You surely must have heard of ‘Campus Rock Idols,’ the band competition at the college level. It’s blessed with the biggest of sponsors and not particularly the best of bands. Well, I attended one of the city finals of CRI and I am pissed off.
It was on the 25th of January 2009 when Chennai witnessed one of the biggest metal bands in the world descend upon IIT Chennai in its annual fest titled Saarang. Firstly, a big kudos to the organizers who delivered what they had promised – Opeth.
For many aspiring as well as veteran musicians the opening of Furtados in Bangalore will no doubt be a reason for excitement and in the long run could prove to be a shot in the arm for the rapidly expanding music scene in the city. With a fantastic array of top class musical equipment on display, the inauguration of the store drew a sizeable number of people, which included the cream of the Bangalore music scene as well as guest appearances by Shivmani and Loy Mendonca.
Just about a week before the actual concert, Opeth tickets are going on sale. Priced at Rs.500 and Rs.1000, they will be available online here. Joining the Swedish troupe on stage will be Demonic Resurrection from Mumbai and Motherjane from Banglalore/Kerala (this will be before the concert, of course). 29
Eccentric Pendulum, the newest kids in the headbangers’ block came together in late 2008. These kids (well…not really)…(actually, they aren’t ‘new’ either) got together in a sort of experimental madness to conjure up some avant-garde progressive metal. Drummer Vibhas who also plays drums for Spitfire, Ashish who plays guitars for Inner Sanctum, Nikhil extracted from his previous band Assylum and bassist/lyricist Arun who used to play for Extinct Reflections make up Eccentric Pendulum. 27
The complete list of opening bands for this year’s ‘Rock In India’ festival is not yet out, but we do know for sure that Kryptos is one among them. In a Headbangers India exclusive interview, we spoke to the band about this. Vocalist Nolan Lewis said, “It’s pretty unreal. We’ve been die hard Maiden fans since we were kids. Some of us have been fans for almost 20 years so this gig is going to be something really special for us. Hopefully everything should take place without a hitch.” Touchwood, now! 25
In 2008, Bangalore witnessed, for the first ever time, an all-day rock and metal show, called Rock Ethos. The objective of the show was to promote original music. A statement that our bands no longer rely on covers to sell popularity.
Well, Rock Ethos is back this 2009 and this is what the Festival Art Director VT Srinivas had to say: 19
For the purpose of all those who want to turn into Maiden fans on the eve of the concert, here are the songs they’ve been playing throughout their ‘Somewhere Back in Time’ tour. This has been the band’s rough playlist right from their first show at Mumbai. Go ahead, google and learn up the lyrics. Quick! 15
In a country where metal concerts are put under the same category as live bands in dance bars, one will understand the frequency and the freedom with which ‘real’ shows occur. Even during those occasional music festivals, justice is never done to a metal band because of sound problems. In competitions, judges always seem to have an aversion towards non-clean vocals, and we lose out there as well. 3