DIARY OF A JANIAC

27th Feb was a day I marked on my calendar a long while back. It was a day I had been looking for a long long long time. motherjane at NITK, Suratkal! It was like 350 kms away but hell, it was MOTHERJANE! My mom was wary of sending me because it fell right in the middle of my exams, two days before my Comp Exam and a day after my Math Exam. What a time for a concert innit? :P

Its actually quite awesome to note that I went for a motherjane concert during my exams during the previous semester too. And I must say, there is nothing that relieves stress and tension like a motherjane concert and a chat with the band. Anyway, on with the show and less of my rants.

I reached NITK at about 2 or so, just in time for a solid lunch on the house. :P And soon, the drum techs, band manager and lights technician moved onto the venue to set up John Sirs kit and check out other stuff, so we headed over and got started and I must say, another guy was setting up the international act, Led Zepplica's drum kit, and John Sirs kit was so much bigger compared to the one he was using. It was abnormally funny how people came around saying "Wow Led Zepplica uses a bit kit", while pointing at John Sirs kit and I would say "Nope, thats motherjanes man" :D :D :D - cool isn't it?

Anyway after a much delayed soundcheck the show actually got under way. I was told by few students of the college that people had been waiting in queues to get inside for over 4 hours. Now those are real janiacs! SALUTE! And the students there had a stall at the entrance where people could get half of their faces painted just like motherjane. I told Suraj Sir when I was driving back to our guest rooms and he was super touched by the gesture. Backstage or something he told me that my friends and I had started a movement, at Hard Rock Cafe when we came with t-shirts that had pictures of us and I felt so proud of myself at that moment and all I could say was "Before 1 Million comes 4" (there were 4 of us who had such t-shirts). But standing in the midst of all of those students who had painted faces and who knew how every song went, I was overtly happy because finally I was with my real brothers and sisters. I was with people who I related to because we all loved motherjane.

motherjanes show was power packed from the start. Their entrance was with their usual Kerala music which never fails to give me goosebumps for a reason I'm yet to find. They started their set with Disillusioned, and everyone around me went into a fit. Me? I was already in a fit. :P I was having the time of my life, I was singing my heart out and though my throat was out completely I still sang out with what little remained. I was shocked when people around me joined me while singing. Wow! What a moment. I had never been with such people before. I was used to standing in the middle of a crowd, me and my friends singing while everyone else headbanged due to lack of knowledge of the lyrics but they still had the love for the music. But these guys around me, they had the love for the music and they knew the lyrics. Simply amazing. motherjane played Mindstreet and Blood in the Apple and then came the song I had been dying to hear live. TRIBES OF BABEL!

Tribes of Babel is a song that motherjane had written for Amnesty International. Its a song about peace and how music can bring about peace. motherjane took the concept of the people of Babel. The story says that the people decided to build a tower so high that it can touch the heavens and thus they would challenge God and prove that nothing is beyond humanity. God decided that if it progressed as it were then there would be no end to their greed and decided to cast a spell on the people. He decided that the people would all speak different languages. Our wars and our fights are all because we say that "He respects a different religion!" or "She speaks a different language" and in our quest for peace we look for similarities and we loathe differences but motherjane looks at peace different. Imagine a world were everyone spoke the same word or every musician sung the same note and no one was different. Boring? Now imagine the beauty of the differences how, the 1st note and the 5th note in a song are similar yet they are different in their own ways. How you and me are different yet we both share something in common. Peace is when we, and all of humanity learn to embrace our differences and appreciate them. We must respect our differences and not shun them away. This is precisely what Tribes of Babel talk about. Catch live streaming of the song on : www.buffetlibredjs.net/peace.html - it is worth it. Trust Me!

