The Indiecision ’08: Biggest Letdown

The Indiecision â??08 is a recap of the year gone by in Indian indie and a recognition of the work of its artists and those involved with the creation and promotion of the music. Over the month of December, your favourite Indian indie blog will feature bests and worsts of all things Indian indie.

The Biggest Letdown was the artist or event that we expected much of but were disappointed because of. The nominees for Biggest Letdown are

Blue Frog increasing weekend gate charge

It’s no secret that if you’re lower-middle class, perhaps spending twelve nights a month watching gigs at Blue Frog is not the right financial plan. The previous gate charge plan was simple – gigs start at 9:30pm (not) so get to the venue by 9pm or earlier to avoid a Rs 300 entry charge. They then changed this to a gig start timing of 10:30pm while the entry charge on Fridays and Saturdays jumped to Rs 500. Not cool.

Pascal of Bollywood at NCPA

Pascal of Bollywood – French singer of Hindi songs – promised much energy, multi-coloured costumes and a whole lot of fun. What we got was what looked like a piece of budget karaoke. The accent amused, but only for a bit. The gregarious Parisian was unsure about whether he was a novelty act or a serious crooner with a penchant for strange outfits, and as a result we got a bland performance that made us leave at the interval.

Hit â??Moreâ?? for the rest of the nominees and the Biggest Letdown â??08.

Radius at Hard Rock Cafe

Delhi band Radius promised much – the dude from (the erstwhile) Metakix on guitar, a vocalist who has a Hindi music album to his credit, and a rapper. Indiecision said of their set, â??Mostly, the band sounded like â??90s alternative, with frequent and noticeable errors.â? The band battled sound problems and lost in a mess of mistimed notes and an MC who could only be heard saying â??Mumbai!â? and â??Yeah! Yeah!â? every few minutes.

Gandhi’s Cookbook at Blue Frog

Thanks in part to a name that hit right home, Dubai’s Gandhi’s Cookbook were hyped as the most exciting young band to emerge out of the Emirates. Apparently, the punk act sounded a lot better on paper than they did live. Something Relevant was slated to open for the group, but after what was obviously a shockingly bad soundcheck the management of Blue Frog decided to flip the order. The idea: since they were committed to a gig by GB, they decided to get it over and done with way before most people would arrive. These were the days when 10pm gigs would regularly start at 11pm – if you arrived at that hour, like we did, you ended up shelling out Rs 500 for (as nice as they are) the STR boys, who you’ve seen many, many times before.

Rock On!!

The release of the film Rock On!! was bound to create a stir in the Indian rock scene. With all its double exclamation mark nomenclature and no-bassist-but-whatâ??s-that-low-note-I-hear goofs, the film affected plenty of sensibilities. Notwithstanding the fact that this was, of course, a Bollywood product, we wished there was a little more authenticity when it came to producing a film with Indian actors and the word ‘rock’ in the title.

And the Biggest Letdown â??08 was

Gandhi’s Cookbook, for a hyped gig that nobody watched.

Head to the Indiecision â??08 homepage for all the details and the awards.