The Great Indian Rock Festival 2008

Since its inception 13 years ago, the Great Indian Rock Festival, better known as ‘GIR’, has grown into this massive, nation-wide event that attracts hoards of Rock music lovers. GIR is the brain-child of Amit Saigal, also the founder of India’s very first , exclusive Rock magazine, Rock Street Journal. Originally, GIR was a competition, held annually in just the Capital, New Delhi but over the years, the concept evolved and has extended to all major cities (Although it is no longer a competition) — -Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Shillong, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune.

GIR 2008 was in fact a first for me — -and a pretty average one at that. Possibly because I’m not a biggie on Metal. This year featured 3 international Metal acts headlining the two-day fest — -namely, SAHG and Freak Kitchen on Day One and Satyricon on Day Two. Here’s a little something about my very first GIR experience-The Mumbai leg of it.

Day One, was a Metal-fest of sorts with Mumbai’s premiere Metal acts performing. Opening the act were Zodiac who made a come-back performance through GIR. A couple of originals and a couple of covers — -the vocalist took great pride in messing up every song. Or at least that’s what it seemed like to most. Next up, were Delhi-based Barefaced Liar. Very recently, I was introduced to their music and quite honestly, I liked what I heard. But then again, you can’t judge a band by MySpace sound-clips. How they perform live is how they actually are -yet another disappointment. They played to an un-enthusiastic set of people who didn’t seem to know much about their music or really care otherwise for that matter which only implies that they were incapable of holding the audience’s attention. Playing after them on home turf were Scribe. If there’s one word to describe their performance, I’d say ELECTRIFYING. They had their manager fill in as bass-guitarist but that didn’t stop them from overcoming any glitches. Playing crowd-favourites from their debut EP ‘Have Hard.Will Core’ and tracks from their newest album ‘Confect’, they managed to create quite a stir amongst the otherwise uninterested concert-goers. And before I knew it, mosh-ing had begun! People were there to watch the headlining acts though and although SAHG seemed to be a tad disappointing, Freak Kitchen delivered yet another brilliant performance. SAHG seemed way too Black Sabbath-ish to most and lacked energy. When asked about what he thought of GIR this year, Rohan Kher, a regular at the fest said, “We’re only here to watch Freak Kitchen. It’s great that RSJ has managed to bring down such an amazing band. As for the rest of them, I really don’t care”. Freak Kitchen’s music, as they’d like to describe it is known as ‘Swedish Viking Metal’, a genre I’m very new to but fell in love with instantaneously! Lead guitarist, Mattias Eklundh entertained like no other whilst after every song urged the crowd to chant out “Goody goody” or something to that effect. People did so and in chorus too, almost like an echo to Mattias’ words!

Coming back to the Andheri Sports Complex (the venue) the next day, I genuinely looked forward to the performances. Day Two wasn’t entirely Metal so that was a refreshing change. After a catastrophic Day One (for me), I breathed a sigh of relief when Mumbai-based Jam-band, Something Relevant, came on stage. Belting out some of their hits, AHA, Invisible Man etc, I thoroughly enjoyed their set. It’s a shame that mind-less metal-heads felt the need to disrespect other genres of music by waving their middle fingers as though they were torches. Juvenile that. Speaking to one of the members of a band that performed on Day Two, I gathered that Mumbai audience’s specifically don’t seem to appreciate anything that’s not metal. When asked to give an opinion on the audience, he laughed and said, “I think the audience could’ve been more colourful ..there were five guys wearing other colours”, referring to the sea of people wearing Black Tee’s! Rainbow Bridge, also finalists at Independence Rock this year, played next. These guys have great stage presence and when abuses were hurled at them, they took the liberty of sheepishly meddling with the crowd. They were fun to watch as the vocalist sang in Tamil and then in Hindi and then continued fooling around. Delhi rockers, Them Clones came on after Rainbow Bridge. They had the crowd start to end, playing hits like the ‘The Bomb Song’ and ‘Zephyretta’. Although I think vocalist Prithwish shouldn’t have overdone the whole “praising-bombay-audience-else-they’ll-boo-me-off-stage” bit. A tad overdone, but the performance masked it all. This next band had the crowd in a complete frenzy! Mosh pits then seemed almost brutal. Yes, Bhayanak Maut had entered the building! Popularly known as ‘BM’, these guys were really tight Growling, screaming, screeching…the vocalists seemed to do all of it with much ease! Closing the festival, were Satyricon — -and the people loved them.

For a first-timer, it wasn’t great but wasn’t too bad either. For some reason, the audience turn-out was poor. I think event organisers in India need to maintain their standards and show consistency with each passing year — -something that they’ve failed to do. Talking to a friend from New Delhi, who attended Day One there, he seemed pretty disappointed himself saying,” It was much better five years ago”. Well, there’s yet a bright side. GIR 2008 wasn’t a commercial, money-making venture and in my opinion, I guess that’s what’ll keep it alive hereafter!