Drum PatientCategory Archive

Just got back from the biggest music festival mera Bharat has ever seen. The Eastwind Festival happened folks, and how. 3 days 60 bands 3 stages – you get the picture. Prospect – you guys pulled it off. Sure some things didn’t go as planned, but what does?

What we need are many many more festivals like this. Every city’s got to have at least two that happen every year, on varying scales, to start with.

We played on Day 2, 23rd Feb, and unfortunately at the same time as Skinny Alley and Pentagram – bands that we wanted to watch! Sound was a bit iffy, but was a decent gig all the same.

Lately, this question has come up again. We continue to believe that despite our Strats and Ibanezes and Pearls, our dotted i’s and crossed t’s, our weird Brit-Amer accents – and our overt lack of ‘Indian’ sounds, we are indisputably an Indian Rock Band. Our songwriting, we think, reflects our heritage not, perhaps, in terms of language (a moot point – is English not an Indian language?) and pure sonics, but in thought. Our angst is driven by quintessentially Indian complications. Our observations are underlined by the quirky, mixed-up masala of culture, tradition, and modernity that is urban India.

What do you think?

‘Oasis’ at BITS Pilani. First heard of this festival back in College, mostly in the context of Padre-diktat “Thou shalt NOT go to this college festival. Thou shalt ONLY go to Pondy”. Took a while, but we finally made it.

For those who came in late, TAAQ played at Oasis ’07, the annual festival of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), an institute that dominates the little town of Pilani, Rajasthan.

KF flight out from B’lore 8:45pm, get to Delhi around 11:30pm. Pile into the obligatory Qualis/Innova/Tavera and off we go. Some quintessential Dilli aggro driving gets us to Pilani in 4 hours flat. Said driving mostly meant barreling down narrow pitch-dark state highway at 120km/hr. At one brief stop, the only thing I really remember is that the sky was simply ablaze with stars. Haven’t seen so many in a long time, urban superhumans that we are.

Get to Pilani at 4am, and just outside the gate are a couple of ramshackle tea-and-bread-omelet joints doing brisk trade (yes, no one sleeps around this festival). After oiling our gullets with some cutting chai, we’re checked into the VFAST (sic) Hostel. Peaceful place, decent grub. Them Clones was just leaving after their gig – saw them off. Grabbed some shut-eye and then wandered around the sprawling campus. Very similar vibe to other campuses we’ve been on – notably MCC Madras, JIPMER Pondicherry, etc. Or are we just getting old and foggy headed. There’s this general miasma of ‘chill’. Nothing moves very quickly, and a standard day can seem to go on for weeks.

Almost forgot, TAAQ played Paintball! Rajeev, Suchin, Umesh, and Vijay (from Prospect), captained by fearless leader yours truly. Tiring, but fun. Pics with us kitted out in battle gear toting weaponry will follow! We played against a bunch of guys from a college somewhere. Yes, we lost, but under questionable circumstances, I tell you. Especially after formulating highly evolved battle strategies like ‘attack attack attack’ and ‘run run run’ and ‘keep the safety off dammit!” There were some very fishy rules and half of us ended up being disqualified. Umesh picked up a round in the face, and left the field dripping green goo. I was last man standing (medals anyone??) and survived to the bitter end, going down finally, outgunned, outnumbered… but never captured. Ah, the honour, the courage, the valour…

Speaking of time, we were supposed to get a soundcheck in by 10pm, and start playing around 11 – midnightish. Got that check at 1am. All kinds of sound issues, but Vinay manages to get the act together. Gig begins at 2am. We start with Motorbyckle, and with the roar that greets us immediately after, we know we’re on to a good thing. Went on to play a nearly 2-hour set, with lots of the new material thrown in. And yes, a-la-happydent, It’s Working! Good crowd (lots of energy at 3am – believe it). Played till nearly 4am and signed some high-tech autographs on PDAs and suchlike. Happening, maan.

Ducked out of judging the finals, as we had to get back to Delhi for the next gig – at Cafe Morrison. That story coming soon.

Slight paucity of gigs over the last month. But the songs are coming thick and fast. Here’re the words to one we just finished.

Won’t Stop

I draw a line in the sand
And you hate me
I make a face in the water
And you want to drown me
I carve a God from cold stone
And you want to bury me

But I
Won’t stop.

I open your eyes to the colours
And you blind me
You hear my voice in the darkness
And you want to strangle me
I give you a taste of tomorrow
And it never comes for me

But I
Won’t stop.

