If there is one festival which can bring Mumbai to a halt (other than celebrating the return of the victorious Indian National Cricket team from the T20 World Cup 07), it is the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Lord Ganesha is considered to be the Remover of Obstacles in Hindu Mythology and is one of the most widely worshiped gods in India.
This is my first year in Mumbai and it provided me with an opportunity to be part of the festival that defines Mumbai, in the form of the Dance Ganesha Festival @ Mahalaxmi. This festival is in its 9th year and is a favorite haunt of a lot of celebrities who want to party as well as celebrate the elephant god. This party happens on the last day of the festival when all Ganesha idols are immersed in the sea.
The party is hosted on top of a huge trailer truck which travels all the way from Mahalaxmi to Hajji Ali, with a DJ spinning his tracks and a 100 odd super exclusive invitees on the trailer partying and dancing. The DJ was Whosane and the whole experience can't be written about, only experienced. So without much ado lets move onto the videos of the event.
If you are looking for Day 1 content, kindly click here
First of all a huge round of applause to Farhad Wadia for his never ending support to Indian Rock year after year and also to event organizers E18 for the wonderful show. I found the sound to be much better than the Iron Maiden concert in Bangalore
Dream Out Loud The band that started the second day was Dream Out Loud. The band exhubed great energy on stage, and working on an all original set is not very easy with the rock prudes from Bombay yet they managed to get people jumping. Also the first band of the day has always been received with a strange sorta skepticism by most people. Their guitarist had people raving and he also did the tongue trick :D
Them Clones Next up were the band that I was waiting to watch ever since I had seen them perform at Mosh Mania two years back: Them Clones. This is one of the only hands that has a no frills attitude. You don't see long hair, you don't see naked bassists and drummers, you don't see a vocalist sporting a beard or jumping around. Of course a similar attitude was shown by the Bangalore band Caesar's Palace on Day 1 as well but that I hadn't discovered till that day. Even the Them Clones vocalist could pass for the boy next door who had ended up in the wrong lane because he had come to watch a movie at Fun Republic. But the man commands the crowds, I've seen it before and I saw it again. Their guitarist again, no real frills, enjoys playing, his composure is calm even in the craziest of Morello solos. Yet, the band radiate energy. Was a great experience as they went on to do a great set which blended both their originals and their trademark famous covers: Disturbed's Stupify, RATM's Killing in the name of. Though my favourite's alwas gonna be their originals: My life & Zephyretta (though someone must check the pronounciation of this name for them).
Pin Drop Violence PDV, The king of the mosh band. They started quite a terrific mosh but most fans were disappointed in their performance. There seemed to be something missing as most people were heard saying. I actually heard someone say, "They did a better gig at Razz." They had the moshers eating outta their hands. I had meanwhile walked back for a drink and was sitting on the sparse grass while this got done with. This is something I didn't do on Day 1.
Oldies Dinosaurs of Rock, don't really have much to say about them. I don't know the name of the guy who came up first but remember seeing him on Movers and Shakers performing with the Rubber Band. He did a spoof called Another Rides the Bus. Then came in the non-Dinosaur female vocalist Shazneen for the evening who looked like she had been possessed by Robert Plant, no complaints. Up next was Rajiv (once again my memory fails me) as he started off with Lynyrd Skynyrd and wrapped it up with a cover of Coming back to life. The best line he said on stage was to the bottle throwers, "Somethings never change." with reference to the changing music, changing crowds. Fahad Wadia came next, successfully had the crowds moving with a successful cover of Pink Floyd's Time and then terrible covers of Hoochie Koochie Man and some AC/DC number. Last up was the crowd's favourite Dinosaur and my least favourite: Gary Lawyer. I'm happy he didn't get to perform his original because the cops barged in. He started with Creed's My Sacrifice and then did The Doors' LA Woman. And well that wrapped another evening.
Though, I didn't feel as sated as I felt on Day 1, still no regrets over the 200 rupees spent. I think I was just happy, I got to see Them Clones perform again.
Brought to you by the dynamic duo, Jugality-Trashhead.
