Next episode in my Kolkata musical quest.
I kind of dissed the Kolkata Telegraph‘s T2 section for not telling about anything interesting until after it was over but it is way better this year than it was last. They had good coverage before the Battle of the bands sponsored by Indian telco Vodaphone. Six or seven bands played at the Dalhousie Institute, a private club which opened its doors for the evening. The judges were all Kolkata music scene luminaries ranging from scene-setting DJ Austin to film score music producer Neel Dutt to chanteuse Anjun Patel. The event got moved indoors due to the early onset of monsoon season set off by Cyclone Aila the day before (which is turning out to be Bengal’s Hurricane Katrina, incompetency, red tape, politics, and all).
Let me get the annoying out of the way up front. The mc was a middle-aged bald pot-bellied radio type trying to act hip by making all sorts of vaguely lewd and definitely sexist remarks to contestants, judges, and audience alike, none of whom were into it. OK, so on to the bands. Evidently, all the bands were required to do a version of the Vodaphone jingle in order to participate. Unfortunately all but death metal rockers Purgatory took the task a little seriously, producing a series of jingles merciful only in their brevity. OK so then? Last complaint coming here–they ran all the instruments direct to PA with no amps which must have been a challenge for the guitarists as we often get much of our sound from the amp. But anyway this had the result of placing the guitarist and the bass player always in the same spot unfortunately for the guitarists, their spot was right in front of a really loud and way overused dry ice machine which completely obliterated the guitarist of the moment in a wall of fog about once every five minutes. I expected them to emerge coughing and staggering with hands on throats yelling “enough already!” So enough already, what about the music?
The first band was called Ashes in Flames and were how can I put it? Adorable. They were four sixteen year old guys, dead earnest, and quite good. The bass player was still growing into the instrument. They did a bunch of songs I did not know–I hope they were originals. They had nice jangly guitars with good vocals and hooks. Very enjoyable alt rock sound. They made a misstep closing with Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water,” played — unfortunately this time — dead earnest. They should have left that one in the shed or given it some twist or camp appeal.
Next up were Black Rose who played accessible hard rock with two lead guitars. They had the only woman in any of the lineups, Mekhola Bose, playing drums. The one guitarist had the sort of shred metal over the top too much technical proficiency all melodrama no emotion Brian May Yngwe Malmsteem style. The other guitarist was pegged as the rhythm guitarist by whoever was running the PA so he couldn’t really be heard well at first. They got their act together best for a truly rocking sixtiesish double guitar funky rock thing as their closer. The third band, Blowing Blues, sarcastically claimed to be doing soft rock. They had cool makeup and had put thought into the concept but unfortunately the guitarist was out of tune and down in the mix and they never quite got it going.
Eternity were next, playing a very slick style of psychedelic rock. The bass player was quite good and a good singer as well. The guitarist had the psychedelic thing going great with lots of well used and controlled effects over solid playing. They should start write more of their own stuff, as the one original they did was very good. Their other notable song was a long psychedelic cover of an obscure Pink Floyd song, which was also quite good. Although we did not stick around for the judging, I heard later that these guys won.
Next came my favorite band of the night, Five Little Indians. Give them a listen! It turns out they were not actually competing, but were one of the headlining bands. They featured two singers, Neel Adhikari being a sensitive singer songwriter type and the Sayak Banerjee drifting into Indian classical stylings and maybe even some ecstatic sufi type singing a la Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The whole was held together by the best rhythm section of the night, with Arka Das on drums and Sanket Bhattacharya playing bass playing as a unit, with Allan Ao’s heavy guitar chugging along when not riffing. While Ao wasn’t playing technically better than the other guitarists of the night, he owned the music, playing on, around, before, under, or right on top of the beat and pulling stuff out of the instrument rather than thrashing it into it. As a whole these guys played most like a balanced unit that enjoyed listening to each other as much as playing their own parts. Clear winner for me, but it turns out they were not competing as they are already a pro band. It showed. I also got to hang with them a few nights ago, and they are pretty cool in person too. They all make their livings playing music, which if any of you have tried it, you know is a tough racket. Ao and Battacharya both play in Bangla rock outfit Cactus. Apparently there are hundreds of bands playing rock with Bengali lyrics and stylings that are hugely popular in west Bengal. You can listen to some here if you poke around a bit. Cactus even managed a quick tour of the Bengali ex-pat communities in the States a while back. Maybe I’ll be able to find out more about it later. Where do they all play? Kolkata really needs an underground web page/paper to let people know what’s happening. Hey Arka, you’re a journalistâ¦why not start it up?
The next band gave the Indians a run for the money though. Kolkata death metal outfit Purgatory had the concept as well as the execution down. The lead guitarist played absolutely diabolically in both looks and sound. The rhythm guitarist, with his pompadour, pencil mustache, and head banging did a suitable job of channeling in the undead. The singer had the usual death metal growl, sounding like a broken cappuccino steamer on steroids [I mean that in the best possible sense). They really put the show on. My only suggestion is that they stretch out a little, maybe listen to some hardcore so they can learn how to doubletime their way up a notch here and there as the songs all seemed to be at roughly the same medium tempo. They might want to dig into some other undead stuff like psychobilly masters the Cramps (with singer Lux Interior joining, alas, the un-undead). I can hear a double time death metal version of Human Fly– working pretty well for them, no?
Next up were Realignment 2 Reality, who I hope were having an off night. The guitarist was tuned about a semitone off from the bass player and the singer caught neither’s key. Perhaps the most telltale sign was the three young women who were obvious fans. They were all clapping along but to different beats, looking a bit confused. Refinement are also are part of an unfortunate-seeming Kolkata rock band fetish with the truly awful and pretentious crypto-Christian rockers Creed. What’s with that anyway?
We caught the last band’s soundcheck earlier in the evening and weren’t tickled so we skipped out on the classic rock closers the Tube Screamers and went home. We also missed Bertie Da Silva’s band. All in all it was a fun night in spite of the corporate trappings. Not quite alt/underground/edgy but it had its moments of innovation and even spectacle. It was only rock n roll.
One last thing I want to remark on is the fact that all these bands came from private clubs. It seems the only ones able to afford amps and instruments of playable quality are those who can (or whose parents can) afford to be in an exclusive private club. I wonder if there is some street version of Kolkata hip hop brewing up somewhere, or improvised junkyard electronica bands like Congolese trance distorion thumb piano masters Konono no 1. What with the recycle culture here in Kol, it seems somebody would figure out how to make a homemade mic and PA and fight the power. Still looking.