Sunday Jam is Bangalore’s big monthly youth event. It is a free rock concert organized by a music school called Guruskool, and kindly sponsored by Levi’s who get to put large red logos all over the place. Held on the first Sunday of every month, it goes on for about six hours, and has gigs by some new bands, some more established bands, and one featured artist – generally a visiting group from some other city or abroad, or one of the big Bangalore groups.
This is the place where Bangalore’s best and brightest cut their musical teeth – Nearly all of Bangalore’s more established groups have played their first gig at Sunday Jam, or it’s older avatars. The venue keeps shifting – SJ keeps getting kicked out of venues for ‘causing a nuisance’, as they say in India.
This month, it was at a rather romantic location – the open air auditorium of the Sankara Arts Foundation on the outskirts of Bangalore. With acres of lawns, gnarled old trees, Japanese ponds and pagodas, cobbled walkways and mysterious terracotta artworks, it was an unusual location for a rock show, but what the heck – death metal rockers have a heart too. Somewhere.
I arrived two hours early to enjoy the sylvan surroundings and catch up on my French homework. My French teacher at the Alliance models her behavior on Ozzy Osborn if you don’t do the devoir. Grown men have been known to cry. First, I checked out the killing floor – the show was to take place in a Greek-style open air amphitheater. At the back of the estate, there was a bowl shaped depression with raw concrete steps cut into three sides, and the stage on the fourth, made up of rough hewn blocks of granite. The depression was surrounded by trees and bushes, and overall, it made a pretty sight in the cool winter afternoon sun. Technicians were busy testing the rather impressive sound system. Levi’s clearly does not stint on financial support. Otherwise, the place was bare.
I found me a shady tree with a granite bench underneath, and started wrestling with the en and y pronouns, under the watchful eyes of a slightly scary piece of terracotta modern art which represented, as far as I could tell, a disemboweled elephant in heat. My reverie was disturbed by a gaggle of alarmingly pretty Naga babes, from the North East of India, chattering away in a language called Nagameses, which is vaguely similar to my own mother tongue, Bengali.
My antenna crackled to full-alert. Babes at the Sunday Jam! Now, you do get the odd rocking babe at SJ, but it is largely a guy thing, with babes preferring the execrable indi-pop shows. The focus of this beauteous bevy seemed to be a rather morose, languid, long-haired youth toting a guitar. I burned with jealousy. I have been looking disconsolately for a girl for the past year. Here was a chap whose main problem in life seemed to be: how to get rid of them.
He was shooing them off- ‘I have manly guy things to do’, he seemed to be saying, ‘like tuning my guitar’. Then he stumbled towards me.
“Mind if I share your bench?” he asked sadly.
“Doesn’t belong to me” said I, courteously. Mentally, I rubbed my hand in glee. This is where I get intros to those babes.
“Hi, I’m Zoheb” says the youth.
“You playing today?” I ask.
“Yes, I’m with a band called String Sick.”
“Played here before?”
“No, this is our first Sunday Jam.” Shy smile “Actually, this is our first gig.”
Bright idea, the kind that wins Pulitzer prizes: why don’t I interview these chaps: my first article as a rock journo for the first edition of a new rock mag…. why not cover the ecstasy and the angst of a band doing its first gig?
Evil scheming mind: ‘And maybe I’ll get an intro those babes’.
“I’m a rock journalist,” sez I, with a profound Pulitzer prize winning expression “with a rag called Diamond. Mind if I interview you?”
Zoheb brightens visibly. ‘Fame, here I come!’ a little bird whispers in his head. Poor fish, doesn’t know I am an unknown hack from an unknown mag.
“Sure, I’ll round up the other guys! Don’t want them to think I’m hogging the limelight.”
We ran into the other two who made up String Sick by a kind of miniature version of a Greek ruined temple. Neat backdrop for a group photo. Click.
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The ‘others’ were Wasim – an earnest, energetic young man with ‘I’m gonna change the world’ look about him, and Rakesh – taciturn and phlegmatic ‘No one bothers about drummers, anyway’.
Wasim was clearly the boss, from his body language, but he earnestly claimed this was a group of equals. All decisions by the board with memos signed in triplicate.
Pad whipped out. Pencil duly chewed.
This was the personnel lineup of String Sick:
Zoheb: Lead
Wasim: Bass + vocals
Rakesh: Drums
Beginning of String Sick:
Wasim: I consider myself a singer songwriter. I was working on songs that expressed my anguish at the injustices that I see around me. I was playing solo with an acoustic guitar. I came across Zoheb and we decided to form a band. We were looking for a drummer and found Rakesh on Orkut.
Zoheb: I was gigging in Assam with some local bands, at school and college. Then I got into an Engineering College in Bangalore, and moved here. I came across Wasim, we are in the same college. We had similar musical interests…
Rakesh: All of us met through a thread in one of the blog sites, and the lead guitarist (Zoheb) found me and we found our musical interests pretty much on the same grounds, not to mention at that point it was just desperation to start a band ASAP and get on stage and kick some ass.
