Gig review - SIES Grunge 07

It all happened when a friend told me Zero (a pro Indian rock band) was coming to SIES’s engineering college. I quickly ordered passes for me and my friends so that we could have a good look and learn something from one of the greatest Indian rock bands.

 

Reaching there was fairly easy from Mulund, but quite a long way away from mainland Mumbai. The college’s in Nerul and the whole college’s got something like 5-6 temples. But one more look around and the chicks confirmed the existence of a rock show… er.. he he. Zero came and did their sound check, and to be frank, the sound was really sucky. Even Rajeev, the vocalist of Zero, was sincerely pissed of. They left the stage and I thought they were not coming back.. more on that later

 

 

First to come, from the participating bands was St. Xavier’s “Black”. They opened with a fanastic cover of Pearl Jam’s Alive and then later on it was a string of OC’s which were fairly good. Overall the band felt good but was cheated by the sound engineering. Boo. Next came, Skincold, the favourites to win the shootout. And the reason was clear as soon as they played some fantastic hard rock OC’s. The energy in the crowd went up by a mile!! In all their set included some 6 six songs, of which 5 were OC’s and their last song sent the crowd into utter madness. It was an amazing cover of Drowning Pool’s “Let The Bodies Hit The Floor”. Whew!

 

Last to come were Red Cube. They played some alternative stuff first and progressed on to hard rock later in the set. Their vocalist was noteworthy showing of the range of his voice with every passing song.

Then came Zero (finally). They were the headlining act, so it was foolish of me to think that they were to leave without performing their set. Their set included all OC’s of their album Procastination. (head to http://www.whatmezero.in for more info). Their lead guitarist was dressed in a simple kurta but boy, he played some of the toughest solos with a smile on his face. The vocalist too, was upto insane antics, responding to the crowd and asking them to cross the barricade, when he found the distance was a bit too much. Good fun!

And finally, time to declare the winners. Black was adjudged third, but not before Rajeev congratulated them on having some good original compositions. It was a fight down to the wire for the first place, and after many arguments, Red Cube and Skincold were awarded the joint first place. Amen, to that!

Oh.My.Bookmark!

My First Bike Crash!!

Life certainly aint no bed of roses, and it certainly isnt even a petal when on the open road.

Here I was minding my own business, going to pick my friend up on the way to college, riding at a steady 30-40kmph, when a moronic biker decides to cross the road without any thought. Since the fence was pretty high, I couldnt see him till he was smack bang in the middle of the road.(and he just stopped over there) I had absolutely no time to brake or even press the clutch!!

I rammed straight into him and i flew at one place and he fell straight down. I flew some feet away and landed on my front. Nothing much happened to me except some bruises on the knee and elbow. A lot less than expected anyway. No fractures thankfully.

After i regained my senses, i asked the people helping me out ”How’s the bike?” It was in a pretty bad shape with the front fairing being totally damaged. The suspension fork was also slightly bent and the back section also recieved a 2 inch wide gash. Here are some pics which i took when the bike was dropped at the service centre.

The damage was estimated to be around 11k and i thought i would end up emptying my piggy bank and then some.. But insurance saved the day, and i’m gonna be paying only around 1-1.5k!! Whooopeeee!

And i personally recommend Iffco Tokio’s General Insurance. They are really hassle free as they advertise, you know.