I was waiting for the "Rock In India" festival for a long time. It was the first ever rock festival ever held in the Indian sub-continent, and to top it all, Megadeth (the fastest, utmost furious heavy metal band ever) was headlining this event. Watching Mustaine play live was a dream come true for me, and it finally happened on 14th March 2008 at Palace Grounds, Bangalore.
I booked my train tickets with Lakulish and Deepesh (dippi), and had intentionally kept one day at hand to go around the famous pubs of Bangalore. Dippi had to cancel at the last instant because he had to work for his DDP (I really feel bad for him). Lakulish also had doubts about going till the last instant, but ultimately he PM'ed me yahoo saying "fuck it. i'll come". There we go, two of us about to witness the historical event.
The train journey was as eventless as it could be. The next day was a long day for us. We had to collect concert tickets from an unknown face at Bangalore. After getting the tickets, we moved to the concert venue. The gates were scheduled to be opened at 12-30pm, and the festival will go on till 10pm, and hence we knew we had to spend 6 hours under the blazing sun. The last time I came to witness Maiden playing live at the same venue, I fainted just before the main performance, and had to move back. Learning from experience, I decided to stay back in the shade and move forward at the last moment.
The organization was par excellence. There were food stalls, water was free, and even booze was being served. They even made two separate stages so that minimum time is spent on equipment check by the main bands. The Indian bands played on the smaller stage, and some of them were awesome. I specially liked the performances of Prestorika, Junkyard Grooves, Motherjane, Thermal and a Quarter and Millenium. One band however sucked, and that was Pentagram. I didn't understand how could one listen to their music. I later learnt that their lead singer (Vishal) is part of the Vishal-Shekhar duo, composing music for bollywood. Well, at least that didn't come of as a surprise.
Machine Head came online at 7-30pm. Raw power - no other way to describe their performance. People moshed and jumped at their commands. To top it all, they had a very well selected setlist. But the best was yet to come.
Machine Head finished at 8-15pm, and we moved forward, hoping that the mosh crowd wes exhausted by now. The Megadeth techinicians were working on the equipments, and for some reason that took a long long time. When they came to the stage, playing the riffs of Sleepwalker, it was already 9-00pm. But that didn't deter Mustaine. Megadeth live are nothing short of a controlled demolition squad. Sound sucked, and maybe that was the only negative comment that has ever come out of the entire show. There was however one moment from the concert, which is etched out in my mind - the medley of Holy wars..." and "Mechanix", and that was the show-stopper.
I will sum up this post with some of the quotes of Mustaine during the concert -
"On my left, on the guitar, Chris Broderick. On my back, on the drums, Shawn Drover. On my right, on the bass, James LoMenzo. You know who you are. I know who I am"
"You are great, we are Megadeth"
"We will be back"
I booked my train tickets with Lakulish and Deepesh (dippi), and had intentionally kept one day at hand to go around the famous pubs of Bangalore. Dippi had to cancel at the last instant because he had to work for his DDP (I really feel bad for him). Lakulish also had doubts about going till the last instant, but ultimately he PM'ed me yahoo saying "fuck it. i'll come". There we go, two of us about to witness the historical event.
The train journey was as eventless as it could be. The next day was a long day for us. We had to collect concert tickets from an unknown face at Bangalore. After getting the tickets, we moved to the concert venue. The gates were scheduled to be opened at 12-30pm, and the festival will go on till 10pm, and hence we knew we had to spend 6 hours under the blazing sun. The last time I came to witness Maiden playing live at the same venue, I fainted just before the main performance, and had to move back. Learning from experience, I decided to stay back in the shade and move forward at the last moment.
The organization was par excellence. There were food stalls, water was free, and even booze was being served. They even made two separate stages so that minimum time is spent on equipment check by the main bands. The Indian bands played on the smaller stage, and some of them were awesome. I specially liked the performances of Prestorika, Junkyard Grooves, Motherjane, Thermal and a Quarter and Millenium. One band however sucked, and that was Pentagram. I didn't understand how could one listen to their music. I later learnt that their lead singer (Vishal) is part of the Vishal-Shekhar duo, composing music for bollywood. Well, at least that didn't come of as a surprise.
Machine Head came online at 7-30pm. Raw power - no other way to describe their performance. People moshed and jumped at their commands. To top it all, they had a very well selected setlist. But the best was yet to come.
Machine Head finished at 8-15pm, and we moved forward, hoping that the mosh crowd wes exhausted by now. The Megadeth techinicians were working on the equipments, and for some reason that took a long long time. When they came to the stage, playing the riffs of Sleepwalker, it was already 9-00pm. But that didn't deter Mustaine. Megadeth live are nothing short of a controlled demolition squad. Sound sucked, and maybe that was the only negative comment that has ever come out of the entire show. There was however one moment from the concert, which is etched out in my mind - the medley of Holy wars..." and "Mechanix", and that was the show-stopper.
I will sum up this post with some of the quotes of Mustaine during the concert -
"On my left, on the guitar, Chris Broderick. On my back, on the drums, Shawn Drover. On my right, on the bass, James LoMenzo. You know who you are. I know who I am"
"You are great, we are Megadeth"
"We will be back"
3 comments:
bhai palit..... I really respect your true devotion to rock music..... but while reading your blog.... i realized your public acceptance of "drinking" .... is it ok for ur parents to know about this (i remember ur concern while I was at ur room last month) OR it just flew in with thoughts............bye
modi
ps: comment might come with some one else's id
I should have joined you Samba, never mind, there is always a next time. :D
I didn't know you fainted at the Maiden concert. :P
sorry modi, I was at home, so couldnt answer to your comment right away ..
anyways, that came with the flow ... but I am not going to tell my parents abt the blog anyways :P
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