Review: Jugal mdY Media: Sukamal
I know that the Headbangers and Moshers Union will kill me for this but the first day of the 22nd Independence Rock was the most fulfilling rock experience in the last 5 I-Rocks that I've attended in my little life. The last year I actually did not go to I Rock, didn't bother to see what the line-up was because I just presumed that it was all going to be Death Metal, Black Metal or something Metal with all the wannabe moshers running here and there - may be the bands are good at what they do, but I kinda need a break. Let me just get ahead with the bands now than keep ranting:
Black The event kicked off with Black, a Bombay based band deriving heavy influences of grunge. They were the last band to sound check so their sound checked OC (Newspaper boy, if I'm not mistaken) became their first song as the crowds had started to trickle in. The most memorable song that they performed was their cover of Pearl Jam's Black and it showed that it was their favourite song (as the vocalist had claimed.) The band had great timing and a terrific live presence, with the lead vocalist even jumping off the stage, off the barricade and moshing through the crowd as well.
Boomerang The next were a band from Mizoram called Boomerang. The band came through as a little unlucky with the guitarist's strings snapping right at the first number which was RATM's Bulls on Parade. That took a bit of their time while the band just stood there on stage like lame ducks waiting for the string to be replaced. Despite the crowd shouting out to them, "Play some bass!" or "Do something!" Their music had the crowd raving and illiterates calling them Nepali. You know it's strangely funny but no matter how much we accuse the rest of the world, I realised how stupidly racist Indian youth is. Most of them couldn't understand and stand the fact that a band who they hated because of their physical appearance actually put up fucking good act. To add to that: Bombay is the most wannabe rock scene ever. Coming back to Boomerang, they've got this great reggae and blues sound to their rock and they probably gave me the most memorable extended live version of Killing in the name of. Their original "Who do you wanna be?" was once again nothing less than terrific. One wished that the glitch didn't happen and they had gotten to perform their whole set.
Half Step Down Next up were Half Step Down, starting off on a very different sound from their predecessors. A very mixed influence was visible in their sound which for a while had me listening closely. But by the time they reached their third song, I was a fan. One of their originals "Overture to Outer Space" was a great number because of the piano solo prelude. I wish they had more live energy. Most of the band just stood there like mechanical dolls doing their thing. The guitarist had come pretty funkily dressed in a cowboy hat and three-fourths but all that attention drawn to him seemed like a waste.
After Burn Following Half Step Down, was the worst band of the evening in my opinion. After Burn was the not-so-good band in the terrific line up. I think the problem lied with the fact that their vocalist was just not cut for the scene. The only good thing I could see coming from the vocalist was the cover of Pearl Jam's Animal. The rest of the band though sounded perfect. Their originals were the worst in the lot so far. They were very repetitive as individual songs by themselves, and almost all of them sounded the same to me at some level. Also, please someone tell the vocalist to NOT jump around so much if he is to go out of breath and stop singing.
Caeser's Palace Caesar's Palace, I shall call them a brave band. Having guts to cover Tenacious D in front of a hostile wannabe rocker crowd is brave and courageous. Covering the song well and the moving on to do a lot of originals is another sign of bravery. Good bluesy sound to one of their songs had us foot tapping. Just like Boomerang and Half Step Down, CP also had beautiful change overs in the middle of their originals. Their originals went in all possible directions which was really impressive.
Scribe Well, by now the wannabe junta was all restless. Too much of good rock had happened for their taste and they were all confused, they were dying to run amok in the jungle and cause some heavy chaos. And much to their rescue was Scribe as they kicked off on the heaviness. I quite enjoyed the heaviness for a while more so because that would complete the whole balance and make this day the most fulfilling I Rock experience yet. But then after two songs when the vocalist presumed he owned the masses, he switched over to a track by Del Amitri and he lost the crowd. Fame is a fickle friend. All his fans in the mosh started cussing him the next second. Right in the middle of the Del Amitri track they switched to something heavier, quite sad actually, SELL OUTS! The bad news is Scribe won the event. Not that I was rooting for any one band in particular but still, no Scribe.
Parikrama Pro Act No doubt, the Indian Rock sounds have matured and gone to greater heights. This is the first time, I was so tired and full that I wasn't looking forward to the headling act of the evening which was Parikrama (quite surprising). Well Parikrama came in and Nitin started with his trademark, we-love-yous and we-can't-wait-to-get-started, I was worried if everything was going to fall into the same pattern as the last three times that I'd seen them perform in Bombay and would they play the same ten songs as everytime. Thankfully, NO. Though I feel sad that they didn't play Coldplay's Yellow or Pink Floyd's Coming back to life but was a good show nonetheless. They played a whole lotta originals. The track they wrote for Frodo and Sam, "Am I dreaming?" was probably the best track of the evening. Open Skies, their instrumental had some great variations this time. Nothing went about as usual with Parikrama this time so I sighed, feeling happy that I didn't just go to the back when they arrived on stage.
