Gig review - Independence Jam @ Musicians Mall

60 years its been since we’ve been free from the clutches of the British, 60 years of Independence…. and what better way for a rocker to celebrate than bang their head at a gig!!! So off we go again to the only place Mumbai’s left with regular gigs these days, Musicians Mall.

Delays mean that the gig starts almost an hour late. Zohak opens the day with their OC’s to follow it up with Machine Head’s Davidian and Sepultura’s Troops of Doom. I find the sound much better than last time. The vocals were more audible this time and so were the guitars. But they had to face the brunt of the bad sound management, with the mic going off at times.  I wanted them to play some more but the circumastances didnt allow them to. Somehow, they’d become the recce run for the other bands.

I, somwehere in the back of my mind think that Zohak aint feeling like they felt at the SPACE gig. Everyone on the band is great, skillwise, but they’re just not feeling right. Maybe it was the delay or the sound, I do not know. Zohak certainly need to up their ante.

Up next were Black, and after a thorough sound check they were ready to go. And they did, right from the word er… go. They felt really good and put up an amazing performance. They played their OC’s and covered Pearl Jam’s Even Flow. Fantastic stuff. I liked their set.

Their rhythm guitarist was missing but their crazy vocalist more than made up for it. He swooned like a drunkard, played around with the mike stand as though it was some kind of a rag doll and burnt the whole place up when he got a cordless mike with splitting the crowd into two and other such insane antics.

Cirkles were up next. Cirkles is Teemeer’s( Sceptre, Lead guitars and vocals) acoustic rock band. Just acoustic guitars and light percussions. In essence, unplugged versions of heavy metal songs which we’ve grown up listening. It sounds really sweet, you know. You have to listen to believe it.

After the sound check, Tim made everybody sit down and what followed was the best part of the gig. They did Metallica’s Turn The Page, Stone Sour’s Through Glass, Slipknot’s Vermillion Pt2 and finally Megadeth’s Tornado Of Souls.What fun! I enjoyed it all!

Time for the last band of the day, Zygnema. They were sounding a lot better this time and were restraining themselves so as to not create a mosh. Jimmy, the vocalist, was bouncing up and down the place as they belted out their originals one after the other. They ended their setlist with a brutal cover of Sepultura’s Territory. No one got the crowd moving as Zygnema that day.

Also, I must give special mention to Jimmy, Zygnema’s vocalist. He lent his voice for 3 bands in all. Zohak, Cirkles (backup) and of course Zygnema. I must salute his strength and stamina. Cue for me to ask “Kaunse chakki ka atta??” LOL. All in all a good gig. Do check out the pics and post your comments! (If you cant see the pics, click on the little red coloured “x” and click “Show Picture”)

Zohak

Black

Cirkles

Zygnema

Cheers and \m/