SF

Another year, another duffel bag full of possibly blood money doing the funding.

This year’s Strawberry Fields (rock show) was better than last year. I refuse to say Strawberry Fields Forever and all that, but I’m most certainly willing to give it a chance for next year – something I didn’t this year, having resigned myself to the fact that it’d be populated by what has been termed black tee-shirt wearing motherfuckers.

One factor may have been that a combination of papers to finish and quizzes to set and conduct meant that I hardly caught any of the prelims – that cesspool of running black mascara and violent gestures, catching only two bands there, and also only catching two bands during the final and one of the two headlining acts.

I was lured out of my room by an absolutely storming cover of Come Together (the Beatles one) played by one of the bands, though they sadly closed their set with it.

Instead, I first caught Metal Messiah, a band I’d already seen and dismissed during the prelims. Really, if a band was planning to be a rip-off of a band that they were listening to in class 7, I’d rather they’d ripped off the Smashing Pumpkins than Korn.

But, whatdyouknow? They were quite popular, or so some claim. Sure, they were tight and non-threatening - I’ll give them that, but as aforementioned, stank of Korn. With songs like ‘Loser’ (accompanied by the singer pointing at the crowd and making an L sign with his hand) and lyrics like Can you hear me/I’m all alone, I think it’s fairly self-explanatory as to the kind of band they were. The singer also seemed to be the nu-metal doppelganger of Juggy D.

They also wore the same clothes that they did during the prelims, so possibly stank of something else too, but I’d give them the benefit of doubt and say they thought it lucky.

Chili Potato, the other finalist band I saw, were oh so much better. I admit that I may be partial towards them because I’m vaguely familiar with their music and kind of know the lead singer. It was funny to see a guy I’d always thought of as a Hobbit-y character shred guitar.

They’re the kind of band who should be in a rock show, and one of the reasons the finals were great (from what little of the rest I could hear from my hostel room) – the majority of the bands were rock bands and not metal bands.

Their photo was also featured in the Times of India write-up that appeared the next day, labelled Metal Messiah. Ouch.

The Extramentals – I hate the name. Hate it hate it hate it. It’s the sort of name the self-anointed ‘backbenchers’ of students in class 7 come up with and find witty. Shruti Haasan is hot. Yes, she is. I didn’t listen to them play though – was reliably informed that the uniform opinion was that they were terrible. But, she’s still hot. Yes, she is.

Pentagram – I love their music, and they were probably the reason I attended the finals in the first place. And they didn’t disappoint.

They only played for twenty-odd minutes before being shut down by the cops, but really, starting with a metronomic guitar riff pinched from Peter Gunn, they really got me going. AND, they covered Radiohead’s Climbing Up The Walls. Short of playing She’s a Superstar as an encore, it was perfect. I had my arms (ok, one arm) up in the air – that’s a very big deal for me.

But, later on I got to hear about just how big a sonfabitch Vishal Dadlani is from the organisers – rumoured to have thrown hissy fits, rumoured to have pouted noticeably while Shruti Haasan and co. (in the grand tradition of Microsoft, refuse to say the E word and reinforce the brand) were on stage and rumoured at one point to refuse to take the stage (had to be fed copious amounts of chocolate before he became more amenable to the idea).

It’s a pity that someone who makes such good music has to be such an alleged dick, but my enjoyment of the former needn’t be prejudiced by the latter. So bitches to the behind-the-scenes goings-on, given also that he’s quite the showman on-stage.

So.... ummm...

\m/

*giggle*

I think not.