Rock in India Megadeth and Machine Head Review

Bangalore’s kind of a spiffy little city, really. No sweat with the climate and the people but the rickshaw drivers really love you. Or your money, rather. For the price they quote for a 2 mile ride to anywhere in the city, you could rather get on to Virgin Galactic and feel weightless for a few minutes.

The reason for Bangalore was Rock in India, India’s first international rock festival, headlined by Machine Head and Megadeth. Silly name not withstanding, the whole place really felt like a carnival of sorts and there was nothing stopping me from getting close to my God, Dave Mustaine.

There were 2 stages, a smaller one for the Indian bands and the bigger one for 2 of the most prominent metal bands on the planet. Very few really gave a damn to all the Indian bands and were assembled near the main stage booking their places for Megadeth and Machine Head. The bands that played were Thermal and a Quarter, Millenium, Junkyard Groove, Motherjane, Prestorika and Pentagram which got a lot of boos from the crowd.Then it was time for Machine Head to hit the stage and the crowd sent a ear splitting scream through the Bangalore sky which was being interspersed with jolts of lightning, quite literally. Machine Head played some songs from their albums ‘The Blackening’ and ‘Ashes of the Empire’.

There was no let up of energy throughout their set and Rob Flynn sent his murderous riffs and his powerful vocals like cannonballs into the crowd. He got them involved like no other and left the hapless audience gasping for more. Machine Head veni, vidi and effin vici!

Megadeth were delayed by a good 20 minutes and the crowd condition got really pathetic. Everyone wanted water and all the DNA guys could say was “Let the show begin, they’ll forget every pain they know.” True, but inhuman. I suggested them to install water cannons at the next show.Finally at around 20:45, the Sleepwalker intro played through the PA and everyone knew, the moment had arrived. The endurance would pay off and the pain would be dissolved in a whirl of pure thrash metal. The lights went off for that moment and came back on with Mustaine and Co. sending ripples of relief into the exhausted and de-hydrated crowd.

Dave, Chris, James and Shawn did the only thing they could. Kick some serious butt, ‘Deth style. They displayed amazing energy on stage and never did the instruments go off even once. The vocals and overall sound disappointed and Dave even ran out of breath a couple of times. But no one seemed to give even half a damn, everyone was busy screaming their lungs out.

I could have possibly cried when they played A Tout le Monde. Such was the intensity of seeing my God live! Megadeth played some songs from Peace Sells, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings apart from United Abominations. I would really have loved to see some more songs being played but time lost could not be gained again. Megadeth topped of the set by playing their most insane track, Holy Wars, which sent everyone into a tizzy. Chris played the Arabic solo, finger style and procured his plectrum back from thin air! Midway they switched to playing Mechanix and a large part of the crowd was just itching to sing Four Horsemen (if you did not know, 4 Horsemen actually happens to be Dave Mustaine’s composition). They resumed playing Holy Wars and hell was well and truly unleashed.

My jaw hit the floor with Mustaine playing the final solo and head banging as though he were applying butter on bread. That guy is crazy!That was the end of one of the best gigs I had attended but I felt the Megadeth set could have been longer had the time been managed better.

After the gig, we stormed into the bands hotel and we finally got to meet Megadeth. Do read it and tell me what you think!

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Tags: india, machine head, megadeth, rock

Virgin Mobile India Launch

That Branson guy is crazy. Yeah, that same old, boisterous, flamboyant Chairman of the Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson. First he sends a telescope in the JAM office inviting us to the launch of Virgin Mobile in India. Then he goes right up Hilton Towers and does a bungee jump (like his bones are not more than 30 years old) on the unsuspecting Mumbai masses. Once thats out of the way, he comes into the press conference dressed as though he is out for a walk on the beach. White shirt, plain light brown pant and floaters. May I warn you, Sir, Paani Poori on the Mumbai beach, will put you in hospital for the remainder of your trip.

I was all excited when he came in the conference hall (which was literally bursting at the seams, the media love someone quotable and flamboyant). Why, you ask? Because, dahling, I thought some sexy Virgin Atlantic air-hostesses might be hanging around. There were none. Like, damn.

Branson seems to have apparently rung Ratan Tata and told them, “Hey big man, we want to do something in India. Anything!”. So Tata sets up Virgin Mobile as a service available under the Tata Tele banner which allows Virgin to escape all the legal hassles and use someone else’s existing network too. Elementary business branding, pumpkin.

Virgin seem to have done extensive homework and all this is targeted at the youth, which everybody and the press kit were hell bent on reminding us. Nevertheless, their homework deserved an A grade from me, so to speak. They seem to have studied the pattern of the youth quite smartly. And I couldn’t quite deny their research. I’ll tell you one outrageous thing. You receive talktime for receiving calls from any network. Also, the person who handles your complaint at the call center will continue to do so till you cling on to Virgin Mobile. That’s outrageous!
And with all that they have bring their expertise of handling Virgin Mobile all across the globe too. Vodafone and Airtlel, be scared. Be very scared.

Tags: CDMA, india, mobile, virgin

Go save the tiger, man!

Every time you think of the tiger you’d associate it with majesty, grace, power and agility. You, in all probability have seen them in a zoo and could have been possibly intimidated in the presence of the Royal Cat.

Now what if I tell you that these tigers are going down by the dozens everyday? What if you might never show your children a real tiger and they remain a visual treat only in pixels and not in flesh?

There are people who kill them mercilessly for their skin, their claws, their teeth and what have you. It’s the uneducated and cowardly men who show off their power by murdering innocent animals who have done them no harm.

NDTV has started a signature campaign to Save the Tiger and the effects are showing. We need to make sure the plans are implemented on a state level and there are enough protected sanctuaries so that the yellow and black stripes move fearlessly and more importantly thrive.
The effects taken to protect the tiger are in turn beneficial to the eco-system.

You can help too!
1) Head to NDTV and drop in your name and Email address
2) You can also send an SMS Tiger to 56388

If you have a blog, please tell the world about saving the Indian tiger. The more signatures we have, the better. Otherwise, all we will be able to show our next generations will be a four legged animal with black and yellow stripes, in a book. And you will have done a good deed for the day too. The royal cat will most certainly roar with glee.

Tags: indian tiger, save the tiger, tiger