Now back to the show, motherjane were soon ripping the place apart with Fields of Sound, Maya, Broken, Walk On, Karmic Steps, Before a Million comes One, Maktub and Soul Corporations. A beautiful mix of Insane Biography and Maktub and all plastered out and laid out well beautified for all of us, their fans. A special mention must go out to that solo that Baiju Sir played. I stood in the middle of the crowd speechless for about 10 minutes and then he switched to Fields of Sound and I was thrown of my feet. That guitarist is nothing short of a GOD! He had the entire 5000 or so students sing out "Saare Jahan Se Ache". India was displayed to the world right there. We didnt need a President or a Prime Minister salute the national flag on national television to fill us with a sense of patriotism all we needed was a guitarist like this playing a tune on his guitar and people all around would join hands and sing. Sing for the love of our Nation! Never seen anyone instill a sense of pride in me like he can. Hats off Baiju Sir! :D

And before I forget, March 7th was Baiju Sirs birthday. Rush to his profile if you didnt wish him yet. :D

Soon after motherjane were an international band called Led Zepplica, a bootleg band of Led Zepplin. I didnt wait to check them out, so you will not be seeing a review on them here. Apologies.

So till the next concert! Adios

amajaniac n so r u

motherjane had last been in town to play at Snehadaan. I went for that show but I honestly have nothing to say about it. Just tears in my eyes every time I think about that place. Visit the place and see the lovely children and you wont take long to understand. The best I can do is post a couple of pictures from the show. The show was a private one organised for the kids in care of Snehadaan. 

Anyway, now that I've started talking about that one-off show. Maybe I'll dwell a little bit more about it. the kids were aged from about 4 to 11. They all rushed right in front of the stage and sat down before the show. Their excitement was very evident on their bright little faces. Then motherjane played Mindstreet and the kids were at shock. The kids could be seen covering their ears because the music was really loud and they had no previous encounters with such music before. 

Suraj then called these kids up on stage and made them dance. The stage which is usually "out-of-bounds" but not on that day. The kids ruled the stage. It was a treat to watch them dance to the tracks which I'm more used to seeing teens headbang too. Suraj too, danced about with the kids and it was a treat to watch him with the kids. These are the sort of moments in life that one should be really blessed to obtain. 

To express my feeling about the show would be a Herculean task and nothing short of impossible. However, being one of the biggest janiacs around. I have to say, though motherjane were on stage and they were playing super quality music. It was the kids who were the real stars that night. The night belonged to the kids! And that would not be classified as an over-statement by any man present there on that night. 

Now to get to the show at Le Rock. Being present at this show was a big question mark for me thanks to my age of 15. However, I decided to spend the day with them irrespective of whether I can go for the gig or not. And am I thankful that we don't have school now or what! And once I got there, the enormous planning of how to get me in started. The ideas included :-

1) Paint up my face and say I'm a part of their show - By John Thomas - turns out to be motherjanes drummer too

2) Use black paint and draw up a moustache and walk around saying I'm the drum tech - By Abhijit Namboodrip - turns out to be motherjanes tour manager

3) Walk right in and say nothing - By Baiju - turns out to be the guitarist - this also turns out to be the only sane idea.

Idea no.3 worked and its incredible how the simplest of ideas are the ones that work out. In the end, I just walked right in and the guards didn't bother arguing. So, I was in Le Rock and in for a treat too. The stuff on display and the paintings kept me amazed for sometime. I mean an Ibanez signed by Satriani and a Fender signed by Mark Knoppler. Who the heck needs anything else to live on? 

motherjane were setting up and getting ready for their gig. My guru, John, was playing a few rudiments which sounded real fun to hear. Soon, the whole band chimed in and the next thing you know, they were dishing out Karmic Steps, Fields of Sound, Maktub and Blood in the Apple. The sound check was soon done and the band was just lazing about for a couple of hours. 

For me to be present at the show, I would have to leave for home by 8:45. And the show was supposed to get under way by 7:30 or 8 o'clock at max. But NO!!! Le Rock gives the go ahead only at 8:30! That restricted to me to hearing only 2 and a half songs. [:(]

But I shall tell you more about the first few that I heard. They played Mindstreet first. A perfect rendition. Baiju couldn't be heard initially but that problem was done away with as the song progressed. They excreted an energy unmatched by most Indian bands I've seen. Suraj was at his comic best with few exerpts being :

"Know what this is? This is kall(local malu alcohol filled drink)" - pointing to what he was drinking

"He works with the press. He really doesn't care" - when a man asked to him jump down into the crowd

The next song was Blood in the Apple. A beautiful rendition too. The steady bass lines on that song always appeal to me. And here they were again, putting me in a trance. The say most people go high at the bar. I guess I went high too. Really high. HIGH ON MOTHERJANE & their MUSIC!