The day that never came

Ohh crap! The saddest day ever for a Metallica fan in Delhi. Although I would have missed the show anyway but the news about what happened today pissed me off!! I was soo excited when I heard that Metallica was coming to India in Oct 2011!! At first, everyone thought it was a joke because the "rumour" started on April 1st (or that week). However, it was soon confirmed on their website that they would indeed visit Delhi for the inauguration of the F1 circuit in Greater Noida! I was waiting for October with bated breath but as luck would have it, I had to travel to the US for 3 months starting September. The thought of missing the show definitely made me sad. I even complained to my colleagues here about how much I would miss this day.

In fact yesterday night during dinner, I reminded them that if I was in India, I would be attending the gig on Friday.

Anyways, I was waiting to check out the reviews about the gig and was browsing the internet for some news, when one of my friends tweeted that the show has been postponed due to a "technical snag". But soon, came the dreaded news that the gig is actually cancelled because of some stampede and unruly crowd behavior at the venue!!! I was aghast! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! All metal websites soon caught up with the news of the gig being cancelled but worse still, with videos of the unruly crowd behavior! I couldn't believe my eyes!! Ppl were on the stage and literally destroying every inch of it. They were breaking sound equipments, throwing stuff, tearing posters....hell..someone reported ppl started burning banners too!! It was the most embarrassing feeling ever to see ppl commenting on how Delhi doesn't deserve it or India doesn't know how to behave etc etc. The saddest part is that Delhi has been stereotyped countless number of times of being rude and unsafe and what not! It all came true today. I bet the cynics would be loving it. Some of my friends had already warned me this would happen ever since the day we got to know Metallica was coming! I hate the fact that it all came true.

On many sites, ppl were complaining about the mismanagement being of epic proportions and how it was soo late and there was no sign of any music etc etc. Whatever said and done, I dont think vandalizing the stage was necessary. It was really uncalled for. It takes patience (a lot of it) in gigs as huge as this, but in the end its really worth to see your favourite band up there. I have been to a decent number of gigs and I have never seen ppl acting this way. I can safely say, these ppl were not true metal fans. And clearly they would never realize what they missed with the way they reacted. Having said that, DNA networks screwed up big time. I cant believe they screwed up this bad! I mean you know there would be easily 30,000 ppl and yet there was no crowd control whatsoever. Ohh man..its just soo sad. I wished this day had ended differently. I hope this does not screw up the Bangalore gig on Sunday. 

Other videos are here.

What a pity

I used love this band called Prestorika in my college days. I saw them first time at the Campus Rock Idols gig waay back in 2004. They blew me away with their songs. They used to open their setlist with Hangar 18 or Holy Wars!..leaving everyone dumbfounded. And they used to nail it! Their OCs Shameless Pride and Sycophant from their debut EP - Emergence were sooo kick ass. I used to follow their gigs pretty closely. Then, sadly, they broke up. Lokesh Bakshi, their lead guitarist, left the band saying that they were moving towards a nu-metal sound and that he dint like it. He started his own band called Metal Force One promising their fans that the metal would be back. But recently I stumbled onto this video and there was Lokesh Bakshi playing guitars to a Rang Barse remix!! Ohh man..I'm sooo disappointed. This is soo sad!!

And this is what he (they) used to be.

The Story of Anvil

With nothing much to do over the weekend and the TV also not helping, I stumbled upon this documentary called - The Story of Anvil. Anvil's a canadian heavy metal band which started waay back in the 1970s and never got their due. Its a heart-aching underdog story of a heavy metal band whose members truly epitomize the metal attitude. Its a struggling tale of Lips and Robb who never give up despite getting sh*t from everyone. The story starts off as them being a quintessential metal band of the 80s with loads of promise but they just die down because of poor management and straight up bad luck. Struggling through 30 years, they still go out in front of meagre crowds and perform just for the love of the music.Its fascinating just to see how positive these guys are and how strong they believe in themselves despite of the things that happened to them. There's this amazing scene where Lips breaks down saying "We are gonna get there. We are gonna f*cking do it. We're gonna be rockstars! Its our f*cking dream. I'm gonna make it come true!" An amazing feel-good inspiring movie.