iRock XXI, looking back

Its been exactly an year since the greatest show in the country to celebrate rock n’ roll in the country happened. Just thought i’ll recount everything for those who missed it and to make sure they wont miss it this time around. \\m/

IRock XXI was special for me, because it was my first gig. I became a die hard rock fanatic after that \\m/urderous day..thats why i felt the need to recount it.

When I entered, Demonic Resurrection had almost finished playing its set and I could listen to only one song of theirs.. they were sounding quite good and it was a pity I had to miss their set. Mumbai traffic sucks in more ways than one…

Then came Sceptre and what followed was the best part of the whole gig. Thrash Metal insanity at its finest! They opened with a brilliant cover of Metallica’s Fuel. They then played their hugely popular OC, Charred. Hell was well and truly unleashed… and what I witnessed was probably India’s first Wall Of Death… take a look for yourself.

Wall Of Death, Nuclear, Charred, Metallica One cover

They then went on to play some more of their OC’s and ended the day with a manic cover of Metallica’s One. The mosh was seriously deadly. The first aid counter saw some activity thanks to Sceptre… Sadly, we wont be having any of this Sceptre madness in this year’s IRock. Boo.

Then came Them Clones and played some RATM covers and OC’s. I paticularly liked their song “My life”. After this high energy act came the Dinos of Rock and they played their set of rock classics. Nothing spectacular except Shazneen’s beautiful vocals.

IRock XXII is just around the corner with the Delhi and Bangalore leg already underway. The bands for the headlining day this time are the same as last year, except that there’s PDV in place of Sceptre and DR. This time is gonna be definitely bigger and better than whatever we’ve witnessed with some really big ticket sponsors. Chitrakut Grounds, Andheri. Dont miss it for your life!

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/

Gig review - Thrash Night at Musician’s Mall

Musicians Mall is getting active these days and all the more since Razz closed down due to some legal hurdles almost a month ago… MM are making it a point to have a gig once every 2 weeks.

This time it was Thrash Night, with some kickass thrash metal bands(my favourite genre!!). The gig was supposed to start at 5:30 but it started at around 6:15 with Lethe opening. They played 2 Maiden, 1 Megadeth song and 2 OC’s, one of them was called “Aaj ki shaam Shehzan ke naam”. But the man of the moment was conspicuous by his absence.(cue for everybody to say “SCAM!!”). The vocals for the Maiden covers were pretty good and I say this ‘cos not eveybody and their uncle can add vibratos like Bruce Dickinson. And so were the leads. Good job. 

Next up were Kryptonic Kaos. They are a new band and are certainly raising some eyebrows. They played some Metallica, Slayer and some OC’s. And when they played Metallica’s Seek and Destroy, the crowd simply loved it. I must say, Metallica still gets the crowd moving. The quality of their covers was OK and so were the OC’s. I liked ‘em.

Lined up next were Zohak, which was the only band I was actually interested in. Zohak are famous for their Megadeth and Maiden covers… and they opened with an amazing cover of Megadeth’s Holy Wars!! That was good enough to send the crowd into a tizzy. I’d come to listen to Shehzan’s leads and fuckin could not hear a single note. I had to be content with watching his effortless picking and flying fingers. They played 2 of their OC’s (which were quite good again) and some Sepultura stuff. They consumed some time during the sound check, which disallowed them to play their complete set. Like, damn, no DAMN cos they were to play Machine Head’s Davidian and Megadeth’s Tornado Of Souls. Sigh! 

Blind Image, from Chennai, were to headline the day’s gig. They played some Metallica, Megadeth covers and some OC’s as well. Their lead guitarist brought a stomp box, was absoultely insane and was playing his solos with perfection. What i liked about him was the feel with which he was playing. There was no rhythm guitarist in Blind Image and that in a very vague way helped the lead’s sound to be heard clearly.. The vocalist was nothing great but was energetic nevertheless. That was the end of the gig and time to go home.. hey wait a second, my review aint over yet.   

The sound at MM sucked this time and i didnt like the setup one bit. Apart from the drums there was nothing that could be clearly heard. If there were 2 guitars, one would end up sounding muffled or wouldnt be heard at all. Even the vocals could not be heard properly. I hope Musicians Mall gets its act together for the forthcoming gigs, if it has to prove itself to be even a patch on the other venues where Mumbai’s rock junta usually flocks to.