Tuesday, May 8, 2007
THE ROCK FANS
What makes a rock fan ? Is it the religious consumption of each and every album, every poster , every article , is it the emulation, is it the sacrificial headbanging at the cost of one’s original neck muscles, is it the screaming , is it the ubiquitous gesture lml with every scream , or is it just plain having fun at the show.
India ,as far as I remember had a neat way of rocking out. Since every rock band worth its salt seemed intent on giving this great country a miss, we had to make do with our own.
Campus festivals, arguably the only platform for rocker wannabes in those days , produced a hundred or so new rock bands every year. And except for a few dedicated rockers , the rest were replaced by new bands each year.
India ,as far as I remember had a neat way of rocking out. Since every rock band worth its salt seemed intent on giving this great country a miss, we had to make do with our own.
Campus festivals, arguably the only platform for rocker wannabes in those days , produced a hundred or so new rock bands every year. And except for a few dedicated rockers , the rest were replaced by new bands each year.
They all suffered from short term interest and the public, short term memory.
In some ironic way, India did always have a surplus of rock bands.
So these bands did a little give and take .They sang covers of world famous rock bands
and in return the audience rocked along, occasionally threw in a stage dive now and then
for the home videos, critically analysed each cover and just stopped short of booing.
All round fun for everyone.
This neat agreement worked very well , until one day the bands decided to break free.
Suddenly the songs did not ring a bell, the solos a tat short of the usual finesse.
And the audience , well , we responded in kind.
A familiar Indian band had the nerve to add their little ditty amidst Deep Purple covers.
All of a sudden the swaying cheering crowd around me froze.
One minute silence to honour the temerity? Then the dam burst.
Good thing there was security to separate the audience and the bands.
Suddenly this night was getting better and better. A few frens and I joined the booing choruses .This was like an experiment in mob violence.
You shouted out one good expletive, above the crowd and everyone chanted it in unison.
This was in an era when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock fought each other every other week for the Heavyweight Championship of the world. YES, we were young and we knew our wrestlers.
As one chant began to die down, a fren and I screamed, FINALLY, THE ROCK HAS COME BACK, IF YOU SMELLAAAAAAAALA WHAT THE ROCK IS…….. ….COOKING ( always wanted to do that out LOUD , just could not resist )
Faces , heads turned around..Confused looks. I spotted some school boys.
Then for a minute or so,
The Rock’s fans emulated their hero ( Dwayne Johnson) and chanted his piece , right in the middle of a concert , with the hapless band still playing their now inaudible self-composition.
Stone Cold , am sorry to say didn’t get his due that night.
Only because the band had realized their mistake and began the intro to HIGHWAY STAR and got the crowd smiling again.
The world has changed a lot since then, hope the band has made it too.YAY.lml
In some ironic way, India did always have a surplus of rock bands.
So these bands did a little give and take .They sang covers of world famous rock bands
and in return the audience rocked along, occasionally threw in a stage dive now and then
for the home videos, critically analysed each cover and just stopped short of booing.
All round fun for everyone.
This neat agreement worked very well , until one day the bands decided to break free.
Suddenly the songs did not ring a bell, the solos a tat short of the usual finesse.
And the audience , well , we responded in kind.
A familiar Indian band had the nerve to add their little ditty amidst Deep Purple covers.
All of a sudden the swaying cheering crowd around me froze.
One minute silence to honour the temerity? Then the dam burst.
Good thing there was security to separate the audience and the bands.
Suddenly this night was getting better and better. A few frens and I joined the booing choruses .This was like an experiment in mob violence.
You shouted out one good expletive, above the crowd and everyone chanted it in unison.
This was in an era when Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock fought each other every other week for the Heavyweight Championship of the world. YES, we were young and we knew our wrestlers.
As one chant began to die down, a fren and I screamed, FINALLY, THE ROCK HAS COME BACK, IF YOU SMELLAAAAAAAALA WHAT THE ROCK IS…….. ….COOKING ( always wanted to do that out LOUD , just could not resist )
Faces , heads turned around..Confused looks. I spotted some school boys.
Then for a minute or so,
The Rock’s fans emulated their hero ( Dwayne Johnson) and chanted his piece , right in the middle of a concert , with the hapless band still playing their now inaudible self-composition.
Stone Cold , am sorry to say didn’t get his due that night.
Only because the band had realized their mistake and began the intro to HIGHWAY STAR and got the crowd smiling again.
The world has changed a lot since then, hope the band has made it too.YAY.lml
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