Last night I dreamt of Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree. I dreamt that I was at a mall and I happened to see him there and made conversation with him. He turned from celebrity to acquaintance to friend within minutes. He was not his snobby self at all in my dream. Unlike in another dream I had years ago. In that one, I was married to him and he rode a Bullet, but he never smiled. He was a snob. Don’t be surprised for I’ve seen stranger things in my dreams.
I’m conveniently using this dream as a peg for this blog post. I’m going to briefly recap, only through multimedia, my favourite gigs so far. And I can’t boast about it because I haven’t gone for many. You see, living in India, we are completely deprived of all the Rock music in the world.
Anyway, I was going through my archive and found pictures I had clicked of Steven Wilson, John Wesley and Colin Edwin. This was when I didn’t know that some sort of God was standing in front of me and doing a sound check. This was at IIT Mumbai in December 2009. I didn’t know Porcupine Tree much back then. But I traveled all the way to Bombay anyway and it’s one of the best decisions I have made in life. It’s the cheapest (Rs.600 ticket) concert I’ve been to and the second best concert in my life! It was so amazing standing in almost the first row, alone on an elevated platform, with just around 2000 people. It almost (just almost) felt like Porcupine Tree were playing just for me.
John Wesley stood in front of me and he is the opposite of snobby Steven Wilson. He is all about the feel. He connects with the audience. And he made eye contact with me once. Ahhh! Mad mad day! I found these pictures. They’re very random, but they’re of the band nevertheless and they were caught on camera by me.
My favourite concert was Metallica in Bangalore! Oh man! Just recollecting that night sends shivers down my spine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any pictures of the gig, but I did record most of the songs. Every time I listen to the Fade to Black recording a huge smile spreads across my face. It’s just such a good feeling to have watched your favouritest song live.
Here is a link of that recording. This is how MAD it was. Nothing Else Matters was hilarious because everyone is singing but no one can go as deep as James Hetfield. One is just beautiful. Imagine it with the audience swaying hands.
That’s my experience of Metallica.
My next concert was Opeth. Although not a very big fan, I enjoyed the concert very much because the previous day I met them and got acquainted with them. And Oh! I fell in love with the drummer, Martin Axenrot and also Åkerfeldt of course. The concert itself was a big blur because of reasons I can’t state. Apparently, my dad reads this blog sometimes. :P But it was enjoyable and somehow, very memorable.
That’s pretty much it. Of course Iron Maiden were in Bangalore twice. I went just once. And it was too insignificant for me because I was a dumb kid in a pink tshirt at a Rock concert head banging all over the place. I’d rather not talk about it.
I seriously hope India can bring in some more good bands. Not metal bands. I’m not into metal. I want some good rock and roll. I want Alter Bridge. Or even someone like Mark Knopfler or Roger Waters. I want!!
Swat of All Trades 