Concert of a lifetime - Lamb of God

The hungry-for-top-notch-concert heavy metal maniacs from India as well as in and around India were in for a treat when two months back Lamb of God announced on its official website that they will be touring Banglore or Bengaluru as the purists would like it on 15^th May 2010. Me and my friends for one were only waiting to gobble up such an opportunity and booked our flight tickets and concert tickets instantly.

For starters LAMB OF GOD or LOG is a heavy metal band from Richmond Virginia, USA and like their music to be called as ‘Pure American Metal’. A 5-piece band, LOG consists of Drummer – Chris Adler, Bassist – John Campbell, Guitarists – Mark Morton & Willie Adler & Vocals – Randy Blythe.

So, finally Deepak & I reached Bengaluru airport on 15^th morning for “Summer Storm Festival 2010” at 8:00AM and waited for ei’s arrival from delhi. After boarding ‘Vajra’ the AC bus service from the airport to Hotel Basil, in Malleswaram, which was booked by ei. Reaching the hotel was not on our mind as was eating some nice South Indian idli, dosa with sambar & chutney. And you thought and only LOG were dying to have South Indian cuisine. Anyways, checked in at 12:00Noon in the hotel room and rested a bit so that we can be ready for the long day ahead at Palace grounds. After having some light lunch we zoomed to Palace grounds wherein there were wedding preparations going on which made sure that the actual place of the concert was on the other end, misleading directions from the localities made matters worse. Finally at 4:30PM we made it to the entry gate as Boomerang had already started playing.

The Indian bands performed well with Bhoomi not present for reasons know best to them. Scribe for one takes the cake with Vishwesh not leaving any stone unturned to connect with the audience. At the start the band had its share of problems with the sound check but later tracks like ‘Pav Bhaji’ really got the sweating audience moving. Extinct Reflections in their last gig with one of the band member coming all the way down from LA put up a good show with Prasad Bhat on the vocals trying his level best to get the crowd going. But they just could not get them much interested as the gods themselves were waiting backstage and the crowd was getting impatient. At 6:30PM Extinct Reflections buzzed off from the stage. The announcer then told that LOG wont be coming befor 7:30PM. The thirsty crowd started wandering off for a bite or some beer.

Finally, after a wait of 50 to 60 minutes, Chris Adler came on the stage and the band kicked off the show with ‘The Passing’from their newest album “Wrath”.Then Randy Blythe cam on stage and gave the crowd ‘In your words’ & ’Set to fail’. The crowd really got violent with mosh pits going infront of the barricade. Not that I was complaining. Then cam ‘Ruin’, Walk with me in Hell’, ‘Now you got something to die for’ & ‘Blacken the cursed sun’.Chris Adler showed why he was voted the best drummer of 2009 and the crowd was not denying either. Mark Morton’s riffs created waves and John Campbell gave the perfect bass to each and every track. Willie Adler on the other side with his no nonsense guitars completed the circle. Those not present at the concert did miss a spectacle and let me be down right candid here. I know some might say that Iron maiden was the best when it came to LIVE @ Palace grounds but LOG was different from them for the simple reason that they came to India in their prime. The fact that 6000 people made it to the concert is an achievement in itself for rock fans like us and the rock community in the country on the whole. A total of 16 tracks were belted out by LOG in a span of 90 minutes. For the full setlist go to http://setlist.fm/setlist/lamb-of-god/2010/palace-grounds-bangalore-india-13d4d991.html.

Even after so many tracks the crowd yearned for more and why would not they. LOG made their mark on India and they have promised that they will be back soon. With the vibrant headbanging and moshing during the last track ‘Black Label’ the body was a bit stiff, the neck stiffer but who is complaining after watching Lamb of God in flesh.

ROAD TRIPPIN'

This is the first of the many parts of my Konkan Trip that started with 5 friends.

From 25th to 29th December 2009.

Its been a while since I blogged but am sure I will make it worth the wait. The reason being that on 25th Dec. 2009 at 3:00PM I and my 4 friends from WeSchool embarked upon a trip that had so many twists and turns and am not talking about the roads here, that we were all mesmerized as much as from the beauty of Konkan as we were with what was ahead of us at all times during the trip.

