Suprised this thread wasn't started earlier!

Anyone? Heard Meshugahh NAILED it everywhere? Anyone?

Delhi gig was kind of a Black and White. The sound for the Indian bands including DR and Undying wasn't too good so couldn't enjoy their sets very much. DR managed to play a good set though which included songs from their new album and some of their older tracks like "Frozen Potrait" and "Apocalyptic Dawn". But the set could have been a lot better if they've gotten a good sound. I missed some of the bands in the starting on second day. When I arrived, Lucid Recess were playing on the stage. They played jazz and blues set which was tight. The Assamese band totally reflected their nativity in their music. They also dedicated a song to a friend who passed away a few days ago only. But the crowd din't seem to like them much. Undying Inc. was full of energy on the stage and Shashank's vocals were way better than what I've seen in the previous gigs. But personally I find their music very monotonous so won't say much about them.

Tesseract's vocalist is one gifted dude! His cleans are so sustained but after a point, they started to sound very monotonous. But their vocalist held the crowd together and he kept on showcasing his talent by his cleans. Purified in blood wasn't much of an entertainment also.

Enslaved was the band of the night for Day 1. They played a good set, most of their songs from their new album "Axioma Ethica Odini" and some awesome tracks from their older albums like Isa and RUUN. The sound during Enslaved could have been better but overall it was a very good set by the Norwegians.

Day 2 was the big night and Undying Inc had finished playing their set and the sound guy from Meshuggah took over the console within seconds after that. About 15-20 minutes later, the band comes on the stage and starts their set with Rational Gaze. The sound of this band was just remarkable. The songs sounded so clear that I almost imagined myself listening to them on my iPod. After they've played 3 songs, Jens Kidman interacts with the crowd saying "You know what happened in Delhi? Silence happened here. That surely doesn't belong to this place. Silence belongs to a fucking library. That's why we're here!". After they played a hell of a setlist including songs like Combustion, Bleed, Electric Red, Sane, Perpetual Black Second and so on. They ended their set with the very much famous "Pee Pee Pee Pee" intro of the Future Breed Machine. Overall it was very much fun watching them live and I am sure everyone went home with a broken neck.

^ No one goes home with a broken neck


j/k

LOL @ 'pee pee pee pee' intro. Tu Kabir ka dost hai na?

Haha! No man I don't know him. I was very skeptical about how to express the intro in words. I really love it.

GIR in Bangalore was a fairly low key affair. The turnout was really low. I don't think it crossed more than a thousand people on either day.

All Indian bands had sound issues the first day. We all had to deal with extremely low PA volumes due to some cop's daughter's wedding reception happening nearby. Ridiculous. Bicycle Days and Slain were pretty good. We (Kryptos) did OK I guess. The PA was so low that I could hear people having conversations in the front row while we were playing. Bhayanak Maut probably had the lowest PA volume of all bands. They were really tight but the only thing anyone could hear was a bit of drums and some vocals. Needless to say they weren't too happy about it, just like the rest of us.

Meshuggah of course had the best sound. Crystal clear with an absolutely massive bass tone.
I'm no fan of their music but I tried to keep an open mind and I have to say they are probably the only band I've ever seen who are both awesome and boring at the same time.
Superb stage act, incredibly tight, great sound, great lights, great technical skills BUT ultimately boring. Everything started sounding the same after about 3 songs but that's just me. The majority of the people totally loved them either way.

I missed Inner Sanctum and Eccentric Pendulum on Day 2. Got there just in time for Purified in Blood. They started out really well but after about a song and a half it went completely downhill. Dull would be an understatement. Tesseract were next and they were absolutely horrendous. The music wasn't too bad but holy crap that vocalist was just terrible. Out of pitch throughout with cringe worthy 'growls' and god awful 'cleans'. Not even a bottle of whiskey could take away the pain. Great drummer though. Hmpf

Enslaved were the only saving grace for me at GIR. They were phenomenal. I'm not familiar with their stuff but they were fucking good. Really funny mid song banter with the crowd as well. I have no idea what songs they played but it was good to finally hear some semblance of melody after so many hours of tedium.
Their encore was easily the highlight of GIR. Brilliant stuff.

