Sunday Jam for the music lover by the poor!

It began with some confused first timers wondering if the jam was actually happening or not. So we guided them in and sat around discussing useless things until Leann arrived with the acoustic guitar and so it began the semester’s first Sunday jam. As the newcomers waited for the metal to begin, Amlan, Abhimanyu and Leann started off with some acoustic numbers with the occasional company of our vocals. The mic finally arrived quarter to five and the jam went from acoustic to semi-acoustic with Rohan and Ashish on guitars and Abhimanyu on vocals on the mini stage in the corner of dingy Twist.

Abhimanyu’s voice was absolutely stunning and I definitely want to mention that about a million times! According to me, this guy just stole the show by singing and playing Dave Mathews Band, Alice In Chains, Oasis, Pearl Jam and many more. The best was definitely him on vocals of ‘Where did you sleep last night’. I really don’t know what more to say about Abhimanyu, I’m quite speechless and definitely hope he succeeds in forming his grunge or blues band.

Almost every band in Manipal was there and got a chance to play. Ashish and Errol from Chimera, Alex from Artificial Insanity, Rakesh and Avinash from Unreplica, Narayanan from Riot House (who is a 16 year old who studies in Little Rock School J) and Tet, Benjamin, Naman and Irshad from Can Of Bliss. It was a jam in the true sense with people playing with each other. People of all ages and tastes, a first year Abhay from Delhi played some Pearl Jam and Radiohead with his own style.

The guys from Unreplica covered some Metallica while Alex sang along with the Chimera boys on Roadhouse Blues; the song was later covered better by Abhimany and Ashish with Leann on bongos. The sound setting was a little unusual. As there wasn’t a mic stand, I held the mic up for everyone who sang and played at the same time. While Abhimanyu and Ashish and Ankit indulged in a blues jam, the acoustic guitar was miked by me too. Along with the talking walking mic stand element, there were flowers. We gave out flowers to anyone who sang, grooved and head banged. The unconventional MCing by Shonali just added to the chilled out atmosphere completing the jam (though she did go overboard at times).

We played a couple of originals with the name Ten People WhoDon’t like Being Called Alexander. We also covered Save Tonight along with a chorus involving a lot of people, whose names I’d take too long to mention. Shonali’s drunken “stage act” was neat! Towards the end, a lot of people were drunk and the music only got better. Rohan, Abhimanyu and Abhay shuffled guitars and vocals bringing the jam to an end with Don’t Cry where everywhere sang as loud as they could almost in protest to the trance DJ who had set up behind the bar waiting for us to finish. When the DJ proceeded to play trance, Shonali fought for another “last song”. We wanted it to be Freebird so the music would go on but settled for Stairway to Heaven which was played beautifully by Abhay with Indrasish on some killer vocals. The end reminded me of Freedom Jam 2007 when musicians just played till the cops cut their sound off and when it off, they continued with acoustic guitars and bongos bringing people closer to the stage and literally fighting for freedom!

The only difference here was that while in Bangalore it’s a war against authority, here it’s against trance. Next jam, bring your voices and instruments (do not forget, please) and applaud. Rock is still alive.

Excuse the long gap!

Well, there's a long gap between our last post and this one. Not that nothing happened. The updates went a little wonky due to too much alcohol. But all that's taken care of now that me, THE ONLY POSTER doesn't drink anymore! Plus I got internet at home. Too much has happened, mainly we did pull the Lounge Piranha gig off, pretty well.. The sound was really fucked, but we sold more than 200 tickets, making a slight profit. I will get down to writing about it another time when i have a backrest! What's on the road is another show, at the end of august.. As usual the rest is confidential, for now let me leave you with this:

Run!! Piranha!!!!

7 days to go, to meet the new fish in town! Things moving faster.. Teasers, banners, flex and laze, tickets, posters, paint, it's all exciting.. Too bad I'm missing all the fun, stuck in Bangalore for an extra three days because all buses were booked.. The lazy are getting lazier.. The hard working boys are getting haircuts and Shonali is starring in a big play this monday.. Looking forward to an exciting week of piranhas, painting and marketing.. The band is being very patient as usual! Waiting to get my hands on those funky stickers.. For those few checking this blog out.. Here's a peek into what's ahead, unless you've already confirmed your presence at the show on 27th at Enigma..

First Steps..

Studying in Manipal is nothing less than a killer experience.. To spice things up a bit, 9 of us decided to try and organize gigs in Manipal.. The blog? A chance to discuss music and manipal.. I've decided to just record the process in which we are organizing our first event.. There are things we wanna say, times we wanna crib, what better outlet than a blog.. Also attempting to reach out to people who'd wanna help us out..

I've been in the field of events for long but never dealt with sponsorship.. It's a big deal, the most challenging part of organizing something.. I've been so used to yelling at bands asking for extra time that I've forgotten what it's like to be polite.. When you take 9 lazy people and put them in one team, things get a little hard to get done.. So we've been facing a lot of problems..

Sponsorship has been the haunting demons in our dreams for weeks now. Going from place to place, holding on phone calls, spending 3 bucks a minute to speak to people outside Karnataka.. I always knew it was a dreaded thing to venture into, and it turned out to be more challenging than I thought! Things are beginning to speed up as the date of the show comes dangerously close.. Tomorrow we should begin some serious printing and begin publicity.. The interesting part has just begun, sponsorship talks continue. Dealing with irresponsible delayers like Sunny is beginning to piss everyone off.. But apart from that little bug, the sweet little South Park metalheads are totally helping out.. Dodging politics and coupons, building an energetic psychedelic night with just 17k, we're almost there..

There's too many words of appreciation for the band.. From the time I first heard them at a local Sunday Jam in Bangalore to now as I repeatedly listen to their mp3s, there's nothing more tingling than that psychedelic ambient aura their music sends out! The compromises they are making to come down here and be a part of this with us is unbelievable.. We started this team to get out and put music up there on a stage and there's no better group of musicians that could support us than them. I owe them a lot for this and thank them dearly on behalf of the team. And soon you will too..

Watch this space for more! And feel free to leave comments..

Cheers!!