Live: Cirkles, Sector 8, Zero @ D’Ultimate

This gig was bound to be killer and, for the sake of keeping the good bits in, we’ll assume that neither Cirkles nor Sector 8 played a part in the event. Cirkles is the project of Teemeer from Sceptre and since they play with acoustic guitars, the set, much like Sceptre, consisted of Metallica and Megadeth covers, rendered via aforementioned acoustic guitars. Since they played Metallica, a large portion of the younger audience gave them props but several times during the set Teemeer’s voice audibly (and visibly) faltered.

Cirkles would do much better playing their own songs instead of Seal and Chris Isaak covers.

Sector 8 are a Hindi rock band who are young and I was hungry so I missed that set.

For the review of Zero’s set, plus killer pics courtesy Shirley and the Sony, and the Indiecision, take the ‘Old Man’ jump.

Given that this was Zero’s second last gig, and everyone in the about 200-250 strong audience knew that, it was obvious that nobody really gave a crap about the opening acts, except possibly the acts themselves. Between songs, persistent chants of “Zero, Zero!” signalled the collective impatience and finally, the band appeared on stage.

A quick sound check and a few jokes later, Zero kicked off their swan song.

They started with a particularly energetic rendition of ‘We Will Rock You’. In the absence of Meghu on guitar, Gaurav Gupta (Red Cube) took up guitar duties with Pozy Dhar. The result was, though not as enthusiatic as previous Zero guitarists, pretty efficient. Songs played (videos once they’ve been catalogued and YouTubed) included personal favourites ‘Old Man Sitting On The Back Porch’, ‘Ayaya’, ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Hate in Em’ (at warp speed).

In between the set, as is usual with Zero gigs, there was a lot of engaging banter including flattery of the movie Rock On and a particularly musical performance of the popular chant “Behenchod, Madarchod”. Helga’s Fun Castle (again Meghu excluded) came on to play ‘Smoke Some Ganja’ much to the delight of the crowd that was so tightly packed and so obviously enamoured by the song that the chorus became more a demand than a line.

But this was a classic Zero night. The ingredients were perfect – a crowd that knew the songs, a venue that didn’t allow for excessive breathing and a moshpit that threatened to injure some band members. It compares to a number of gigs they’ve played at Razz and ‘intimate’ club settings like Velocity (oh if only they played ‘Break Stuff’). Rajeev and Sidd were at their comic best improvising when needed and involving the crowd in a way I guess only Dadar can teach you.

Sure there were a few errors and ‘Hate’ didn’t sound nearly as right but if you were at the gig anywhere near the front few rows (the rest of the crowd really could see nothing), the atmosphere was insane.

I-Rock is already going to be stellar.

Indiecision: A