Culture Curry for the Soul - Rock Heights

Parikrama 'n' Pentagram come to town

It was a part of the Times Hyderabad festival. The rock show at Rock heights. It was a Saturday morning when I decided I had to get the newspaper for the day. Being a Delhiite makes you crave for the TOI very often. As I was leafing through the pages of the paper I saw the advertisement for the festival. I could collect free invites to the show from the nearby planet M.

Shilpakala Vedika, Rock Heights, was jam packed with people: youngsters, school kids, good looking damsels, and surprisingly some families with their kids too. This was the first time I was going to a Live Concert. I had invited two other friends cuz I didn't want to go alone. As we approached the higher grounds we could hear the band practicing. Parikrama was the first of the two bands to play. We sat right in front of the stage, next to the humongous speakers. The show began with Nikhil Mittal, the lead singer of the band, yelling in to the mike "Cmon guys, you can't come to a rock show n be sitting on the ground. Get up, I wanna see some hands in the air, some head banging, lotsa noise" I don't even know when the whole place was alive, from a crowd which was sitting on the grass a while back, talking in whispers, it was now a massive carnival. People were jumping up and down with excitement, chanting the lyrics as Nikhil yelled in to the mike. The violinist of the group was awesome and played along to "Tears of the wizard", "but it rained", AC/DC and Iron Maiden. It seemed as if the whole place had gone in to a trance, swaying, pushing, jerking and bobbing their heads back and forth, girls yelling, guys sweating. It was madness come alive. If ever one has to personify madness, it would be a rock show crowd.

As the band took their leave, the crowd yelled in unison, "we want more, we want more", but the band was time bound and finished the gig with AC/DC. The crowd cheered in applause and the emcee announced Pentagram on stage. We could see Vishal, the lead singer, running around tweaking his gear, Randolph tuning his guitar, and Papal getting ready to flex his muscles. The sight of Vishal sent the crowd into a frenzy. The excitement that comes over people at the sight of a celebrity was here. The crowd cheered as he took the mike and greeted "Hyderabad, kaise hai aap log. I've heard that the hyd crowd is the best when it comes to cheering and yelling in a rock show. So show us what you've got and make us remember this crowd forever." "This is the first time we're performing in your city and the guys from Parikrama just told us that you guys are the best". With this he grabbed the mike and started the gig with their hit single "Animal". Randolph, papal, and Shiraaz joined him on the guitar and the drums and the evening again became eclectic. The crowd which seemed to have settled back after the Parikrama mayhem came back alive. It was amazing to see the energy fill the air. As I stood there jumping and swaying I realized I was being pushed aside by a huge group of maniacs wanting to catch a glimpse of the stage. By now, I was too deafened to hear anything that anyone said. The extremely loud speakers were good enough to send a message to outer space. I made an attempt to take a few snaps with my utterly useless cell phone camera (Pics in this blog). I had never imagined myself doing something like jumping up and down with thousands of people around me. I was throwing my fists up in the air to show that I was having a hell of a time, feet stamping, dust rising, yelling, shouting, hooting, cheering, everything sent a wave of excitement through me. I wanted this madness to go on forever. I realized then how it must feel to be playing to thousands of people and seeing them go berserk. As the band wrapped up, the crowd once more began the slogan "one more, one more". Though I don't quite remember but I think they finished with their famous hit single "Electric".

One could clearly figure out the vast difference in style between the two world-famous bands. One was pure alternative rock (Parikrama) and the other (Pentagram) seamlessly combined the electric sounds to their otherwise conventional hard rock beats. The thump of the drums, the screech of the guitar, and the bass of the bass guitar was just awesome. It makes one wish you could have been a part of this adventure. Check out the websites www.parikrama.com and www.pentagram.in for all the latest news and updates about the two bands. It's interesting to go through these sites just for the fun of it, even if you're not a hard core rock fan. Their songs are available for dwonload and you can even buy their latest albums. I'm gonna get my copy soon. What better that to promote our very own, home grown, Indian Rock Bands. :-)

Peace, trees and rock n roll is what Parikrama says, and I say "rock on guys...".

Cheers

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