GIR , The Mumbai Leg

Well, well well .... wat do we have here .... GIR once again. Being my 3rd GIR, I entered the stadium with great expectations. The venue was jus perfect for an all free gig :) Andheri Sports Complex. Large open space and amazing sound :) The first sight gave a good impression. Lets get on way with how the bands performed, alright? Medussa, the band which was supposed to start off backed out and left more time for the remaining bands, which was absolutely great, cuz i personally hate Medussa and their shitty groove box. So i'd say, the start was good, No Medussa! :P
So the band that started the most insane show in the recent times was none other than, apan ka, mumbai waala Demonic Resurrection. And they were tight ... amazing, melodic, totally kick ass. Sahil's vocals have improved, his growls had more depth this time. The guitaring by pradeep was very good, nothing really exceptional. The guy on the keyboards was amazing. But one person i really went to this gig for was, JP. DR's drummer :D I was backstage, behind the drummer when JP was playing. Irwie got me in, btw. Thanx man. All I was doing behind was just havin a look at JP's footwork and cymbal work, upclose. Learning a lot of things. Their song frozen potrait stands out , I just love it :) Mellow breakdowns and then the brutally fast paced parts. Surely this night was gonna be one of those concerts which i wud remember.
After DR, i came back into the crowd with my friends. And next up was Split. They started off with a U2 cover. I really dont know the name of that song (not a big fan of U2) .... this band was very ok (Edit: the song was Vertigo - Sridhar). They had this really annoying bass guitarist, who kept talking rather than playing songs. Not one of my favs. Their vocalist gets a special mention for sure, he had a really wide range of vocals. Impressed me in every song. Great going man.
The night was still young, and i dint headbang yet :) Though DR was 'headbang'able, I was busy backstage. So the next band was Joint Family. Having watched them live twice before, i was expecting a lot from this band. Last time i saw them, they made the crowd go crazy over RATM covers. So, with those images in my head, I got ready to totally headbang. Even the crowd was expecting some heavy shit. And believe me, the crowd formed the largest moshpit I've ever seen, jus before the first song of Joint Family. And once they started with their original, the crowd jus went crazy and moshed and headbanged. It was as though everyone was suicidal. But it doesnt fucking matter. They were having a blast. The drummer of Joint Family was tight and good. But as their set progressed, they sounded very montonous and boring. This time around they didn't really impress me at all. They were sounding like jus another nu-metal act from my neighbourhood. Vinay of BM came on stage as a guest vocalist for Slipknots PPL=SHIT and the crowd obviously went crazy. Their originals werent that great and all sounded somewhat similar. Bottomline, they were disappointing, though they were tight.
Next band was Prestorika. Ahhh, wat a band. I saw them live a year back in Livewire. I totally enjoyed their set then. I was expecting something good here. And , just when I was mentioning to my friend the kick ass show that they did at livewire, they started off with 'Enter Sandman' and I went crazy, the crowd went crazy and for the first time in the night, I was in the largest moshpit ever in India. It was fun, me and my friends moshed like crazy fanatics. And then they did a few OC's which were totally amazing. Their guitarist Lokesh was one helluva guy, crisp , very fast paced solos. He was amazing. Then prestorika played 'Holy Wars' and 'Hit The Lights'. And they ended their set with an OC. I'd say they were the tightest band tonite. Crowds favs and absolutely mind blowing.
Prestorika gave way to the much awaited 'Freak Kitchen' from Sweden. They started playing their orignals, doing some amazing work. They were tight, and knew what they were doing. Experience clearly showed in their performance. The vox/guitarist Mathias was kinda funny, and the bassist dude was jumping all around the stage, crazy motherfuckers. They were damn tight and wat impressed me was that they were a 3 member band. Pretty crazy huh ? I really didn't enjoy their originals but I can say that they are good. It's jus not something i like , thats all :) Mathias, with his gutti gutti (Edit: wasn't that "Goody Goody"? - Sridhar) chant and some really crazy, funky guitaring, a good drummer, and a funny bassist, Freak Kitchen showed what they were made of. They had marks of a tight international band written all over them and their music. They had some good originals like porno daddy and others which I can't recollect.
So the night ended. 4 hrs of metaldom. There cant be anything better to do on a weekend. GIR was well organised, and had good crowd. Foreign chicks, desi chicks and many metal heads (which make any gig a great gig). There was food, water and to top everything smoke was allowed. Everything was done professionally and perfectly. It was known that the show wouldnt start on time , so we have to leave that one flaw out (its jus an innate quality of Indians, can't really be helped ;) ). To describe the show in few words, amazing, mind blowing and fucking crazy. If you missed this, then go kill yourself .

mvikred