Yeah so that was it. Went home and zzzzzzzzed

hmmmm.... lets see. GIR for me was not just the festival it was 5 days in Delhi including 2 days of Rock Connect.

Landed in Delhi and was put up in the Crowne Plaza which was unbelievable to say the least and they had a breakfast buffet to die for which lovely cold cuts and cheeses and eggs and sausages and NUTELLA!! You know its epic win when besides the butter, jam and marmalade for the bread there is a jar of peanut butter and NUTELLA!

Anyway moving on Rock Connect is a music conference where Norwegian delegates were present that included the Inferno Festival organizers Lars and Jan-Martin, Hilde Hammer a booking agent, Anders Odden who plays for Satyricon and Celtic Frost and has been in the business for 20 years and Erlend from Indie Recordings Norway. There were some great panel discussions on both days just that the lack of PR for the event saw 5 people on day 1 and 3 on day 2. Epic fail for a great great oppurtinity for Indian bands to come and learn something about how to make a career out of this and what oppurtinities are there for bands.

Friday was a rest day so I had a clinic at Furtados which was great. And had lunch at BIG CHILL which was fucking epic win as usual.

Saturday was CHAOS!! I mean fucking chaos, the sound vendor setup late and all the soundchecks got thrown around and finally we just did a 20minute check and we went on stage to open the show. Surprisingly I had awesome sound on stage and was very happy but I believe our PA sound was potty from what I was told. Also we got to play only 5 songs which we had to really really rush through because the show started at 6 I think as opposed to 4:30. I spent most of the rest of the gig at the CD Stall where as usual Delhi killed it

PIB were up next and while they were tight and all that their brand of metal was unappealing to me to say the least. Same thing about Tessaract. Very tight and all that but not my cup of tea at all.

Finally Enslaved came on and while much like Nolan I didn't know the names of any songs, they just killed it. I felt that the last time I saw them at GIR also. There is a great atmosphere when they play and I was also lucky to chat with Ila the guitarist during their soundcheck and he's a really cool chap.

So DR day 1 ended finally with great CD sales and dinner at Chicago Pizza in Khan Market which after sitting inside Chicken Inn and seeing Rs.530 for a plate of butter chicken was a fucking awesome deal at 100 bucks for a big slice of pizza with MEAT!

Day 2 - EPIC EPIC lunch at BIG CHILL with their Christmas Special which was a chicken breast stuffed with Mushroom and Mascapone sauce. Not to mention the heavenly Baileys Tiramisu. Got to the venue late and I have no idea what bands were playing till Undying Inc came on and tore the place apart however they sounded fairly muddled on the PA. During their set while I was at the stall a boy with a bleeding nose and I mean fucking bleeding nose came through and we had to put him on the table while the doctor attended to him and then finally took him out on a stretcher. There were some other casualties during the rest of the gig but I think this was the worst.

Anyway next up were Meshuggah. Who like Nolan pointed out are awesome and boring at the same time. I enjoyed the first 3 minutes of Bleed and that was about it.

So GIR day 2 ended on another high note and this time I ended the Delhi trip with the most EPIC WIN beef burger from OZ CAFE or is it CAFE OZ? Anyway it was superb!!! And we caught our flight back to Mumbai.

I think I put on 1 kg after this trip, thankfully I lost 5kgs before going there.!!! hahhahaha!!

Fun fun!

^^^Next GIR I'm coming with you. You make everything sound so......tasty

Demonstealer bhi ullu hai na, who eats twice at big chill in 2 days? Kebabs shabaabs khaane theyy na !

I know, what trip to dilli is complete without the trio of kebab, shebab and sharab.