The Musical Phenomenon called EASTWIND

THE PROMISE

So after loads of call to my parents and a promise that I would restrict my expenses in the month of march,I was on my way to the capital city to experience the biggest weekend Indian Music community had ever seen.The Eastwind Music Festival brought rock,metal and electronica bands from the entire country to come and perform at one common stage.

INDIAN ROCK SCENE

A huge supporter of Indian Rock Scene,I knew this was going to be a weekend to remember my entire life.The Indian scene started making eyes turn when INDUS CREED came out with there truly masterpiece album ROCK n ROLL RENEGADE and the following it up with videos later(which went on to be aired at MTV).Soon loads of bands like PARIKRAMA,PENTAGRAM,MILLENNIUM,AGNI,13 AD etc came to light.MTV flew slash down to bangalore to perform with INDUS CREED. Indian Rock Music community was here to stay.

THE VENUE

Divided in 3 stages with one stage having most of blues and jazz influenced bands and the rest two dedicated to the heavier side of music,the organizer had indeed delivered.As the festival was indoor the accoustics where a little disappointing but then again the 3 stage concept makes one feel free to listen to any band out of the three playing simultaneously.Sound problems (Dream out Loud started at rumble stage 2 hours late),long sound checks and times when all three bands were doing there sound simultaneously did betray the presence of three stage but then nothing can be taken away from the organizer because such minor puches always happen.
THE BANDS
The bands which came turned out to be more than what I had expected.Soulmate,Something relevant,HFT,Leni Stern,Thermal and a Quarter,Caesars Palace,Skinny alley just made you feel beautiful and took me back to my musical roots-the blues and jazz.And I was even surprised to see that such kind of bands received amazing crowd response with people singing with them and understanding the beauty of the music.
Hilt(HFT- Bass Guitar) made the bass cry out like a bass saxophone,Rudy(Soulmate-Lead Guitars) made his guitar come alive with all the screaming and crying and answering it back to him and Ryan(Something Relevant-Sax) has always impressed me whenever I have seen them.
I was unlcuky to miss out on acts like Advaita,Pink Noise and Ghatum Gosh but then I am not complaining.
Coming to the heavier side of music, it was just typical brutal stuff that bands like Myndsnare,Krytos,Detonation(Netherlands),Anterior(United Kingdom),DR,Avial,Them Clones played out to the audience.I dont mention Scribe here because they were a mess on stage and Akshay's guitar couldnt be heard.Anterior,according to me the most brutal of them all,left everyone with pains in there necks and a cry to ask for more.I have never heard such amazing tones anywhere before.Hats off to the band from UK.Myndsnare is a master act and the stuff that all three of them(KP,Sandy and Yas) play can leave anyone spellbound.I specially liked the bass lines of Sandy(totally kick ass).Kryptos ruled(thats it..this simple).Again the use of tones and the overall tight performance made a huge impact.Avial the Mallu metal band was good to watch.
Cyanide, a delhi favorite ,had everyone singing along with them.There lead guitarist,looked quite young,played some amazing stuff.Motherjane on the other hand were trully professional in there sound.I had heard a lot about the two guitarist and I must say one compliments the other.I liked their rhythm guitarist and bass player a lot.
Parikrama was parikrama again.Favorites among delhi people,they always deliver.I like there vaporize a lot,but then it was good to see them play there older originals as well.

THE CROWD

It was so good to see loads of people coming out to support Indian Rock Community and people everywhere were having an amazing time-smoking,smoking up,having beer,food and 3 days of music-wat else did they need.Very friendly people,open to all kinds of music and yes thankully less of typical delhi poser people made it an amazing weekend.Not many people turned up untill evening,but then again this was the first EASTWIND,hopefully more people will turn up in years to follow.

That was my EASTWIND in Delhi.A truly memorable MUSICAL PHENOMENON.