Print Email to Friend| From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 9, Issue 43, Dated 27 Oct 2012

CULTURE & SOCIETY   MUSIC

The day the music lived

Sixty bands, six stages, 16,000 fans. At the Bacardi NH7 Weekender festival, Asif Khan sees each indie music star shine in the constellation

The headbanger’s collective Fans at Black Rock Arena for Megadeth Photo: Kunal Kakodkar

SORRY BOSS, not interested.” Rohan Kulshrestha, 29, smiles wryly into his phone. He’s the bassist of Peter Cat Recording Co (PCRC), a Delhi band with a reputation for their experimental sound. As their most vocal member, Rohan manages publicity and communications. It doesn’t help that their name can be confused for a sound studio’s. Rohan often has to field calls from people who find them through the yellow pages — this one from a proud father looking for a break for his daughter. Alternative and independent music remain unacknowledged and underpromoted, and PCRC know they have to fend for themselves. But right now they are backstage at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender music festival and the fans are waiting. In its third year, the fest has expanded to include two-day versions in Delhi and Bengaluru, while retaining the full three-day flavour in its birthplace, Pune. Its growth, Sunburn’s expansion beyond Goa and Ziro Music Festival’s premiere in Arunachal have folks in the know dubbing 2012 the year of the music festival, heralding hope that alternative in India isn’t equated with amateur.

Photo: Mohit Kapil ALSO READ ‘The indie music scene works with a DIY ethic’ Indie Creed Dancing to modern glory Photo: Nayan Shah

The organisers chose the Buddh International Circuit, the Formula One venue in Greater Noida, for the Delhi chapter (13-14 October). It is, as PCRC frontman Suryakant Sawhney, 25, says, “in the middle of the post-apocalyptic nowhere”. Still, he acknowledges, it might have been an inspired choice: “There is nothing in close proximity, so the people who turned up must be true music lovers”. Despite the isolated venue, official tallies showed an impressive turnout of 16,000 over the two days.

PCRC played on the Fully Fantastic Stage, named in tribute to the late Amit Saigal, founder of Rock Street Journal, and the father figure of Indian independent music (‘fully fantastic’ was his favourite phrase). Alongside PCRC, it featured Delhi altrockers Menwhopause, “posto” punk Bangla rap group Gandu Circus, Mumbai based alternative hiphop-rock act Bombay Bassment, and the electro-dance-rock band Shaa’ir+ Func. Stages were largely genre specific. The Dewarists Stage had folk and world music, headlined by Anoushka Shankar; the Wolves Den was a haven of electronic music lead by German house and techno duo Kaiserdisco; Dub Station had Reggae Rajahs doing a stellar job as the DJs. The grandest act was festival headliner Megadeth at the Black Rock Arena, propped up by the biggest names in Indian metal and rock.

Starting their set around 5pm, PCRC began in a slow, mood-setting tempo. As the crowd built up, low decibel cheers were heard. Midway, and feet were moving to the beat. The crowd radiated happiness, varying degrees of which were seen on both days — a three-year-old running in circles at the Dub Station, the metalhead rushing to the Rock Arena as Megadeth soundchecked, the guy jiving to Indian Ocean’s Bandeh at The Dewarists Stage, and the tranced out folks dancing to Karsh Kale’s trippy set. That, right there, was a marker of the festival’s success. In the months preceding it, Vijay Nair and the Only Much Louder team had publicised the Weekender as India’s happiest music festival. As a campaign claim, that’s hard to live up to, especially on the heels of Delhi’s Metallica fiasco last year. But the joy and excitement doing the rounds at Buddh were organic and infectious. The ‘something for everyone’ credo — over 60 bands performing across six stages — made the festival an eclectic, an essential experience. Many things could have put off an intoxicated crowd — the distance, the dusty venue. But a desert off the Greater Noida highway was transformed into a carnival, with colourful banners fluttering in the wind, saluting those in the pursuit of good music. PCRC described it as “the best organised festival we’ve played at”. With sundown, the lights came on, cigarettes lit up like fireflies at dusk and everyone was transported to their favourite manufactured memory of the great global festivals.

Pumped up kicks The acts from across the six stages Photos: Mohit Kapil, Rishabh Sood

Yet, there was a feeling of sameness, of seeing familiar names in place of new ones. The nascent indie-music fraternity is small. Guitarist Warren Mendonsa made multiple appearances with Alien Chutney, his original band Zero, the Karsh Kale Collective and his current act Blackstratblues. Before playing with Advaita, two of its members, Suhail Yusuf Khan and Aditya Balani, debuted their new band Adi Suhail Tarun. Pentagram guitarist Randolph Correia had to rush across the circuit for his follow up act Shaa’ir+Func.

The sense of inadequate representation from across the country persisted. The Fully Fantastic stage claimed to “curate the best of indie music”, yet the performing bands were mostly Delhi based, limiting the scope for discovery. PCRC felt that “the organisers could have swapped the Bengaluru lineup of the Fully Fantastic stage with Delhi’s”. Getting Adam & the Fish Eyed Poets to perform in Delhi and PCRC in Bengaluru would have upped the ante for the audience and the bands. Instead, Delhi with its established following for electronic music got the sprawling Wolves Den, which PCRC say would have been better if smaller, for an upclose and personal club vibe.

Photos: Kunal Kakodkar, Mohit Kapil

Rohan cheekily suggests that the festival could have done with fewer stages and the savings invested “toward a bigger and fresher headliner.” Suryakant contends that “from an organiser’s perspective, Megadeth makes sense. Hardly any band out here enjoys such popularity; everyone is niche in their own way.” As clouds of dust rose over the headbangers in the moshpit, Megadeth worked the crowd with practised, professional ease. PCRC may be a breakout success within its sphere but they still have to field cold calls from the phone book. A festival like this sets them in a league they want to call their own.

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