That's it folks. A really nice evening of rock music. Will put up the review and media from the second night later today. Keep checking
Bigger, Badder and Louder than ever before, I-rock finally goes national. 3 city preliminaries and a grand final at the Chitrakoot Stadium in Andheri on the 8th and 9th of September. Delhi and Bangalore preliminaries have been done with and it was the Mumbai leg last weekend at the Hard Rock Cafe and Razzberry Rhinoceros on Friday and Saturday respectively.
With a few friends I turned up at Hard Rock at around 7 PM just to make sure we get seats. Cover charges were 500 bucks per head which you could redeem inside for food and drinks. The line up for the evening consisted of 4 bands, out of which 1 band was going to make it to the national finals. After almost 2 hours of waiting, it finally started.
1. GrooveLab First band to go up on stage. Their genre of music is funk rock with doses of punk pop. They played a mixture of originals and covers to good effect. They have been around for about a year and their original music is quite interesting, but they lack the tightness that comes with playing together regularly. As individual musicians they are good, but they seriously need to improve their tightness. Rhythm section was bearable with the credit going to Sapna behind the drums. Her style of drumming complemented the band's music perfectly. They have a lot of potential and they just need to keep working on creating more original music and improving their stage presence. Rating: 2.5/5
2. Black I first saw them perform 4 months back at the Atria Mall at a gaming event. I was quite impressed with the performance and the quality of their music. Their music is a throwback to the hard hitting music immortalized by the likes of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden with hints of classic rock of the 80's. They are quite a seasoned lot with a lot of things going for them. They got excellent musicians, tight rhythm sections, excellent songs and above all an excellent stage presence, led by frontman Shawn Peirera. They played a mostly original set with a perfect cover of Pearl Jam's Black! Way to go guys... keep it up Rating: 4/5
3. Something Relevant I have already reviewed them before on my blog. So it was good to see them back on stage and performing their jazz rock-blues-jam genre of original eclectic music. They are getting better with every performance. As expected, they delivered a set of original songs which made you feel that you are at some Jazz bar and not at the Hard Rock Cafe. The only sore point was that since this was a competition, they couldn't really connect with the crowd due to the lack of time. But overall it was a good performance, with their trademark songs and jam sessions. Rating: 3.5/5
4. Red Cube Nothing to write home about. They turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the evening. I had such high hopes from Red Cube, having heard so many good things about them. They turned out to be just about as good as your garage bands. They could have done so much, as some of the members of this band were part of pro bands like Bhayanak Maut. They dished out a typical fare of pop rock and Incubus songs which failed to engage and I won't even start on their stage presence which was as dead as a dodo. Overall, the weakest band of the evening. Rating: 2/5
Farhad Wadia, the granddaddy of Indian rock and founder of I-rock, finally announced the winner of the evening and as expected, Black took away the honors.
Will bring you live footage from the finals. So keep watching this space!
OK people, here are the pictures from the Channel V Launchpad Finals in Delhi. The 4 bands who made it to the Finals were Cyanide, Bhayanak Maut, Frequency and Superfuzz. All 4 bands performed truly rocking sets and in the end, Superfuzz was took away the top dog honors. They will now fly to NYC to play at the Hard Rock Cafe there.
I wasn't present for the show and the pictures were sent to me by our good friend and rock journo Mamoni. Cheers to her..
In case you want to check out some of the coverage from the prelims at the Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai, you can click here and here
Trivia Question:What is common between Delhi based rock band Them Clones and Gary Lawyer?
Give up?
Answer: Both lent their voices to ad jingles for Yamaha. Gary did it for the original 'street' bike, the legendary Yamaha RX100 and Them Clones does it for the new Yamaha 125cc Gladiator
OK, slightly unfair question for all of you people born after 1988. Most old timers like me and Beni will remember Gary Lawyer from the 70's and 80's when he was in his heyday. With his signature rich baritone voice, Gary was hailed as India's answer to Jim Morrisson himself! On a slight historical note, Gary started his singing career in theaters and nightclubs in New York in the late 70's. After coming back to India, he was a great hit with the advertising community because of his signature voice and he lent it to many a famous campaigns like Yamaha, Thumbs Up, Wrangler and the recent Times FM one.
At a time when there was no concept of Indian rock, Gary organized a couple of The Doors concerts and toured across the country. After the advent of MTV in the country, he released a couple of rocking albums like This Cannot Wait and High Standards – Vol I. He tasted commercial success with his third album The Other Side Of Dawn. Gary's last release was Arrow In The Dust, which was a critical hit but not a commercial one.
