The Megadeth Encounter

This post describes the story behind how we met Megadeth.

Day 1: 2 days before the gig

We reached Bangalore first thing in the morning and acted on a tip-off we received that Megadeth would be staying in ITC’s Windsor Sheraton. We went there, got thoroughly lost and entered one of their presidential suites. Gawd, that place is nice but confusing.

The hotel attendants, ever the nice chaps, create an impression that Megadeth will be staying at their hotel. Not really content with  their answers we snooped around some more and headed to Taj Westend near the racecourse. 250 buck coffees and 750 buck sandwiches later we questioned the clueless attendants over there only to be greeted by an alarming degree of rudeness.

Day 2: 1 day before the gig

We whiled away our time on tasteless sandwiches and godawful five star coffee. These hyper-rich loonies are so boring.The security suddenly tightened and we knew that the band had arrived. The hotel staff warned us of any movements at all. Not even our eyes, for heavens sake. Dave arrived in one of the most innocuous ways, donning a monkey cap, shades and a stubble. He was hardly recognizable. But there’s something about Dave that is unmistakable, his aura.

Dave walked right past us and didn’t really seem to notice us. We somehow pulled up our hand-made poster reading ‘Dave Mustaine is God’ and he finally acknowledged our existence. He flashed a wry smile and walked to our table.We don’t really know what exactly we mumbled in front of him. We might have told him how we didn’t properly sleep and eat since the last 2 days or something to that effect. Dave smiled, nodded and continued signing our stuff.

We wanted a pic with Dave, but he didn’t really like the idea because he hadn’t shaved and was looking very tired. He said he’d be back after a quick shower. He never really came back and the remainder of the day was spent in literally fighting with the security and the stupid attendants at Taj Westend. Boy, was it bad and I never felt so humiliated in my whole life.I hate Bangalore.

Day 3: Gig day!

You can read more about the gig in my Rock in India Review. After the gig, we decided to take another shot at Taj. It was on the way back in any case. We entered the hotel and discovered that the environment had suddenly changed.  Everyone was a lot more nice, this time around. We waited some more in the restaurant and splurged some more on some silly coffee with which we could have rather brought 3 packs of D’Addario strings. Like, damn.

Mustaine and Co arrived just outside the lobby. He remembered us and readily took pics with us. James LoMenzo and Chris Broderick were there as well. They’re really nice chaps to talk to! Sadly, Shawn Drover was missing. The band manager informed me that he’d already left for US. Boo.

I got to do a small interview with them as well.

Me: So, now that the tour has come to an end, when will you guys work on the next album?

Chris Broderick: We’ve got the Gigantour lined up where we will be touring with Children of Bodom, Inflames and a host of other ass kicking bands. After that we may most probably get down to work in the summer.

Me: Hey James, tell us more about you.

James LoMenzo: When I was 7 years old, I used to play drums then moved on to guitar and then finally settled on bass when I was 12 years old. I really wanted to be like Angus Young back then. He inspired me to become a bass player.

Me: What music do you listen to?

JL: I listen to a variety of music and I am a hardcore funk fan. I also believe you should listen to a variety of music.

Me: Dave, you’re God

Dave Mustaine: Thank you so much. (I forgot all my questions, got my CD signed and got whisked away by the security.)

So that was our tryst with Megadeth. Do punch in your comments!

P.S. There have been some server issues and I am having to post this piece again.

P.P.S Apologies to all the readers for not being regular with the blog. Had 2 outrageously busy weeks, post the gig.

Tags: india, megadeth, rock in india

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