So small so small we are so small
And it boggles my mind
That your mind
Could be smaller

So cold so cold in the end it’s so cold
And all we have
Is the time
And a spark
From the fire…

I draw a line in the sand
And you hate me
I make a face in the water
And you drown me
I carve a God from cold stone
And you bury me

But I
Won’t stop.

Not so long ago, the dean of an art school saw fit to ostracize, condemn, and denounce the work of a student. Not so long ago, a showbiz kiss ruffled the greasy feathers of the moral militia, and became the darling of the vacuous, master-of-misdirection media. Not so long ago, we were supposed to be free.

We’re back. And what a longstrangecrazycool trip it’s been. Of course, now I am confirmed full Mal, as I yam now Gelf retern. Silly Ray-ban, gold chain, etc notwithstanding. Fullmal and no quarter!

Flew Gulf Air via Muscat (sitting in the airport fooling about, the three Muscateers! Yes, only three. Rudy had visa issues and didn’t make it for the Dubai gig. Tony Dass on Bass.) Landed in Dubai International, that cavernous, ginomous, great big blue-grey bread-loaf of an airport. 39 degrees in the shade outside, and a happy 22 inside. Picked up by the good folks from Jump Media, Siobhan and Merwyn, and whisked off to the Arabian Park Hotel, an Olympic stone-throw from the Grand Hyatt. Rest of the day off to chill – and do Glaswegian (read: unplugged) rehearsals with the three-piece set up. Good grub at the hotel. Sure to be carrying a few extra pounds back!
Dubai is already on the familiar template of the 1st world. Big and clean and towering and fast and rich and so on. The heat, ah the heat. 40+ across noon – and you know, of course, they have a ski resort in Dubai. Yup, at a Mall (where else?). It boggles the imagination to think of all the kilojoules of energy pumped into keeping a vast indoor space at -1 degrees.
Soundcheck at Jimmy Dix, 3ish. Met our engineer, Tim. Really good man, all round. Just the three of us, so pretty uncomplicated. We’re set in a short while and use the time to squeeze in some practice. Tony is impressive as ever on bass as well. Missing Rudy like mad, but I guess we’ll pull through this gig somehow.

Place is filling up and by around 10pm we’re good to go. Kick off with Look At Me – and with the roar that comes at the end of that, we know we’re on to a good thing here. Gave it all we had, and really had a ball. Sold some CDs too. Quite a few old compadres from Bangalore, and Tony, being the proper mallu boy born in Dubai, had a bunch of short-pants cronies rooting away. Really really good gig overall. Sound was spot on, the ‘thermalized’ covers really got the crowd, and most of all, our own material was so well received. Heartening, me hearties! New song Simply Be had a bunch of guys dancing around. Couldn’t really do Holy Jose and HCIGYG without Rzu. Damn! But was still a good gig. Would have been SO MUCH better with Rzu. Well. Next time! Tony did a great job filling in on bass – considering he had exactly one day to learn up all the parts. Kudos Tonykutta.

Day off again on the 21st, spent mostly being mallrats and hogs. Malls – well, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen themall, even with ski resorts. Ate some fiery stuff at Nando’s for dinner that burnt off some stomach linings for sure. The oval office was rather busy the next morning…

Bahrain airport – held up at customs. Some usual protocol for bringing musical instruments in. Rzu in already – came in the morning. So he’s in now, and we’re stuck! What a scene. Takes two hours and 3 grand in phone calls to sort things out – but all well. Bahrain venue Likwid much smaller, and Tim makes the best of the sound. Good to back full on too! Very tired before gig though – all the waiting around, lack of sleep, etc.

Walk in as our opening act for the night, The Dilmum Dixielanders, go through some old-time dixieland standards, full eight-piece and all. Cool! Get on at about half ten, and it’s another good night! Lots more countrymen from God’s own.

Most of the next day spent sleeping – flight back 2240. Almost don’t make it on – flight overbooked – saved by a kindly official who seemed to like our honest faces! Usual duty free splurging and long red-eye flight later, we’re back.

Here’s a big thank you to all the folks at Jump Media for making this happen, (along with a couple of other distinguished gentlemen called Jack and Bud). Lets hope it’ll happen again soon! Cheerio.

