This is a modified repost of an old review, originally written on 3 March 2006

The Great Indian Rock festival is an annual event to promote bands on the Indian rock circuit. The festival, which is mostly held in New Delhi, makes occasional forays into Bombay as was the case this year.

Bands performing in this tenth edition of Great Indian Rock included Demonic Resurrection and Split from Mumbai, Joint Family and Prestorika from Delhi. Progressive metal band Freak Kitchen was flown all the way from Gothenburg, Sweden to feature as the headlining act. The city’s very own Medusa was also scheduled to perform at the show, but were unable to do so as their drummer unexpectedly fell ill. Nevertheless, the line-up was good enough to enthrall the masses and had all the right ingredients to make it a memorable show.

Demonic Resurrection kick started the proceedings. I had heard a couple of their songs before, but this was the first time I was seeing them live. The band had an all original set, which mostly comprised of songs from their latest album, ‘A Darkness Descends’. They started off their set with “Behind the Mask of God”. The drumming and vocals were impressive, as they continued their set with other popular songs from their album such as “Apocalyptic Dawn”, “Spirits of the Mystic Mountains” and “The Summoning”. Mephisto did a good job on the keyboard, and the band overall was pretty tight, combining grinding guitars and hardcore rhythms to a good effect. The crowd response was very good — which was evident as a large mosh pit was seen at the front of the stage and several listeners were seen headbanging. The band gave the festival a good start I thought.

Split were up next. The last time I had seen them perform was two years ago at the nineteenth (and sadly the last to be held at Rang Bhavan) edition of Independence Rock. The band had reunited very recently after a brief hiatus and was on a comeback trail of sorts. Vocalist Garreth sported a Mangal-Pandey-meets-Russell-Hammond (remember ‘Almost Famous’?) look for some odd reason, which captivated a fairly large section of the crowd. Guitarist Vishwesh tried his hand at a bit of stage humour, which didn’t go down too well with the crowd.

The band started off with “Slither” by Velvet Revolver. Quite a song to start the set with, I’d say! The guitars sounded nice and heavy, and the drumming was tight. The vocals were weak in my opinion, with Garreth trying to pull off a Scott Weiland, albeit unsuccessfully. They played U2’s “Vertigo” next, which really made me wonder where they were going with their set. Anyway, the guitars were pretty crisp, although the vocals persisted to be weak. Still, they were engaging and put on a rather decent show.

Next in line were their original compositions, “My House” and “Don’t Let Go”. The former was the highlight of their set, laced with edgy riffs and some good drumming. What they played next was a bit of surprise for everyone — Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody To Love”. What started out as a little experiment back at home actually turned out to be quite a crowd pleaser. To my surprise I spotted a dozen people moshing to the song, which was quite amusing because the song isn’t quite mosh-friendly by any stretch of imagination! The band did a great job on the number and executed it to perfection. “Pig Society”, an original composition (featured on the Great Indian Rock 2006 compilation disc) was played next. The catchy chorus and good vocals complimented the neck breaking hook lines.

The band concluded their set with a rendition of Audioslave’s “Cochise”. Garreth again attempted a change of style, trying to pull off a Chris Cornell this time, but finally settled for what sounded like Scott Stapp! The intro seemed a bit off the hook, but they gradually built momentum to end their set on a high note.

Joint Family was up next. I had heard a lot about this band, and they lived up to expectations. They started off with “The Drummer’s Advice”. The crowd instantly took a liking to the song and responded with a large mosh pit. Frontman Akshay’s vocals were reminiscent of KoRn’s old works.

The band followed it up with a couple of originals, “Fight Back” and a really bad pun on ‘Confessions of a Dangerous Mind’ (which I can’t seem to recall, for obvious reasons). These guys had everything going for them. The crowd went into a frenzy when the band was joined by none other than Vinay from Bhayanak Maut as the guest vocalist for Slipknot’s “People = Shit”. Vinay absolutely nailed the song and did a great job partnering Akshay on the vocals. The man surely knows how to put on a great show. I saw a huge mosh pit being formed right in front of me eyes, which was quite amazing to say the least.

