"Rock In India" openers ...

Man oh man ... what a weekend!! This has gotta go down as one of the biggest events in Bangalore RnR history. Nine bands playing at the palace. Here are the excerpts...

TAAQ:

Yet another Thermal show ... only this time Jason (Parousia, Black Earth) on keyboards!!
Amazing performances from one and all ... New album is gonna rawk!! Check out the noo and improved site too ... KUDOS!!! Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge response from the audience!! Bruce was impeccable ... damn ... that tone!! And another thing which I had never seen, was a Gibson, new addition to King Bruce's collection ...
They did "Chameleon", "Paper Puli", "Humpty Dumpty" and covered one section of "Rodeo"... which incidently has also been covered by our own ELP as "Hoedown" on "Trilogy". What a performance!!! This song is a real challenge ... and to do it this brilliantly ... dyaam ... good work Thermal ... enough said!!!

Millennium:

So after a decade, I (along with a dozen other crazy Metal Armymen) finally got to see Millennium. The cool thing was that Bennie, my bandmate from the old BGM days was with me at the show!! So both of us were really charged up. Sadly enough, right when "Rainmaker" started, we saw clearly that they fell a couple practice sessions short. Sharmon showed some major timing issues there. But guys, Vehrnon is STILL right up there with his vocals. Almost the same as the last time I saw Millennium live. Praful was energetic and played nicely.
Roberto flubbed big with sticks flying out and everything. I guess his haitus from metal caught up and caught up BIG. Alwyn scorched as usual!! Desperately trying to get something happenning from the other side of the stage, he still did a great job with all solos. "Twist Of Fate" was done well, except for they never played that fine interlude (WTF??!!) ... that was a bummer. Vehrnon got the crowd in with the "METTAL AAARMIEE!" chant. If this was ten years ago, you would have heard those chants hours before the show started. They went on an covered "The Clash", which was received well by the heads. The performance was enough for sore throats for me and Bennie and was a great prelude to what was coming!!

Pentagram:

We stepped out for smokes ... Pentagram is as important as certain singing competitions on TV ...

The Machinehead/Megadeth review will follow soon ...

Take care yall ...
- Riffenstein

Millennium!

Yes! That is me wearing a Millennium tee! Riff recreated the design on the cover of I Concept 2 Live album! This was my way of celebrating the reunion of Millennium after more than seven years for a concert in Delhi today (Feb 1st, 2008). Unfortunately, I couldn't be at the concert, but I'm waiting to read reviews of the concert. They will be performing again at the Rock in India festival in Bangalore on March 14th, where they will be opening for Megadeth.

Btw, if you haven't heard the 1 Concept 2 live album yet, you can find a link to download it on this forum thread on Gigpad.

Update: Updated the date of the Rock in India concert. For some reason I kept thinking the concert was on February 14th! I must have been stuck in some kind of a time warp.

Indian Bandstand: Indian Rock Music History in Photographs

Day before yesterday, while searching for the whereabouts of the members of Millennium, Riff found this blog called Indian Bandstand written by a person who calls himself Adamji and who played in a band called Pulse with Sandeep Chowta. Adamji's blog is a treasure trove of photographs of the veterans of the Indian rock music scene. It contains many early photographs of Millennium, Agni, TAAQ as well as Aftermath (Philipe and DK - the guitarist and drummer from Aftermath - now play in a band called Ministry of Blues), as well as a lot of information about those bands. Do check out the site.