Wasim: The early days were complicated. They still are. We were looking for another guitarist who had gigging space. The drums are especially a problem, we couldn’t fit them into either of our rooms, and neighbors complain. We found a guy, but it didn’t work out. We found another one, and gigged at his place for a while, but he quit, started his own band. He even tried to steal our drummer! Finally, I took up bass to support the group, and we have decided to stick to the three piece format. We moved Rakesh’s drums to my flat. Now there isn’t any place to move, but we manage to gig there. We keep the practice session to decent hours to avoid annoying the neighbors.
When did you start?
Zoheb: I guess you could say we started officially as a band in August 06. We have been jamming regularly since Oct 06
The String Sick sound:Wasim: We were very clear right at the beginning that we did not want to go the death metal way, which is what most new Bangalore bands start with. We want to do something different, something more socially relevant. So no fuzz, distortion and growling about death and mayhem from us! We play Hard Rock with a touch of Punk, with clear melodic lines and meaningful lyrics.
Rakesh: We thought that the whole of Bangalore and other parts of India are into Heavy Metal, so the only way we would get noticed was to play something different, which was hard rock/punk, against the shitty acts of government and how f***ed-up our system is, etc. We wanted our music to have a rebellious sound and send a clear message to people.
Tell me about your songs…
Zoheb: I’m from Assam. It is beautiful, like the rest of North East, but there is a great deal of frustration there at the lack of development, heavy handed behavior of security forces, all the false encounters….we feel the central government does not care about us. On the other hand, there is the fear of ULFA terrorists. There is a feeling of isolation from the rest of the country. My song ‘Freedom’ is my attempt to put a voice to these issues. I want to liberate people…
-What do you want to liberate them from? From their eardrums?
Ha-Ha. From tyranny of any sort…whatever the source.
Rakesh: I’m into plain old-fashioned rock with a lot of melody, without distortion. I am working on a couple of own comps …simply about life, coz there is a lot to write about especially betrayal, infidelity, friends, traveling…
Wasim: I want to make a difference with my songs. I do believe that rock can be used to change the world. The Punk movement of the late 70’s really excites me for this reason…groups like The Clash were doing something really important, back then. They were exposing the hypocrisies and inequalities in society. I am haunted by their song London Calling. It raises issues that are even more relevant today…the lyrics were about a nuclear winter, but with minor changes it might as well apply to global warming…
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thinEngines stop running, but I have no fear'
Cause London is drowning and I live by the river
When I hear Neil Young’s ‘Keep on rocking in the free world’, it gives me the goose bumps when I hear things like
I see a girl in the night
with a baby in her hands
Under an old street light
near a garbage can
Now she put her kid away, she's gone to get a hit
She hates her life, and what she's done with it
That's one more kid, that'll never go to school
Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool
Btw., we are playing that song, tonight.
I try to do something similar with my song ‘I’m a little punk’, but in an Indian context…it refers to all the scams and the political corruption.
i've got my canvas on,
i've got my guitar on,
ready to burn,
and im set and done
but im a little punk,
a poor little punk
i've got five bucks on me,
i read a million dollar scam,
bomb's hittin the ground,
its the sound of the undergroundSomething that affected me deeply was hearing that a friend had died. We hadn’t spoken in years…I always though I’d call him up, but I never got around to it. Then I heard he had died. Death looks so meaningless, sometimes. I don’t want to die a meaningless death. I want to make a difference, before I die. My song ‘God, I refuse to die’ is about this.
with so much happenin here,
you sit there still and you stare.
oh god wont you lend me a hand,
will all this come to an end?
god i refuse to die,
I'll stay for the children who cry
god i refuse to die
……..
god i refuse to die,
hunger is claiming lives.
hey god....i.....refuse to die,
hear my prayer tonight.
Are you playing any of your songs tonight?
Wasim: Only ‘I’m a little Punk’. The others are all acoustic, so it won’t fit this gig. They’ll boo us of the stage if we play acoustic. Other than that, we’ll play some covers of Perl Jam and The Ramones. No one talks of The Ramones any more, but I feel they were a really important group.
Influences? Instruments? What do you do, other than music?
Zoheb: I am in 3rd year in Engineering college, I have been playing the guitar since 3 years. My influences are big groups of the 80’s…Van Halen, the Glam Rock movement…My guitar is an Ibanez G170.
Wasim: My influences are Punk, Blues. I have been playing the guitar since 3 years. I use a GBA bass. I am in final year Engineering. I suppose I’ll get a job of some sort, soon.
Rakesh: I 've been drumming for the past 2 years now. My musical influences.. 70s rock bands like Grateful dead, Grand Funk Rail Road…My favorite drummers are Keith Moon (The Who), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), and Lars Ulrich (Metallica).
Right now, I have a DB Chinese kit, which is pretty decent for its price. As we go along, I will be picking up a Pearl kit, which is on my wish list. My best gift this year was from my sis who gave me a Yamaha guitar for my birthday.
Girls?
Wasim: Hey! Thanks to Zoheb, we are the only band with groupies. Do you see any other band with groupies?
