Gig Review : India Rock Weekend [Day 1]

I think it’s a pretty well known fact by now that we at Whackk love, no, LOVE Indus Creed’s music. We’ve also been appreciative of Blakc’s grunge sound. Only obvious then that we were really looking forward to the first day at this magnanimous weekend served hot to us by Blue Frog Mumbai called ‘India Rock Weekend’.

The fact that I’m listening to Avial while writing this is immaterial. Avial can only do good things to me, and this review. Avial could have been a part of this already star studded (Yes, VishalDadlani. YOU!) line up. Food for thought for the Blue Frog management? Yes, I’m obsessing over a band which didn’t perform last night. This must be wrong on multiple levels. Should stick to the core :

Blakc

Invites and promotions for the Blakc+Indus Creed gigs started pouring in like two weeks ago. Two of our favourite bands together in one show?! SO. MUCH. WIN!

They came on stage with their own set of (male!) groupies (below the stage, not on) that follow them to every other gig and started off with their acoustic set. We reached a little late, missing out on ‘Rift’, always something that gets the crowd headbanging like crazy. Fortunately, the acoustic set got over pretty quickly with ‘Dreamcast’ being one of the highlights.

The band took a break and decided to start killing it with the electric set. Except, not much killing happened because for some reasons Shawn’s vocals weren’t sounding that good. They had a good mix of the old and new going on with them performing “My Angry Song” and “Agenda from their upcoming album and songs like “Paperdoll” and “Blacklisted” (accompanied with a nice solo) from their last album, “Choking On A Dream”.

Their set ended in the predictable way their sets usually end, with the song called “Sold” and Shawn being called down off the stage by the fans for some good natured moshing. Oh and after that, the crowd sang “Happy Birthday” (the classic, not a song by them) for Roop, cause y’know, it was his happy birthday. Kickass birthday party, eh? But, poor guy had to play from some obscure corner on the stage during the whole set because of the lack of space.

I have heard them play much better. Maybe it had do something with the gear. Indus Creed happens to be one of Blakc’sfavourite band and Reinhardt (Guitars) says playing with them was very nice. His only regret, “I wish they had let us have more of the stage, their setup took up a lot of space and we were cramped on the stage”. Although he didn’t really sound much bitter about that.

[Yoda voice] Cramped style, was yours? Hmmm [/yoda voice]. Probably that’s why I was just a little disappointed by their performance. I have come to expect too much badassnes from them.

Rating : 2.75/5

Indus Creed

‘Overshadowing’ is the word that comes to mind when one thinks of what IC did to blakc last night. When the biggies of Indian rock play, everything else takes a backseat. It was mildly pleasant to see the irking bunch of front-stage fans, which Blakc accompanies everywhere they perform, make a quiet exit. Lights, set. Sound, set. Visuals, set. Indus Creed, oh so set!

It was a regular set for IC, with a good mix of the old familiar hits and a sniff of the new album. Maybe they didn’t want to change a set which is already this good. The crowd’s reaction was certainly an agreement to that. I’ve seen IC at almost all their gigs in Mumbai, and the highlight at every show has been the trademark Mahesh Tinaikar solo during ‘Trapped’. Surprisingly, this time it was Zubin and the new bassist Sheldon stealing the spotlight with mesmerising solos. Somewhere, RushadMistry is getting uneasy now. Or not, since Rushad brings his own flavour along every time he plays.

Pretty Child, Top Of the rock and Trapped are sure shot hits with the audience. It was songs from the new album though that really shone through. I’ve heard them three times now and I’m putting my money on ‘Evolve’ being the biggest album in the Indian rock scene this year. Or even in the coming years. ‘Fireflies’, ‘Dissolve’ and ‘No Disgrace’ sound so lovely when played live that one can only imagine what Tim Palmer and Andy VanDette (Google them!) would do to them on record. To say that I’m just looking forward to this album coming out in May would be a major understatement.

Rating : 3.75/5

The ‘India Rock Weekend’ is currently going on at blueFrog, Mumbai. Pentagram and Junkyard Groove are the major acts on the last two days. We strongly suggest that you shell out some of those greens and make it to at least one of the remaining two days. we can only hope that blueFrogorganises more of such weekends.