Live: I-Rock, Day 1

Apart from the fact that this was Zero’s final gig, Day 1 of I-Rock was pretty unremarkable. Which is why Zero’s last performance gets its own post, while the rest of the acts make do with a short piece about bad lyrics and black t-shirts.

The Chitrakoot grounds are a poor replacement for Rang Bhavan and the fact that one never knows whether one will get parking there is also a pain. The competition bands were pretty mediocre across the board. Though I missed AVR, I caught the rest of the gig. Also, according to the press release I just received

â??Silvers wins the Airtel Independence Rock XXIIIâ??

The stage was all set for Indiaâ??s biggest rock phenomenon, the Airtel Independence Rock XXIII, as the finals of this grand event was scheduled at the Chitrakoot grounds in Mumbai. Silvers from Pune was declared the winners of this landmark rock event. Adding another feather to their hat was the best vocalist award which was bagged by the Silvers lead vocalist- Mahesh.

More excitement, full review and pictures after the break.

Silver, not Silvers as PR would have you believe, were fronted by a vocalist with a particularly screechy voice (like Axl Rose in those sha-na-na-na-na bits of ‘Paradise City’) and who believed that speaking in said voice in between songs was cool. Obviously, it wasn’t.

Black were pedestrian ’90s grunge-alternative. They’ve tightened up their sound though and showed some energy on stage.

The Scavenger Project was like nu-metal but only almost. They’ve got to focus their sound, and have shorter intros to their songs.

Rainbow Bridge were interesting, primarily because their guitarist was.

It didn’t really make a difference which band won in the end. Indian bands put too much pressure on themselves and as a result, the music suffers. Lyrics become generic and a hundred kids wearing Slayer t-shirts go back happy having heard a little distortion. But more about that later.

Frankly, I didn’t expect Demonic Resurrection to be headline material. But I-Rock 2008 proved me wrong.

A review + pics of the final Zero gig in a bit.

Indiecision: C+