Gig review Iron Maiden Somewhere Back in Time 2008 Mumbai

The stars were all aligned perfectly, this time. This ruddy time The Maiden could not evade me. Heck, a random force even pointed me towards JW Marriott which I gluttonously stormed to get pictures and autographs; to hell with their peace and quiet.

Maiden kicked of their Somewhere Back in Time tour from India which was to revive all the classics of the yesteryears.( when Maiden were younger and had a bit more of adrenaline than they do now) I presume it was geographical reasons, but what the heck, I can thump my chest with pride anywhere in the world and say “India is the starting point for the Beast to start their tour!” Muhahaha.They even got their very own Boeing 757 decked up with trademark Maiden colors and announced their arrival in style. Here are some pics

The path to the gig was set up a bit more elaborately this time with markers near the venue pointing the way. (there was none of this in their Bangalore leg, I was told.) Once there, I could see a flood of Iron Maiden tees eagerly waiting under the blistering sun to witness one of the finest metal acts on the 3rd rock from the Sun.

The Mumbai crowd was horrid to say the very least. Crowd waves erupted at every second minute and I got a taste of the madness in the queue itself. The gates opened at 4:30 and I was happy to be standing in the 10th or so row. That’s what I thought. The crowd waves got really wild and for no good reason.. Mumbai metal heads sure are a wild lot, not to say dumb and tone deaf too.

First to come on stage were Nervewreck who were the winners of Campus Rock Idols 2008 and opening for Iron Maiden was the first prize. I noticed that the sound of the bass was a bit too high for anyone’s liking, not the bands fault. They were fairly decent but still not good enough to open for a top quality metal act like Maiden. I bet there were better local bands in the fray that could do justice to the stage.

Their compositions were average and they got plenty of boos, cans and bottle thrown at them from the agitated crowd. But in all seriousness, they were way better than FTN (That godawful nu-metal band which opened for Maiden last year). Good vocals and riffing, even better soloing and decent drumming along with a tight bass line ensured that at least those who knew music fairly well would appreciate them.

One thing I would like to point out was the supremely kiddish behavior of the crowd. When the band played a clean melody, everybody booed them off. The moment the overdrive kicked in everyone put their arms up in the air and started showing the devils horns. Distortion, of all things is Mumbai’s definition of music. Nice, very nice.

Up next was Lauren Harris and I thought she would up her ante from last years dismal performance. But to no avail. She still could not stretch her voice beyond a single octave and she strictly sounded like some college girl trying a trifle too hard. She knew her music was hardly any good to satiate the crowd and used her body to the fullest to win some brownie points. The only good thing was her guitarist who was a cut above the average vocals and lyrics Lauren was belting out.Everyone knows this and I doubt if there’s any need to say it. She gets to open for Maiden and gets free publicity only because of her father, the legendary Steve Harris. Like father, like daughter? In your bloody dreams.

Thankfully she was pushed down the order, and even daddy dearest decided that Parikrama were a tighter band than Miss Sexy-Chicken-with-wild-flapping-action. They played their usual set and it was good. It would have been better had Nitin Malik, the vocalist, showed an iota of common sense to control the crowd.

The crowd waves were getting really dangerous (someone could have easily cracked a bone had they not been careful) and he was actually encouraging them!! I couldn’t believe it! Since when did this rather nice guy turn so blissfully oblivious to his responsibility of controlling a 50k+ crowd? Shame Mr. Malik, so what if you opened for Iron Maiden “4 times in the last 1 year”? It doesn’t make you any less mortal.By this point I had lost a huge amount of water in my body and I couldn’t take the crowd waves any more. There was no real need to watch Maiden perform from so close, I had gotten close enough to them, in their hotel in any case, I thought. But one part of my brain made me stand where I was. My cerebral matter couldn’t have been more right.It was only a few moments later when all the lights came back and the crowd erupted in an ear splitting scream. Showtime!! I forgot all the pain from the pushing and shoving I endured in the last 5 hours and forgot that I was thoroughly dehydrated. I sang like I did not in a long time as Aces High sliced the BKC air. I screamed for Bruce, I screamed for Maiden, I screamed with Mumbai.

It was really amazing how Bruce had so much energy left even at this age. He was jumping all around the stage and never ever went even slightly off-pitch. He even climbed on the side harness of the stage and sang from there hanging like a monkey!! Talk about showman-ship. Throughout the concert, he sounded mostly like on the CD. I would give an arm and leg to any artist who can still sound so fresh after almost 25 years of ruling the metal charts, the world over.