So when it was Gary Lawyer live @ the Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai, it was an event not to be missed. And he did not disappoint.. at least not much :). The reason being him trying to sing Pearl Jam. C'mon Gary, we love you for your voice and songs. You don't have to do Pearl Jam to set the nights on fire man. Rest of the set was pretty standard Rock N Roll, with favorites like Mustang Sally, Rolling Stones, Dire Straits etc. Check out the videos.
The National Center for Performing Arts or NCPA as it is called, is a famous address for a lot of creative happenings in the city of Mumbai. Located in Narimaan Point overlooking the Arabian Sea, it is indeed one of the most beautiful locations in this cramped city. On the 9th of June 2007, it played host to the Live concert of Project Laya.
The Laya Project, born in 2005 is a project which sees musicians from six Tsunami-affected countries come together to highlight the traditional music and sounds of the areas which were wrecked by the 2004 tsunami. It is the brainchild of Sonya Mazumdar of Clementine Studios, Chennai, and Yotam Agam, a recording engineer from Israel. They had originally decided to collaborate on a folk-musical project; it ended as a unique amalgamation of folk sounds from the regions, under the label EarthSync. On the way, music connoisseurs from Malaysia, Canada and the Netherlands joined in.
The performance on stage was led by Paul Jacob of Chennai based Bodhi Muzzik, who has been working with folk musicians for the past 12 years now. He handled the bass and the keyboards sounds for the performance. Joining him was guest percussionist Chen Zimbalista from Israel. Rest of the artists were an amalgamation of classical and temple musicians from Tamilnadu, tribal percussionists, sufi singers and Buddhist monks from the Tashi Lhunpo monastery.
The sounds for the evening were primarily carnatic music fused with the vocal strains of sufi poetry. It was truly a mind blowing display of musical finesse by some undiscovered talents and the Laya platform has indeed done a truly commendable job.
The percussion piece by a group of tribal percussionists in the end was truly beyond compare and unfortunately I ran out of space to record that simply terrific performance. The Project Laya album (Rs. 500) and a documentary (Rs. 1200) is available in stores now and is a must buy. You can also place orders online on the site
An excerpt to give you an idea of the music in the album:
Two unknown singers from Myanmar croon a plaintive tune as percussion players from India lift the piece to a catchy beat; a Buddhist prayer cymbal chimes on the offbeat and the whole piece comes together as a song in the album, Laya Project. The musicians — a woman from a Maldivian isle, villagers of Polhena in Sri Lanka and Gayo in Indonesia, Buddhist monks from Myanmar, Tamil folk musicians from India and Thai islanders — are hardly known outside their sunny strips of coastal land. But they share a moment: the angst-ridden instance when the fury of the sea shattered their lives into smithereens, killed their children and washed away their homes. Laya Project is the sound of that pain, of wails waving across desolate shores, of the lapping of the waves against bodies half-buried in sand. It is also the music of survival.
Presenting a video interview (at the end) of the two good men from Orange Street, Anirban (Ban) and Donn Bhat (Don). Orange Street have always been one of my favorite bands (please note I am not using the term Indian Band here). I have always found their songs, be it the lyrics, music or sound, very unique and very groovy.
Orange Street broke into the scene with their funk laden single 'Over N Under' on the very first Great Indian Rock compilation (Album on extreme right on that page and you can order for it). The same album also introduced Parikrama to India. Since then both bands have followed diagonally opposite routes. Parikrama focused on being a 'Rock Band' with gimmicks and showmanship, while Orange Street have always been about great original songs and music. Both have been very successful in their acts although I have a weakness for Orange Street (Subir if you are reading this, please forgive me. You are an equally good friend :P)
Orange Street have released a studio album called 'Drive Carefully For Our Shake' (available at leading book stalls) couple of years back and have toured Europe extensively. Lately they have been trying out a lot of Indian elements in their songs, a good example would be their song 'Morey Piyaa' which I have used as the soundtrack for the interview video. There has been a lot of changes in the line up, with Ban and Don being the only permanent members of the band as of now.
