Random Thoughts:

For the first time, I saw a crane being use to film I-Rock, which was quite nice. It seemed like Channel [V], who were recording the gig, along with Sahara Samay Mumbai. The stands at the back were very small, the only food stall being a CCD outlet with coffee and sandwiches, and two other stalls (unsuccessfully) urging you to spend money and promote the scene.

Anyways, these were the bands:
 
Nemesis - Played Slayer’s “Raining Blood” as  their soundcheck (sans vocals), moved on to a bad rendition of “Fear Of The Dark” (Iron Maiden), and then played 2 original compositions. I think one of them was called "Live To Fight". The band was highly forgettable, although “Fear of the Dark” expectedly had lots of crowd support and the vocalist was pretty decent. The sound was terrible with the bass overpowering the guitars and the vocals. And, funny thing - Their vocalist had a can of Red Bull with him during the entire set (perhaps some twisted sponsorship deal?)! I didn’t expect such a band to win I-Rock at all… actually, never thought that such a band would get to take part.  
 
Evergreen - Their vocalist reminded me uncannily of Slayer’s Kerry King without a beard or the tattoos. Lovely set. Interestingly, once I got to see him walk around the stage and hear his voice, the picture turned into Kerry King without a beard, without tattoos but in a pink ballerina outfit, if you know what I mean! The set consisted purely of originals… they played 3 of them. The first one was called Vengeance, and the others I don’t remember. The keyboard work and clean guitars with delay were nice. It rained at this point, which made their set even more enjoyable. The sound was very classic rock. If you’ve heard some Bangla bands like Fossils, then you know what the band sounded like…quite distinct from the run-of-the-mill death metal crowd. 

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Brute Force – The crowd response got more excited and prone-to-randomly-mosh from this point onwards. The band soundchecked with Tornado Of Souls (Megadeth), followed by a self-composition called “Brute Force”, and another one about reservations. They had a nice rendition of Testament’s “Return To Serenity” as well. They ended off with Megadeth’s “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due”.  Wayne (lead guitar) was awesome. He’s probably the reason they were still kept in contention. As for the set list and the stage energy, Brute Force were very tight. The bands were getting better till now.  
 
Split - Hmm… now, this is the 4th attempt by them to win I-Rock, I believe (correct me if I’m wrong, please). Funny thing: the guitarists and vocalists were wearing t-shirts which spelt out BMC. Now, the thing here was that they played 2 styles. The vocals for the first part (My House, Pig Society, etc.) were good, but somehow, they never really got it going. Vishwesh’s Les Paul was quite drool-inducing. Anyways, they ended off with Rage Against The Machine’s “Wake Up”, with Vishwesh on vocals. Nice singing, very “in the genre”, and the crowd was with him. 
 
Faith - Man, I love North-East bands…because musically, they are amongst the most talented people ever. And Faith didn’t disappoint me. What a great tone the two guitarists had. As for the comparison to Bombay’s hyped-up and criminally-overrated Vayu, they completely owned Vayu even at their peal! Especially on Deep Purple’s “Burn”, their 2 self-compositions (“Country Outlaw Woman” and can’t remember the next one) and finally, DeepPurple’s “Highway Star” and boy oh boy, Jump (Van Halen) - haven’t heard that one in quite some time. I loved their vocalist, and the keyboards were good too. We had some crazy dual soloing on Highway Star… band of the night for me, for sure.

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Pentagram - The crowd, as usual, was full of drunken louts who wanted heavy metal, and nothing but heavy metal. Therefore, the pro band for the night took the stage amid loud boos. Pentagram were good yesterday night though not the best I’ve seen them play. I loved the new track “Ten”, and “This Is For My People”. Guitarist Randolph had the best tone out there yesterday, and their sound was top notch. I loved their set, which comprised of “Sledgehammer”, “Drive”, “Voices” (new), “Bad Man” (new), “Ten” (new), “This Is For My People”, “Desire” (a U2 cover), and the “Smack My Bitch Up” thing which they do.  
 
I-Rock XX was better, but this one wasn’t far behind. The crowd spoilt it for me… what’s with the metal madness? It’s sad that even today, we have rock shows where nothing except the loudest, fastest music and cover versions are appreciated (sigh). 
Random observations -  
1) Watchmen freaked out whenever a mosh happned!  
2) Bottles of water sold for 10 bucks. Very nice…  
3) Pentagram’s Vishal was brilliant as a frontman. I loved what he said, and what he did (the condom incident)  
4) Where was the fire-breather dude? 

That’s it for Independence Rock XXI. Avidly waiting for I-Rock XXII. May it live long.

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• Bombay Dreams - August 7th, 2006

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