Live: North East Youth Festival @ Polo Grounds, Shillong

The second North East Youth Festival took place last week at the Polo Grounds in Shillong. One of the highlights of the festival was the Rock Band Competition (an increasingly popular phenomenon in the North East music scene, so much so that some bands have actually started boycotting them). Six bands were selected to represent six different states of the North East. The bands were:

Cerebral Assassin, Tripura
Sword Fringe, Assam
Stigmata, Mizoram
Revenge Against Violence, Manipur
Midnight Garden Factor, Meghalaya
Melodrama, Nagaland

The terrible sound and extremely poor stage lighting was particularly frustrating given that the event was sponsored by the Government. The kvltness of some of the bands also brought the selection process into question; watching some of the bands play was equivalent to a kick in the nads. The first three bands evoked this uncomfortable feeling: Cerebral Assassin, Sword Fringe and Stigmata. Revenge Against Violence played a few efficient covers of Pantera and Rage Against The Machine, and a largely imitative original.

Since I had seen the other two bands on the bill play before, I was confident that the night wouldn’t be a total loss. Midnight Garden Factor were very tight, a testament to the hours of practice that I know they put in. Vocal levels were a bit low, but the energy of the band compensated for it. Even the judges looked like they had been woken from their slumber, and they even applauded the end of the set. By the time Melodrama was going through their soundcheck, the crowd was raring to go. Their lineup featured a new guitarist, replacing ex-member Akum. Melodrama put up an energetic performance, but it was nowhere close to their best; they looked quite uncomfortable up on stage.

The pitch darkness made it difficult to make my way out of the venue, not knowing what or whom I was stepping on. The major organizational failure sucked much of the enjoyment out of the event.

Midnight Garden Factor (also winners of last year’s Meghalaya Icon) were declared winners of the competition. Check out photos from the gig below.

Indiecision: C

Photos by Jason Manners

North East Youth Festival, Shillong

Sword Fringe @ North East Youth Festival, Shillong

Sword Fringe @ North East Youth Festival, Shillong

Midnight Garden Factor @ North East Youth Festival, Shillong

Stigmata @ North East Youth Festival, Shillong

Stigmata @ North East Youth Festival, Shillong

North East Youth Festival, Shillong