The band then followed that up with yet another Slipknot number, “Liberate”, along with a few more original compositions — “Change”, “Life’s a Bitch” and “Juggernaut”.

Overall it was a highly entertaining set. Akshay did a good job on the vocals, drummer Shardul set the pace for their high-voltage set. These guys are destined for great things, and I simply cannot wait to watch them perform again.

Prestorika were next in line to perform. I had heard a bit of what they had to offer last year at Livewire, although not enough to form an opinion. Hence I was curious to see what they had to offer this time around. They kick started their set with Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. The vocals were pretty good, and the axe work was intricate. They followed it up with Skid Row’s “Monkey Business” and a few original compositions, which included, “I Survive” and “Not My Way”. Apart from a good show put up by their lead guitarist Lokesh, I for one wasn’t too impressed by this band. This band seemed to lack that killer stage presence and to me it seemed that they were playing more for themselves than for the crowd. Their set was quite long and after a long stroll through the ground I noticed that a very few people actually seemed to be enjoying it. I was quite honestly relieved when they stopped playing and was looking forward to the next band.

Next on stage were but of course, the highlight of the show, the headlining act Freak Kitchen. The Swedish trio from Gothenburg comprising of Björn Fryklund on drums, the mighty powerful Christer Örtefors on the bass guitar and Mattias “IA” Eklundh on lead guitar and vocals, has been around for almost fifteen years now, their career spanning six albums, the latest being ‘Organic’, which was released last year.

The set up and sound check took an awful lot of time, during which time the audience was repeatedly subjected to a “highly informative” semi-documentary about an AIDS-related NGO. Social responsibility and the “devil’s” music going hand in hand? I think not!

After what seemed an eternity, the band started off with “Blind” from their freshman effort, ‘Appetizer’. With uplifting lyrics related to themes of racism and hate and some really fabulous vocals, it was quite a surprise when I learnt that the band composed this song more than a decade ago. They followed it up with the stark “Porno Daddy” and “Nobody’s Laughing” from their fifth studio album, ‘Move’. Mattias’ vocals and stage presence were simply astounding as the band continued to amaze the audience with “Silence” (‘Dead Soul Men’). The extremely catchy chorus and strong bass lines had the crowd on their feet. They followed it up with two of my personal favourites, “The Rights to You”, and “Speak When Spoken To” from ‘Organic’. A fairly large section of the crowd was seen humming along to the latter as the song had received quite a lot of airtime on VH1 as part of promotion for the event. Next came “Vaseline Bizniz” from their eponymous album, which soon led into a very impressive Viking ‘folk’ song. The audience could not help but watch in amazement at Mattias’ ‘my-guitar-doubles-as-a-keyboard’ antics — simply amazing. They finally concluded their set, and the proceeding for the evening with the political “Propaganda Pie” from their album ‘Move’.

It was great to finally have a Scandinavian band perform in India — Björn’s incredible drumming talent was a treat to watch and Christer’s on-stage antics, especially the Viking dance, were a lot of fun apart from the fact that he did a great job on the bass. Freak Kitchen’s distinctly operating structure fuses elements of hardcore, jazz and progressive music into a cohesive, alternate sound, void of any broader qualifying characteristics that would anchor it to any one style of music.

It was easily one of the very best live performances I have seen so far in my life, and I was glad I got to see the band in action barely a few weeks after I was introduced to their music. The band has been successful in making me their fan, and how! I went home with a big grin on my face and a Freak Kitchen t-shirt to go!

All in all it was one of the finest events of the year so far which left Bombay’s rock & metal aficionados craving for more. Rock Street Journal has done great service to the Indian Rock circuit and I surely do hope that Great Indian Rock pays city a visit again next year to showcase some of the finest talent from the local circuit and, and more. Here’s hoping for the best, for the love of music. Cheers.

Previously no comments