizontally, with no signs of becoming vertical. Kicked him with my left leg (thank God for my Class 8th Football Games), and managed to get out my right leg just in time. The song is getting louder, and I can barely see the translucent image of the shining cymbals behind the Black Screen. I can see the Huge Backdrop Painting of Eddie and I can also see the crowd ready to be more hostile and metal than ever before. Because what was next, was not for the faint hearted;because what was next was something we will tell our children as -We were There;because what was next, was IRON MAIDEN-First Gig of the Somewhere Back in Time-World Tour.

Next Up:- Mayhem at Maiden- Metal:Somewhere Back in Time

500 feet above ground! And I am not talking about any altitude. See 500 feet above ground, jumping to a song called “Opportunity Denied”, and think no further. Just let yourself react to the Metal of Brute Force. I thought of writing this article for a Wikipedia page. But then, thinking of the number of times of the appearance of words such as fuck and fucking awesome, and… you know the words, I realized this article wouldn’t make it to wikipedia anyway. So I had to settle down for my own small blog, again. And well, also for the fact that I really don’t have much hard facts about Brute Force either, coz I don’t know them personally, neither do I have a written track record(I don’t believe you actually need to meet the guys to know their music). But I have been a witness to the growth of a band which has stepped out of that norm of covering the yesteryears’ Metal anthems and adopted such a monstrous form of their own, which can only be expressed best by the euphoria that you get to see when Brute Force takes centre stage.

I wouldn’t exactly say, I have seen the band from their nappy days, but yeah, pretty much during the early days. My first experience of Brute Force live was Western Zone Finals Campus Rock Idols, 2005 in Pyramid Lawns, KP. There comes this short haired guitarist with eyes that can barely open (as mine) and with fingers that can just create Mayhem. Yeah!!! That guy on the drums, I had seen him scream out “Master Master” for Nemesis in the previous Campus Rock concert, when Prestorika won the finals. Don’t remember the set they played then, but yeah the self-titled original wasn’t out yet. And the results, runners up: Medusa from Bombay, and winners: Nemesis. The judges say-“It was a close call between Brute Force and Nemesis. And why didn’t they come second then?The journey from that Campus Rock Idols concert in 2005 to headlining this year’s Western Zone Campus Rock Idols 2007, has been quite long, but sure LOUD as hell. Of course, when a band has a lead vocalist with long hair, a lead guitarist with short hair, and a drummer with power arms and thunder thighs (I had to steal this phrase from an article on Sameera Reddy), and yeah a bassist who makes your ear drums go bum bum bum, what else would you expect.

Anand on the rhythm guitars and lead vocals not only takes control of the crowd, but also sings his songs, plays the riffs. I mean, yeah, you have that showmanship and all going. But what point does it make if you forget your lines and mess up with your guitars, which is not the case here. The frontman knows his music, and well does his stuff too. The weakest link or rather I’d say, the one who lags in the entire band relatively, is the bassist Aniket, the new bassist in Brute Force, according to me is just an “also exists” kinda scenario, purely because the other members just excel. So personally, I’d like the bass to be a bit louder, and a bit more prominent in the tracks, but yeah, not at the cost of just making it loud just for the sake of it. The entire song has to sound good as well. Akshay on the drums really knows the endurance limit of the drum kit and puts it to the test every time. Just see him drilling hard on the double bass, and you feel like a 100 bullets being shot at you at once. But yeah, drumming skills aren’t measured on the double bass criteria only. The main thing is, how tight they can pull the act together, and all the rolls and bangs on the cymbals with all the off beats plus the backing vocals, all have to perfectly align with each other. And it does SO. Hear them cover Dread and the Fugitive Mind, and you instantly feel how organized this band is, when it comes to timing.Wayne, hmm….talking about you is of no use. You all have seen him play live and you know what he is capable of doing with those six strings. So it makes no fucking sense in adding up those big adjectives here. Just one thing though. Wayne, no matter what they shout out at Pune concerts, Hakka noodles and all that bloody racist comments shit, you kick ASS..bigtime.

The Brute Force original composition list as of now (to my latest information) stands as the following.
Rise, Force Fed, Axis, Recipe for Disaster, Opportunity Denied and the most popular of them- Brute Force. I remember the first time I heard their first single. Man it blew me over. It sounded like some unreleased track from Kill ‘em All with the ghostly blessings of Cliff Burton. The riff starts and your head just cannot manage to hold itself straight. Its going up and down rampantly and there comes the double bass for the Kill, and then we have a Sixer…Nataraj phir Champion. Fuck, I got carried away. It was like Hit the Lights reincarnated, and in no way this sounded like any of those “We wanna be Metallica” shit. This was so Fucking Awesome. I tried to get hold of all the possible video sources of their live performance of Brute Force, and my favorite is their performance at Livewire, IIT Bombay. The sound is much better, and I can hear Wayne do his thing. Haven’t really listened to any of their other songs in the studio version, except for Opportunity Denied (I’ve only heard their other songs live). O.D. just grows on you with the intro solo, and when the distortion kicks in, you should see the crowd. It just looks like MADNESS.
Fan following, you ask. Come to any given concert where Brute Force is playing in Pune. And it certainly looks like they own it. They have a strong fan following here in Pune, and weirdly though, any concert which doesn’t play Brute Force in Pune, seems empty. As in “Janta nahi Aatee”. Is that just a coincidence, or a myth or what? Just think about it. There’s some weird connection.

To conclude, I’d say, Brute Force is the band to have come at the right time (when there were probably no bands playing original stuff) with the right kind of sound, which the fans accepted with open arms. From those utterly dark, smoky underground gigs, and the Battle of Bands at Pune Central to winning Independence Rock and many other accolades, I just hope that the journey is far from over. In my own twisted words stolen from Robert Frost,

The woods are lovely dark and deep, but Metal is what you got and Metal is what we need, and You got miles to smoke that Weed, and you got miles to smoke that weed…

\m/ . May the (brute) FORCE be with you!! Peace.

Also published at Wordsutra.com