Back in the day, I’ve played a few songs from the Iron Maiden catalogue – Run to the Hills, Can I Play With Madness, and more. Circa 1997 I think it was, and playing with a Prog/Metal band was the best way I could think of, at the time, to improve my chops. Lucid Dreams was a good band, a very tight band, very technically accomplished. Shred city, basically. Brought back a good deal in terms of chops to TAAQ – someday we’ll let you all listen to some of the intense prog shit we were doing then. Quite a trip.

I don’t really know why, but Heavy Metal did a sneaky bypass as far as my musical trips are concerned. Sure I’ve played Pantera, Testament, Megadeth, Metallica, (and of course Maiden) with a couple of bands (Lucid Dreams and another one-show wonder; a very forgettable gig in Mysore) and I’ve learnt a good bit from playing those songs, but there was always some essential connect with the music that I could never find. We even once worked out Metaillica’s Sad but True for a TAAQ gig (believe it! ended up NOT playing it, but well…).

I guess it’s a Harley-type thing – If you have to ask, you don’t need to know.

I’m definitely going to be there for the Maiden gig.

Itanagar was rocking! Slammed down three meals on our long Good Times flight to Guwahati, got into a chopper straight from Babewatch (exact model, as our captain informed us, minus the babe of course). Most of our luggage made it into the chopper except for Rajeev’s monstrous hardware bag and Rzu’s bass. Most frightening thing on chopper ride: big red handle next to captain with caption ‘Jettison luggage’. Eeep. Can guitars fly?

Received at deserted Naharlagun heliport by warm reception committee, complete with white silk scarves and all. Packed into some stylish transport and lugged to the Donyi Polo (sun & moon) Ashok hotel. Nice. Really nice folks – took great care of us throughout. Getem and Gyaani and Newin and Bomar and Gomar and everybody else – thanks dudes!

The gig was in this enormous field next to a school I think – the Rajeev Gandhi stadium was otherwise occupied. Huge sound/light set up. Very impressive. The sound guys, from Guwahati, were also pretty much on the ball – sound check took very little time and we were all pretty happy! The rain, of course, arrived then and damped things a bit. Getem’s band was opening for us, and things were delayed with the precipitation.

Nice crowd. We got on with a wild intro to Brigade St., and the roar that came after was good to hear. Things went a little haywire in between, with Rajeev’s monitors crapping out all of a sudden – perhaps some wiring issues complicated by rain. But good gig overall – signed dozens of autographs – on CDs, little bits of paper, arms, t-shirts, etc. Gave away a whole bunch of CDs as well. Hope there’ll be folks singing along the next time. What a gig to end the year with.

And what a YEAR it’s been. Haven’t stopped gigging from end-May.. from Glasgow and London to Delhi and Calcutta, Chennai and Bombay to Itanagar, it’s been such a great ride. Here’s a big thank you to all the folks who wanted to hear us badly enough to keep us flying. And one more to our families for keeping those home fires burning for all us way-ward musicians.

A very happy 007 to all. What with new double-O status, it should be killer. If we play our cards right, we should do even more gigs this year. Playing in clubs doesn’t always get you diamonds, but at least you’re not pushing spades. Hearts are meant to be won. And the joker must always rule.

We used to look down at this place. I mean literally. From our little eyrie (alas, now defunct) in Barton Centre, a certain 6th floor balcony that is now, perhaps, part of popular Banga-lore. Way back when in those black & white times, a Blue Fox hid out there, some kind of phamily restaurant, I believe. We actually saw L’attitude being built, and Suraj (Motherjane) was the cool guy who did all the AC work. It’s now Smartini, and we played there last night.

Sound guys SoundAce weren’t really on the ball. Not even sniffing distance, actually. Just managed to pull it off. And, dear readers, if ever you play at Smartini, remember not to hit a Bb note on stage. It cries wolf.

People were trickling in – a lot of the crowd was probably at the Max Mueller Jazz gig – heck we’d have liked to go too! And the smart folks at Smartini weren’t letting stags in. And stopping folks who didn’t have ‘invites’ (which were only available inside Smartini, I think).

Was a fun gig for us though – relaxed and easy. Played some new songs – 1996 – to good response. Had to sing really hard – could barely hear vox on monitors. Don’t like that situation. Feel like you’re not in control. Tony took nice solo on Intermission. Nate was cooking too.

Went to Church St. Empire afterward, hoping that a certain young Nick didn’t choose that night for a bit of bohemian bullying, with full parental backing.