Even the other musicians, Dave Murray, Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, Janick Gers and Nicko McBrian showed no signs of age playing catch up with them as they too did perfect justice to their parts. Dave was in a positively good mood and was playing all his solos with a smile on his face.

The stage was a masterpiece, decorated with Egyptian crypts and trademark Maiden artwork with a Pharoic twist. They were changing the backdrop of the stage at every song and so was Bruce who changed his attire almost after every song. Well, they forgot to change after Rime of the Ancient Mariner when Powerslave started, but who cares, we don’t get dynamic backdrops everyday, you know.

The crowd went positively wild when Maiden played Fear of the Dark and I bet most of the crowd knew only that one single song. They got a mosh pit going too. Wonder what the others from all over India must be thinking at such classy behavior.

Maiden ended the gig with ‘Hallowed be thy name’ and I felt the gig got over a bit early. I was left wanting a bit more and at the end of the day I didn’t really feel like I saw some major metal act. It was pretty much like walking out of any other gig. The crowd waves robbed me and many others all the fun. I also wish the organizers had given better sound. The gig lacked any sort of feel and the music didn’t really touch me. A band like Maiden cannot positively play on above average sound and neither have I emptied my piggy bank to be treated to such lackluster sound. Even iRock sounds better. Damn you,DNA.

Despite everything, the stars still shone with a magical mischief over Mumbai. Up the irons, bretheren!

Tags: 2008, iron maiden, somewhere back in time, world tour

Gig review Ruia High Voltage

Mumbai University sucks all right. Call me a whining dog, if you will, but how could you possibly justify 35 days of exams which leaves me with almost 4-6 days for every exam. And in any case I study only 2 days before the exam. (Hey, I’m just being faithful to my tribe.) I was going nuts with all the tension flying around. Thankfully, Ruia’s annual fest couldn’t have been at a better time. And with top notch bands headlining, I just couldn’t give it a miss. Just what the doctor ordered.

 

Necrosis were first, and I was told they are famous for their Slayer covers. Heck, even their bass player looked like a Tom Araya-me-too. But what you see is not what you always get. Don’t get me wrong, their musicians were spot on, only the vocalist disappointed. I mean, someone go tell that chimp, Tom Araya shouts, doesn’t screech, for heavens sake. It sounded more like Lamb of God or worse Cradle of Filth. The drummer too, I must add, wasn’t quite in the groove. The covers were good, but the OC’s were not.

In the end they covered Raining Blood, and there was a bottle of cranberry juice (me thinks) which the vocalist poured all over himself. The girls went crazy at that but I found it quite amusing. I’m pretty sure; the lice in his head must have had a “dry day”.

Up next were Demonic Resurrection. They’ve been keeping a low profile since March, when they couldn’t find a good enough drummer. They are back now, with Viru of PDV. And after their first track, I had to conclude, they sound good only on the CD, and what they did live didn’t even make my head move even one bit. Every passing song just reaffirmed my conclusions. I just couldn’t understand why the hell people were mosh-ing and head banging their asses off.

Every song sounded like a collection of riffs, and there was no flow whatsoever. Vocals weren’t very much on the pitch and the lead parts bored me to death. Like a Wiseman once said “When you follow a chord family, you get a nice song. If you don’t, you get a Demonic song.” Now I fully get what that means…One more thing I would like to mention were their rather funny song titles “Spirits of the Mystic Mountains”. Right, we have only hillocks in Bombay and a Plateau at best in Matheran. DR really curdled my brains, or “dimaag ki dahi” to be Bombay-cally correct.

The only saving grace was Viru’s drumming, which was spot on and thunderous to boot.

Sceptre were up next and you could feel the anxiety go up by a mile. Did they deliver, this time around? Hell, yes! Read on to know more.

The first track they played was an inch perfect cover of Slayer’s Stain of Mind. And to my surprise (that’s a bit of an understatement actually), Teemeer (vocals and lead guitar) dedicated that song to me!! Guruji, you’re the fuckin best! Only problem was, the chicks(or everyone else, for that matter) didn’t know, “I” was Satish. Should have rather said “SatishSays dot Com”. Would have got me some traffic. Er. he he.

Corny jokes apart, Sceptre showed the kids, how exactly Slayer is covered. Blood curdling screams, perfect drumming and sync in the band, the jaws had to drop.

