Pics: Great Indian Rock @ Oasis, Pune

The thirteenth edition of Great Indian Rock hit Oasis, Pune last month. The lineup included Indian metal giants Scribe and Bhayanak Maut, with New Zealand alternative act Solstate and Norwegian metal act Benea Reach. We were there.

Notes

1. The far leaner Great Indian Rock tour skipped Mumbai and hit Pune last month. The lineup, however, was attractive enough for me to make the road trip. Mumbai’s current metal frontrunners Scribe and Bhayanak Maut performed with international unknowns Solstate and Benea Reach.
2. Oasis is a great venue for outdoor gigs in Pune. It’s open, with a lot of green, has a decent restaurant and is pretty secluded while being easily reachable.
3. We missed Mumbai metal act Zygnema’s opening set.
4. Scribe were efficient, but seemed a little off as the crowd trickled in to the Oasis lawn. They performed material from 2008′s Confect and some new songs as well.
5. Frontman Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy is definitely one of the most versatile vocalists in the Indian rock/metal scene today, easily switching between clean vocals and growls as the band powers through its atmospheric hardcore.
6. Bhayanak Maut followed and proceeded to tear the place apart with stuff from their new album, as the sun set. After a rain soaked gig with new drummer Jai Row Kavi at I-Rock, it was great to see them repeat their outdoor energy without having the rain as a buffer.
7. Much like Scribe’s ‘Ate A Banana’, the regional touch of songs like ‘Ranti Nasha’ and ‘MNS Messenger’ does wonders to stir up audiences.
8. Following up the battery of India’s premier metal acts with mediocre, late ’90s-early ’00s alternative courtesy New Zealand quintet Solstate was as bad an idea as following BM with Pune rock act Silver’s ’80s hard rock inspired sound at I-Rock.
9. What wasn’t however, was ending the night with Norwegian metal act Benea Reach.
10. The Meshuggah inspired, seven-piece from Oslo were tight, had some great material and knew how to handle a Pune crowd visibly bored by the previous act.
11. Their act screamed ‘pro’, powered by the energy of the members of the band and a phenomenal lights show that took the quality of the live experience up a big, big notch.
12. Here’s hoping they play India again soon.

We took a bunch of pictures at the gig. Here are a few.