Rakesh: But he won’t introduce us to any of them…
Zoheb: Those girls are my sister and her friends (
disbelieving looks). I’ll introduce you, if you want.
All: WHEN ?????
Zoheb: Soon….
Interview over. Time to register for the jam. The organizers are still setting things up. The other bands are lolling about on the other side the amphitheater, on its grassy rim under the shade of a tree. Cigarettes dangling, guitars slung about like machine guns.
“Bunch of posers!” sneers Wasim “We are here to make serious music, not pose.”
“Should we join them?”
“Join the posers? No way!”
“There does seem to be a nice shade there…”
We are getting envious looks. The only group with groupies.
The organizers hand out registration forms. First time bands will be given slots at random. Those who get the last slots may not get to play at all, today. The concert always overshoots the planned time.
The band is nervous. Will we get a chance to play today?
The slots are announced. String Sick is the second band up. Great!!
People are still milling about on the stage. Last minute sound checks by a drummer and a guitarist – A bit more on the bass monitor please…. Before we realize it, the show has already started. The first band, Neolithic Silence launches into what they describe as 'Melodic Heavy Metal'. This is their second time at Sunday Jam. It’s a relatively new group. It’s their fifth gig. They play some heavy metal covers and an original piece.
The boys are tense, waiting for their turn. String Sick is announced. They are still rooted to the spot, in the stands. ‘Go!’ we urge. The groupies, I and a couple of other friends of the band. They come to life, and scramble towards the stage with their guitars.
No elaborate sound checks and fine tuning the monitors, like the more ‘experienced’ groups. The boys just plug in and launch straight into their instrumental sound check piece, ‘Distortion Blues’.
Wasim takes the mike.
“Sorry to disappoint metal freaks, but we play hard rock, with a touch of Punk.”
Derisive laughter from a bunch of smart alecks at the back.
String Sick launch into ‘Keep on rockin’ in the free world’ – the Pearl Jam version of the Neil Young song.
Wasim’s voice is initially a bit weak, but it gets stronger. It’s the first time he is singing with a mic. He is clearly uncomfortable. Rakesh keeps a steady rhythm, without getting into pyrotechnics. Zoheb plays a very competent lead.
Desultory clapping. They haven’t been booed off the stage yet! The boys are getting more confident. They launch into The Ramones ‘Poison Heart’. It sounds refreshing in a Death Metal concert. The clapping is more enthusiastic this time.
“We’ll now play our own comp. - I’m a little Punk”
It goes off without incident, and the boys close with the Dead Moon song ‘Its Ok’ - again, the Pearl Jam version.
Very respectable clapping. Relieved, the boys scramble off the stage with their guitars, and a tall thin guy with a guitar takes the stage. Sheshank is going to play solo. Sheshank is clearly a talented guitarist. He lays down a blistering lead over a recorded track.
Wasim, meanwhile, has called a debriefing meeting at the back of the stand. I am invited to join and critique their performance.
There were some weaknesses, but for a first gig, it was pretty impressive. Actually, by the average standard of Sunday Jam gigs, it was really excellent. The choice of songs was unusual, and the sound clear and confident. Rakesh’s drumming could have done with some more showmanship, but that will come with time. Zoheb was good. Wasim’s voice was a bit nasal, and he seemed uncomfortable playing bass and singing simultaneously.
“I’ve never sung with a mic before!” protests Wasim.
“Maybe you can experiment with holding the bass a bit higher up, so that you can sing into the mic more comfortably?”
Anyway the singing wasn’t that bad. Any day better than the horrible growls and roars of the death metallers.
“I couldn’t hear anything on my monitor” complained Zoheb “I was playing blind.”
“You should have complained during the sound check. That’s what it’s meant for.”
But overall a great first gig. Back slapping and hugs all around. We go back and join the groupies. Zoheb still hasn’t introduced any of us to them.
Sheshank was followed by another first time band. Nice funky sound. Led Zep without the vocals. Followed by another two death metal groups: Pharos and Afterlife.
The featured artist of the day takes the stage: Nemanja Rebic from Serbia. He is a Jazz / Classical / Rock guitarist studying Indian classical music in Bangalore. He plays Macedonian and gypsy folk tunes on an ovation acoustic. Pleasant change from the unremitting heavy metal. A group of headbangers mutter resentfully.
I try talking to the pretty young thing sitting next to me. She looks at me as if I’ve crawled out from under a rock. The groupies seem to have no interest in anyone except Zoheb. What do they see in this guy? Maybe I should try the long-haired, poetic look as well.
Back to Heavy Metal. Theorize, Spellbound, Heavywork and the one man band Ligesh.com follow one another in quick succession. Lyrics that sound like the wooshing roar of a steam engine rushing into a tunnel. Guitars that sound like a roadway accident between a truck carrying bedsprings and a zoo-van packed with Siamese wildcats.
Zoheb’s girls decide they have had enough and leave for the day. Suddenly the place seems drab, without them. There seems to be no point in sticking around. I leave too.
© Poltu
