Firstly, hats off to Anbumani Ramadoss for his smoking rule. The two pubs I’ve been to since the ban came into effect at the start of this month have provided good experiences, because involuntary passive smokers needn’t do Neo-like manoeuvres to evade the cigarette smoke that most people would be unleashing in our direction.
Now, at Purple Haze in Mysore, on a sunday evening, there was one screen which was showing the Chelsea v/s Liverpool game, and that provided me with ample distraction while most others were watching a band named ‘TransitPoint’ play. Their lead singer, complete with dreadlocks and an American accent to boot was trying in vain to get the crowd up on their feet in order for them to mosh to the music, but despite him having asked them in no less than seven languages and in different accents and dialects, the crowd that was sitting down did not seem to want to get off its arse.
Meanwhile, in the second half of the game, I was totally praying for Ashley Cole to get red-carded, and was rooting for Liverpool since I like them more than I like Chelsea. The match ended with a Liverpool victory, and I am wondering why nobody has yet taken the initiative to have a sports pub in Bangalore. I hope someone reads this post of mine and has enough money to make this happen.
Band after band played, including one named ‘Corrode’ (or was it Korrode? One can’t really say how the Balaji Telefilms induced spelling rules might’ve influenced the general population), and one more named ‘Kashmora’, aside from the dreadlocks singer’s band, ‘TransitPoint’. One thing I liked about Kashmora was that they came up with a song for Vijender Singh, and dedicated it to him.
Considering how Abhinav Bindra is now in love with a massive television instead of falling for one of the million women wooing him, I guess it is only fair to shift focus towards Akhil Kumar and Vijender Singh, who haven’t yet started embarassing themselves by appearing in ads where they proclaim their love for underwear brands, or for Chyawanprash bottles, or God forbid, other products that you can’t possibly be in love with.
Now, all these aforementioned bands were asking the crowd to get up, come to the front, and groove. But their pleas fell on deaf ears. The crowd didn’t know their music, and while there were a few enthusiastic headbangers out there, their enthusiasm, I am certain can be attributed more to their blood alcohol content rather than their interest in the music being played.
Once these bands were through, on came this band named ‘Venator’. One of the things that makes this band stand apart from most other bands in Bangalore is the fact that they have a female vocalist and a female bassist. The female vocalist puts growling vocals. Yes, you read that right.
If you know Angela Gossow, then it isn’t really that hard to imagine someone else following up and performing in the same style, but I guess not many people in Mysore who were present at Purple Haze last evening had heard Arch Enemy.
So, when Venator started playing, and the vocalist began growling, word spread in the crowd like wildfire. ‘Machha, chick vocalist is growling.’ ‘Huh? WTF?’. People began surging forward in droves, crowding around the performance area, and as a result, the only band which didn’t want a crowd gathering up in front when they were performing, ended up having one. Or maybe they did, and didn’t particularly have to ask for it to happen.
However, they wanted the crowd to go back, and one could hear repeated growls from the vocalist, who was asking them to go back to their seats. However, there’s only so much of growling that anyone can make out in the absence of a lyrics sheet to boot, and consequently, the crowd stayed till the next band came on.
Watching a female vocalist growl can be a somewhat emasculating experience, personally. However, the crowd did seem to have a good time. So there.
In any case, if you’ve read everything till the end of this post, here’s wishing you a happy and prosperious Deepavali, with lots of cash spent, lots of sweets eaten and child labour-free fire crackers burst. Also, please clean up after you’re done with whatever celebration you’re planning to indulge in.
