The Bombay Rock Scene and the Old Times

Two of my unfulfilled wishes in the Indian Rock scene are to see Warren Mendonsa play live with Zero and to attend a Rangbhavan I Rock. Both are nearly impossible to come true now with Warren having left the band about four years before Zero themselves called it off at I Rock-XXIII and Rangbhavan being snatched away from the Bombay rock community by the High Court.

Nonetheless, I have been pretty much in the scene for a while. I have attended I Rock at Chitrakut grounds and have seen its qualitative decrease each year with a disappointed mind. Although without Warren, I have seen Zero perform many times. I have seen myself humming songs like Psp 12" and Not My kind of girl while on my way to college, I remember myself being of the opinion that Spitleaf is a better song than Christmas in July and voicing it in public, I have seen myself becoming a fan of Zero's music and getting madly excited about the gigpad updates of their fothcoming gigs. But those were the days when Bombay ruled the rock scene in India.

We would have these frequent jam session all over the city. Raz in Juhu played a fantastic and affordable venue for all sorts of gigs with tickets ranging from zero to hundred bucks. Raz was, or maybe is, of the size of a small studio apartment, always full of smoke. Raz may have had the highest air pollution per square feet in Bombay. These gigs would start late and would generally go on till midnight. Even smaller bands in town were active and some of the big names of the country like Parikrama would be regular visitors at various shows, most importantly, I Rock and Livewire.

It's not too old a story. Locals or outsiders but bands like Zero, Parikrama, Bhayanak Maut, Brut Force, Pin Drop Violence, Vayu, HFC, Pentagram, Demonic Resurrection, Them Clones would really light up the scenes. Independence Rock, Livewire at IIT, Riot Act at SFIT, even the Malhar AM Night at Xavier's constantly brought us really talented bands and showed us then-teenagers an entirely different world of euphoria where sneaking through the security at the gate with cigarettes promised a smile, going drunk for the concerts was a law, and black was the only dress code that was followed.

Today, nothing disappoints me more than a perennially empty gig calender on gigpad. There are no good bands in Bombay. Gigs are rare and those that happen are not really gigs. They are shows at expensive places like Hard Rock Cafe and Bluefrog where college students like me can't really afford to go too often. It's not long for me to graduate now. Maybe, I'll get a job and will have the money to spend on places like those. I may even enjoy going there. But those shows will never have the charm of the old times when one could tell when the next gig is by the length of my hair, when getting free passes for these concerts was a matter of pride, and getting sloshed in a group of friends, spitting out the teenage angst and sporting the Kurt Cobain within me was all I waited for.