Don joined Orange Street couple of years back. We go a long time back. He played his first show at IIT Kanpur's cultural festival Antaragniway back in 2001. Incidentally, I was the student coordinator for the rock show and I also opened for them with my good friends Udai, Norbert and Joppu (good days man).Don was with Friday the 13th then and I have dug up my archive to bring to you a very are picture of him hiding behind his mass of hair (he thought it looked cool at that time). He will of course deny that. Great guitar player. Lately he has been experimenting with electronic sounds and they can be sampled here
Somebody has even made a video of one of his songs called 'Your Song' and posted it on Youtube
I hooked up with the dudes at the Hard Rock Cafe and I managed to get their ugly mugs on my camera and talk about their plans, sounds, albums, Superfuzz and of course, women and porn. They are also part of the Sahi Bol album, which will be released in a week bySa Re Ga Ma. The compilation will showcase the best of bands from Delhi . Orange Street have a gig coming up on the 27th in Delhi and all you Delhi people should check out the show (will update on the venue) and buy the album which will be a 2 CD compilation.
Before you check out the video and the song, many thanks to Pratish and Dubey and for making this video possible. You guys are great.
If you liked the song, you can download it from here (right click and 'save as') Rate this article
PS: Previous coverage of the Channel V Launchpad can be found here
Last Saturday was the last night of performance at the Hard Rock Cafe in Mumbai. After 7 grueling weeks of hard rock action, the last 2 bands took up stage to perform in front of a packed audience. As usual judges were Amit Saigal (RSJ), Luke Kenny (Channel V), Gino Banks (Helga's Funk Kitchen) and the original grand daddy Farhad Wadia (extreme left in the picture). Farhad has a long association with Indian Rock, being the founder of the cult Independence Rock 21 years back. He set the standard for Indian Rock. It was good to see him up there in the panel
First to take up stage was Human Abstract from Mumbai with their brand of arena and rap-rock. They looked a tad uncomfortable and as the judges pointed out, came across more as a school band rather than a rock band, which was a little harsh considering that this is a pretty big competition for them. They started off with their version of Bob Marley's Stand Up, which was just about OK. They followed it up with a mix of covers and originals. They need to work more on their sound and stage presence. Also their vocalist needs to work on his handling of the microphone. They got a lot of potential and they just need to concentrate more on original music and build a good sound
The last band of the competition was Frequency from Delhi. They play very contemporary rock in the format of Linking Park and Distrurbed (they even started their set with a Disturbed number). Heavy guitar riffs over the DJ's electronic samples with the bassist and drummer providing a solid rhythm, gives a very crunchy melodic sound. It was an energetic performance leaving both the crowds and the judges happy. They have a pretty good guitar player and their drummer was also excellent. They just need to work more on creating original numbers
The evening ended with Farhad doing the vocals on the Mustang Sally song by Mack Rice. Very nice. Enjoy the video
Every year the city of Bangalore organizes an Aero show showcasing the pyrotechnics of the latest aerial fighting machines. This year there was a slight change of plans. They had an Aero show all right, but all pyrotechnics were in the form of blazing guitar licks, thundering drums and vocal missiles spewing from a certain rubber lipped gentleman. I am talking about the one and only Aerosmith, performing live at the Palace Grounds in Bangalore.
The 'Bad Boys from Boston', performing in India for the first time, gave a taste of why they are one of rock music's most enduring superbands ever. Every move they made was signature rockstar, be it vocal excesses, tasty guitar riffs, dazzling light play and other Aerosmith staples. Whoever said that rock music is bad for your health should be sent to the nearest mental asylum. These 50+ gentlemen of rock can put any 20 year old to shame with their energy and stamina.
They played a strictly arena friendly set list, with all-time favorites like Cryin' (with the Alicia Silverstone video on the giant screens), Eat the Rich, Jaded, What it takes and Livin' on the edge. Notable big misses were Rag Doll, (Dude) looks like a lady and Crazy.
The opening (with Taste of India of course) was weak, with the tuning sound of the guitars jarring the anticipation and also the ending should either have been the brilliant Janie's got a gun or Crazy instead of the sugar-pop fare of I don't wanna miss a thing. But hey, I ain't complaining :).
Enjoy the pictures and videos. The videos are a little shaky coz of all the 'rockin' but the sound quality should make up for it
Trivia:Although they are called the 'Bad Boys from Boston' none of the band members are from Boston!! nobody knows how they got this name.
and it provided me with an opportunity to be part of the festival that defines Mumbai, in the form of the Dance Ganesha Festival @ Mahalaxmi. This festival is in its 9th year and is a favorite haunt of a lot of celebrities who want to party as well as celebrate the elephant god. This party happens on the last day of the festival when all Ganesha idols are immersed in the sea.
huge trailer truck which travels all the way from Mahalaxmi to Hajji Ali, with a DJ spinning his tracks and a 100 odd super exclusive invitees on the trailer partying and dancing. The DJ was Whosane and the whole experience can't be written about, only experienced. So without much ado lets move onto the videos of the event.