To begin with the preparations for the trip began a good 45 days before 25th of Dec. 2009. The locations that we planned to trip upon (pun intended) were Ganpatipule, Ratnagiri & Tarkarli, Malvan. The bookings for Ganpatipule were full as the weekend that we were planning had two holidays (Christmas 25th Friday & Moharram 28th Monday) and a Sunday, so all in all one Saturday off made it a 4-dayer vacation. We were not getting accommodation at ganpatipule so I tried my luck and got the rooms booked at Ganpatipule for 5 of us (Me, Gautam, Vinayak Rahul & Rameshwar). Happy that I did the same, I earned the bragging rights (atleast for the time being) that, what no one else could do I did. Days later I received the receipt confirming the booking I just gazed through it and text messaged my friends that the booking is confirmed. Fast forward to 25th December 2009. After a rather early waking up at around 8:00AM I helped mom with some errands as she was leaving for Malvan, hadpiwadi on the same day but by train.

So, at 11:30 AM on 25th December I left home but to stop over at my good friend’s place for the Christmas lunch. We were 4 of us for that lunch. Old friends from my graduation years. The lunch was really yummy with non-vegetarian food galore. The good time at this friends place got over as 2:30PM was nearing. The time we planned to leave Thane for Ganpatipule. As I called up Gautam, in-charge of the car to see if they had left, they were unfortunately late by about 30 mins or so. I had to wait in the sun though the cool breeze made the wait bearable to say the least. So at 2:55 PM after the TATA Indigo came I sat in it and left to pick up Rameshwar at Airoli Bridge the last of the 5 as Rahul had already come to Thane. So, our Journey started and we headed towards Navi Mumbai for NH-17. Slowly and surely we were able to leave the city behind us and it felt really good with every passing kilometer. At around 5:30 I got behind the wheels with the idea for the trip being that Gautam and I driving for 90 minutes each. This was the second time I was driving this car but the first time in the ghats. Being an entirely new experience I tried not to be too conscious but somehow I was not that easy on the gears with Gautam giving me instructions at every corner of the road. At 6:30PM Gautam took over, as the speed of my driving was not that favourable for the trip. Reaching Ratnagiri was our main motive as Ganpatipule was just a half hour drive from there. After reaching the so called left for Ganpatipule we drove a few feet away and thought of enquiring a shop that was open at 11:30 in the night. He directed us towards the road that was just a few paces behind us, which eventually took us to Ganpatipule. Reaching there our search for MTDC resort, which we had booked a month earlier, got over in 15 minutes, thankfully. Once inside the premises I searched for the receipt that was in the bag kept at the back of the car. Royally we 5 of us walked inside as we were seeing people around us searching for accommodation and believe me all the resorts/ hotels were full with not a single room available. But, we were carefree, as I had the room booking receipt in my hand. I kept that receipt on the counter and the two men standing across the counter glanced at me rather surprisingly, as if to say ‘What am I doing here at this hour of the night?’. Between it was past 12 that time and they were getting ready for there good nights sleep. They saw the receipt and at once pointed out the date to me. There it was the booking was done for 25th Nov. to 27th Nov. and here we were standing at MTDC resort Ratnagiri on 25th Dec. 09 expecting that we would be welcomed. That moment was such a low blow for me that the others in my group were controlling their laughter and I had a look on my face that was a ‘Kodak moment’ to say the least. The resort guys tried their level best to see if we could get an accommodation but there wasn’t a single room that was empty. That was it. We all decided that now we would drive down to Hadpiwadi (my house) 23Kms before Malvan. But that was another 4 hours drive for us and it was already 1A.M. It was decided that Gautam and me would drive and hour each. But I felt sleepy on my way to Hadpiwadi and Gautam did the needful. We reached 25 Kms before Malvan and went on going straight and it was 4:30AM now. We took a wrong right turn and went on going through a Jungle were there was so much of darkness that minus the headlights it would had been next to impossible to see outside. After much running around in circles we found that we had reached 12 Kms before Malvan and that meant we were on the wrong track. Suddenly at a turn after going through small lanes we cam out on a road were people were out walking taking their morning stroll. We were all wondering that for the past 4 hours we did not find a single person and all of sudden 12-15 people were spotted out of nowhere. One of the guy told us the way to Hadpiwadi and we followed that road religiously and at 5:45 we were at ‘Yeshwat’ my place, my house in the belly of mesmerizing Konkan.

This was just the start of our Journey. More yet to come.