Its been a long time now and well I must say I've missed my blog. I published my last post on October 1 and its 25 December now. Wow! That's a long gap! Oh and before I forget "A merry Christmas to one and all". A very auspicious renewal for my blog huh? On Christmas Day!
Anyway, there's been a lot of action at HEADBangalore in these few months. Firstly, there was GIR 2008 and then there was the
revered Strwaberry Fields. Both of them were kick ass.
GIR 2008 - The Largest and Loudest Ever
Well, this was one event that I did not want to miss at any cost. The headlining bands were Sahg(frequently mistaken for SHAG) and Satyricon, from Norway. The local bands playing were Slingshot, Rainbow Bridge and Extinct Reflections. I was pretty late for the show due to a COUPLE of INFOSYIANS! I bet none of the humans living on Earth at present can beat them at being punctual. The EPITOME of PUNCTUALITY are the only words I can find. And due to these two idiots(trying my hardest to refrain from using words from the dictionary), I missed Rainbow Bridge and Slingshot. Slingshot was the only local band I was looking forward to, in all honesty. But I was pleasantly surprised by Extinct Reflections. They really rocked the crowd. The vocalist showed great stage presence and they were really comfortable on stage.
Sahg came on next and the delayed start upset many in the crowd especially one particular drunkard behind me. The only words that came to his mouth were, "Holy Fuck"! The things booze can do to you. Anyway, moving on from this irritating man to the rock stars on stage. They performed quite a few songs I think. Not too many, but quite a few. They never looked comfortable up there and well, not many were impressed by their performance. I remember that they had one song that was dedicated to the women of India and I dont really think the ladies present were impressed by that either. Well moving on, I was quite impressed by their drummer but a drummer doesn't make a band does it? The whole unit counts and that unity was lacking. There was no real energy in their performance. At least I didn't feel any. In all honesty, Extinct Reflections seemed a better band. No offence meant.
After the departure of Sahg, Palace Grounds was filled with cried for Satyricon. The drunkard behind could still be found screaming, "Holy Fuck"! The arrival of Satyricons mike stand created a buzz among the people. Their mike stand looked really wicked to be frank. It represented 2 serpents encircling each other if I'm not mistaken. After the mike stand came their sound engineer and he was tweaking with just about anything he could lay his hands on and I guess that's the reason why the drum set needed a lot of adjustments before it was ready to go. And after a long time, a very very very long time, Satyricon took the stage and in a few moments set it ablaze. They showed great energy and were very very very comfortable. The amount of time spent waiting for these guys to take stage, was well worth it. They ROCKED! They performed
many songs from their new album and quite a few from their older ones. Their keyboardist, a lady, headbanged in a real kick ass manner. Wow! She was brilliant! Their drummer too. And their guitarists. And the vocalist. Damn! Each and everyone of them rocked. It was a damn good show from a damn good band!
One song that I clearly remember is "Die, By My Hands" and I really wanted to kill that drunkard behind me when I heard this song. [:D] Anyway, Satyricon really made the night for
me and they really gave us more than what we expected. They have earned a new fan in me. By the time I came home, it was about 11.30 or so and the only thing I could get myself to do was drop dead onto my bed and snore away to glory.
STRAWBERRY FIELDS
Strawberry fields, this year, was plagued by poor judging and the bands that really deserved to
be in that final show never made it. The bands that were chosen to play on the final day were Metal Messiah, Chilly Potato, Blood and Iron, Rosemary and Grey Shack! The
professional bands that were scheduled to play were Pentagram and Extramentals. Well the show was lack lustre. Blood and Iron were really promising and their songs had a lot of energy and the drummer had a lot of power. Metal Messiah and Chilly Potato were really depressing. I couldn't believe that Heretic and Inner Sanctum had lost to these 2 bands. I mean their songs didn't even make sense. And each song had the same tune. Well, almost each one did. Moving on to Rosemary and Greyshack. Rosemary, if I'm not mistaken, performed grunge. They had a very-"Nirvanaish" feel to their performance and I was impressed. Greyshack were the complete punk style of playing and they rocked. The guitarists feel was unmatched and their vocalist was also kick ass.Then came the professional bands namely, Extramentals and Pentagram. I was waiting for Pentagram the whole day and Extramentals made me crave even more for them. The vocalist of Extramentals, daughter of Dr.Kamal Hasaan(who I respect a lot), was not really interested in anything but showing her body. A really depressing band, to say the least. Their performance really put me off. It made me crave all the more for Petagram to take the stage. Pentagram, is a five piece band that comprises of the ever famous Vishal Dadlani. Vishal, better known amongst the common man for his exploits in Bollywood, is a crowd puller. The band had a slight problem with the electronic feed and they soon had to face a harsh fact of having to perform without it. So, after many many years, Pentagram performed without the electronica and computers and all that shit and well the result was yet another kick ass show.
They had very little time thanks to Extramentals' long show and they could perform only four songs. Though they had very little time, they made their presence felt and that show will be remembered by all present on that day. Four songs down and the show was interrupted by the infamous police. Ofcourse, their bravery cannot be questioned but this is my only thought, "The police have enforced this law of shutting out night clubs and so on before 11.30 or whatever the deadline is but wrong deeds still take place. Thats number one. Number two, cant they just impose stricter penalties for those who are caught so these idiots wont go about doing such stuff and the nightlife could go on without a problem." This is a 15 year old thinking, so pardon me for the immaturity. Comments on this would be appreciated.
Anyway, Rosemary won the competition. I dont remember the rest of the winners but the best drummer award went to the Rosemary dude.
P.s : - Sorry for the really long post. Cant Help! :D
MERRY CHRISTMAS once again and may you all have A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR too
