Hyderabad Blues

4 days outside kgp - and life was very much fun.

just 14 hours before boarding train to hyd, we were not sure whether we could perform in the fest. various impediments such as acad load on Vinod and practices on short notice had already made us apprehensive about the outcome of the event. then Yogesh made it clear that he could not come. the afternoon before we had to leave for hyd, Vinod also had no choice but to leave us looking for some other singer. at 7'clock in the evening we were pondering whether to cancel tickets or to really put up a show. finally we decided to get some on stage experience, may be at some cost. so we had Kaushik in the band.

as usual, the train got late, but we had just enough time to reach IIIT and get a feel of the fest felicity) before our performance. after the show, we had a chat with Rana, met Ojha (who was fascinated by the sound of fatal tragedy), gathered ample number of fans. though we stood third, we were better in many respects than other bands. agreed, we did not have own compositions, we did not practice as much, and we covered DT largely when the audience was for more heavy stuff (metal/death/black).

we learned many lessons in wildfire show, and some more here.
1. never use a processor in which you cant set a tone, however pro it may be
2. check sound of each instrument on each monitor (esp when you are covering DT)
3. select a songlist more approproate to the performance, rather than what you would really like to perform
4. have an original composition
5. have a balanced songlist - yet to include deep purple /led zep /van halen /metallica /pantera etc
6. have confidence in yourself and your fellow members.
7. have a smaller sound check, preferably, do not play a sound check song.

so even if our expenses were more than the prize money and we experienced "kataoing" at many points of time in various forms (ask Kaushik), the experience was precious, and the trip was worth the effort.

when 6 junkies have some time off, guess what they do - they pass time. after we realized it was sunday and rang de basanti was housefull long time back, we successfully wasted our time munching and jhandaoing. Apro left us for his conference in Chennai in the aftenoon. then we went to Kaushik's home and watched and listened to DT before we came to know that the train back to kgp had to start late by an hour at least. so we watched and listened DT for some more time :D (passing time is always easy)

apart from the lessons , the wonderful outcomes of this endeavor were few phrases - "No!", "Ooooowk", "Heeeeeeeee" + clap clap clap, "h ha h hm h ha", "hagg do... sab milke haggo... hagte kyo nahi". then there were endless pjs and vocalized instrumedley practices which needed no communication, only few tapping of foot were enough to set the band into yet another recital.

so, what's next? we'll see if we can get to play in such events as much has we can, we will come up with some (at least one) compositions, we will practice instrumedley more and we will cover some more bands..... (hmm too many issues at hand :D)