I screamed my lungs out and lost my voice in the very first track itself! They proceeded to play some of their originals and some Metallica covers (One, Fuel and NEM). You should have seen the girls screaming during Nothing Else Matters, everybody sang! If anyone’s questioning their logic of doing Metallica, you should have seen the crowd reaction. It was a college gig after all. They topped of their set with their hugely popular anti-smoking metal anthem, Charred. There was a 4-way wall of death, and I just wish I could have jumped in! But then I’ve got exams to give, and swollen body parts are not a very pleasant thing. Everybody enjoyed their set, and if not for Sceptre, I am sure half the people would queued up for a refund.

Vayu were the last band to play for the evening. I was seeing them after a real long time, and 2Blue’s voice was re-assuring to say the very least. Ravi Iyer too was all-guns-blazing with his guitar and wowed the crowd with his skills. I loved their Pink Floyd covers and all was well, when the mike suddenly started going off every few seconds.

2Blue had enough of it, smashed the mike and the band evacuated the stage. Shame, they couldn’t play their complete set. Some classic therapy is always good after metal.

That was the end of the gig and a really worthwhile day. I must congratulate Ruia’s organizing committee, for I heard, it was your first attempt at a rock gig. Not bad at all. Do try to focus on giving better sound, next time around. Get a proper sound engineer or something. The vocals and the guitars did get a bit drowned out by the drums at times. Do this much and I’ll put you guys on my “Gigs-to-attend-list”. Kudos.

As for me, I’ll return to my “beloved” books. Do post your comments on the gig and this review. Adios.

SatishSays dot Com rating 7/10

 

Eagles Long Road Out of Eden Review

To everyone, Eagles are known for a Californian dream gone all horribly wrong. But this time the venue is the middle east and the new pink champagne is crude oil..

28 long years have passed since the Eagles released an album comprising original material. For 22 years they went solo (re-uniting briefly for Hell Freezes Over), doing some gigs once in a while (which had unbelievably high ticket prices…they had to pay their bills, right?), picking their teeth, Don Felder throwing legal brickbats at the band and the rest of the six years went into making this masterpiece, titled “Long Road Out of Eden(LROOE)”. Not a lot do in 22 bloody years, anyway.

But apart from all the crap they were up to, LROOE is a classic in every sense of the term. Every second of their 91minute epilogue screams Eagles. The sound may be refined to the last note, but no matter how hard they try, every song has a very classical and old school feel to it. The arrangements and layers are definitely more complex than in the 80’s. Might be the effect of the band members solo outages and the desire to experiment in something new. I, for one, am certainly not complaining.

As always, the lead vocals are strong and moving, the guitar leads are understated yet soulful, and the keyboard harmonies add to the effect. There are funk, jazz and country elements thrown around amply across the 2 CD’s.(I preferred the 1st CD to the 2nd…)

Lyrically, there are a lot of love songs, but not like some teenager has had some trouble in their 2 second relationship; something more on the lines of the grief of losing real lovers. Songs of war, women, paranoia, American politics, loneliness etc etc are all presented with the alacrity only the Eagles possess.

The lyrics are straightforward and unhurried and I found myself singing to the choruses of many songs on the second listen itself. The more you listen, the more they grow upon you, the more you dwell on the lyrics and the better you identify with what the band is trying to convey. I only wish there were less lovey-dovey songs, though.

What also heightens the whole effect is the fact that most of the songs have been edited well. Only 2 tracks are 7 odd minutes and the title track is a good 10 minutes long.

Verdict :- The Eagles stick to their tried and tested formula to serve you something that hark back to the songs from their hey days. Old-school yes, but stale it certainly isn’t. I And at the price of $12 (395/- in India) its a steal. (all the more considering the fact that Don Henley says, it IS their last album). I can still smell the colitas…

Album highlights

• Waiting in the Weeds (an out and out Eagles classic)
• Fast Company (nice funky track with a sweet falsetto)
• You Are Not Alone ( relaxed 2.5 minute song, title says it all)
• Long Road Out of Eden (THE title track, the new age Hotel California!)
• Somebody (Glen Frey’s amazing on this track on this paranoia inducing song)
• How Long(typical country track, I loved it!)

SatishSays dot Com Rating 9/10

Do tell me how you found the album(also this review), and how much would you rate it on a scale of 10.

Tags: Eagles, Long Road out of Eden