Going Nowhere Tour - Manipal!!

Going Nowhere Tour '08 - Lounge Piranha, Feedback and Can of Bliss live at Edge, Manipal, 26th October '08.

Is the show happening? Or not?! This ran through our minds since we started. No teasers, no word of mouth and there it was, one of George's kickass posters all over Manipal. Paints missing, volunteers studying, this show was the toughest thing ever! Despite all of it, white sheets, pink and purple, we were all in a happy place!

An initial deposit for printing and paints came out of our tiny little pockets which were now so light. But Lounge Piranha was coming back. The band that started it all for us. They were touring the country on a stickered bus, from Bangalore to Hyderabad to Chennai all the way up to Delhi, Pilani and Bombay and then to Manipal! We had to do it but how? And until the morning of the show we still didn't know if we could pull it off..

Three bands, 4 and a half hours. Seems possible. But late sound guys, late band guys, all of it made it almost impossible. But finally at almost 7 PM, the show kicked off with Feedback covering Slayer, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Scorpions thrown in, in the middle! Can of Bliss were waiting for a show almost forever and it was their day of glory. The ten member band (yup, two bassists, two drummers) took on the stage and covered almost every legendary song in the history of rock and roll. Dhruv's remarkable performance on Going Down with the 'going down' and the marching only emphasized that Manipal had a good deal of performers. Their own composition simply known as Ricky's Song was a moment of 'sigh' for all of us. Ricky was a good friend, a great musician and a supportive jammer. He is and will be missed dearly in our hearts. Peace.

The crowd deserves an award for attending this show. The ones who didn't go home to the hustle and bustly of family and diwali but not only attended but made a lot of noise for the bands. Lounge Piranha requested a 15 minute break to put up the white sheets for the projections. The crowd got a little irritated but in amount ten mins, everyone was back and the show continued. They started solemn, almost depressing. The crowd became silent but I don't know when the happy tunes came and everyone was jumping and grooving.

I couldn't remember the last time I had gotten high on music. But there I was standing and staring into shades of pink and purple. A static Kamal, an intoxicating Abhi and an expressive George and more and I was in my own little place. Probably a corner by the side of the 40 foot backdrop in a Pink Floyd concert. Somewhere in the middle I felt the room was spinning. In company of my team, nothing that night felt incomplete. I was taken over, it reminded me of Charles Manson, maybe the pied piper and we were all just rats and snakes charmed away by these people on stage. Lounge Piranha that night was my happy place and as the show came to an end, we were updated, we had covered costs and as the magnificient visual and hearing feast stood before us, we gasped 'We did it!'.

I walked around looking for someone to buy me an album, but had no luck. The day ended with interviews, burgers and jokes about the menu at Juice Corner. I went around slapping everyone asking if they wanted a 'chicken slami pizza'.

The afterparty was almost non-existent. And so the journey for Lounge Piranha ended and they returned home the next morning. For us, it was a bit of a relief, no more planning and the break had finally arrived. I realize this entry is a little absurd, honestly, there are no words to put that concert into.