Wannabes!!

I went for a show yesterday. Some stupid show that featured a band from another country that I'd never heard of before or some crap like that. What a bummer of a show. First, I didn't want to go but was made to go after some EB [read: emotional blackmail for the uninitiated]. Second, there was only one cool band that was going to get to play for 20 minutes and that was the ONLY saving grace, except maybe for the samosas.

I reached there just when the first band was getting off stage. Not much talent in them. Thought they were ok ok types. Good drummer. Nice skills he's got there. Made the music from the band sound much better, like my drummer friend pointed out to me. Next was the band that I had gone there to watch and they rocked as usual. Started off with Perfect Strangers. Almost covered it to the nail. Thought the guitar was a bit of a let down, but all in all, you cant blame them for a near perfect show. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Then came on this band which I didn't quite understand. Now right from the spelling of their name to their playing skills, I thought this band was pseudo from the word go, pleasing all those boys and girls who had turned up in a multitude of very colorful t-shirts and savrovski laden jeans. 90% of whom were northy I am sure. We Bangalore folk like to go to a rock show dressed appropriately. Not turn it into a disco and break into song and dance at the given opportunity. Which mind you, the band did as well.

Now, I have nothing against the band personally, but the way they acted on stage was just so totally screwed up. I mean the lead vocalist is a good guy. Brilliant vocals too. Think he does a mighty impressive job with another local band here in Bangalore. But with what he did on stage yesterday, my image of the dude has completely changed. I am guessing its the same case of "The band bogged him down". I couldn't care less. Hopping around like your from one of them KorN bands just don't bake my cookie for me. I am sure that wasn't the intent either, so lets leave him out of the equation.

They tried to cover some songs. They failed. I hated their rendition of almost all the covers they did and one of their own compositions had just 6 chord changes in all and sounded like an ad jingle you'd hear on Radio City. Now I am no technical kind of guy when it comes to music. I'll listen to anything that sounds good. But this band didn't. Sure they got a whole bunch of them to throw their hands up in the air and yell "Oh Oh Oh" and shit, but lets have them rave about these guys on their blogs.

What totally made me loose it though is when I saw that drummer boy fellow stand up and pretend to be Portnoy. He even had a scarf around his head which I am sure he'll tell you is a BANDANA. Anyways, its not. Its a scarf. So everytime he's done playing one of his 4 x 4's, he'll stand up, stick his tongue out like Portnoy used to and roll his sticks for a while. Sure man, do all that shit if you have the skills to match. Why only run half the race no? Why not go all the way and play like him too? Seriously, this guy lacked any skill at all. Big guy, tall dude too. Belted the crap out of them poor animal skins and just made a lot of noise. No music. They finished their set and all and just then, the MOST AMAZING THING IN THE WORLD HAPPENED. The dumb ass rhythm guitarist unplugged his guitar, came to the center of ramp and destroyed that instrument man.

Lets take another close look at that now, shall we? Assuming that he broke the guitar he was using on stage, it was a nice piece. Made for a good sound too. Assuming that it'd cost anywhere between him selling his teeth to his kidney, its fair to say that someone from his family purchased it for him. And he goes and does that to his instrument? I mean really man, you aint in no trance or some shit. Your not like tripping and smoking good. And even if you were, it wouldn't justify what you did to your instrument. That just goes to show how immature you really are. If any one of us were to ask him why he did what he did, I am sure he'd have no explanation. Fair enough to say that he doesn't owe us one, but then again, its a guitar. Its not meant to be broken. Sure, when you join Nirvana, make a couple of a million yourself playing your fingers off to some grunge music, then feel free to break your old ones (which btw I still think is very very lame and even hate The Who for doing it) But your not no?

The truth of the matter is that your here in Bangalore. Not making music that sells. Not making enough money off music to put food in your mouth and not running your life around music. So don't do shit like that to your instrument man. Take it home. Keep it in that box. Give it to your kid. He'll probably make something of it that you never did.

Like my friend rightly pointed out just a minute back, no musician would want to destroy his instrument. But then again, we never said the guy who did just that yesterday was one in the first place.

VH1 on the other hand did some kickass video sequences that looped on the mammoth 4+1 projectors that they'd setup. Good sound. Good company. Crappy music. Pfft, I need to get out of the country and watch myself a Dave Matthew's concert.