Aerosmith @ Bangalore
After Iron Maiden, I was thoroughly satiated and had no real enthu for any concert so soon. But it was my Dharma, I had to go. So there I was at the parking lot of the Aerosmith concert venue gulping down a couple of beers before we entered the gates. We reached the place around 5:30, the time when they said they'll open the gates. (for maiden, we were a good 5 hours early).
There were three levels of security checks, but we managed to sneak in a couple of Antiquity miniatures and a few smoke sticks. The concert arena was bigger than Maiden's and with good reason, Aerosmith was bound to attract a larger crowd and maybe they learnt a few lessons from the claustrophobic enclosure at the Maiden concert. Whatever the reasons were, we were standing quite close to the stage and still had a lot of private space. And then began the wait...
There was no opening act, just a stupid promo by RC where they made a few folx play the air guitar and the audience judged by hooting. Stupid though it was, the winner walked away with a guitar autographed by Aerosmith. An hour down the line (7:30ish), the crowd began to get restless. We had run out of booze and cigarettes, and our legs hurt from standing for so long, still there was no sign of the band coming on stage. There were no opening acts to warm up the audience so we settled for singing ourselves and generally making mirth. The PA system was playing some random songs and the screen was displaying signs like 'Hi Bangalore' and 'Welcome to Aerosmith Concert' in fonts that made it look like a cheap ad for some toothpaste.
The band finally got on stage by 8:15 to the tune of 'Taste of India' which was followed by 'Love in an elevator'. Then came 'Cryin' and 'Love is hard on the knees' and they crowd began to warm up to them, but then they sang a couple of songs from the 'Honking on bobo' album and everything fizzled out. Steve was up to his usual tactics of thrusting his pelvis, hopping about the stage and making faces at the stage cameras. There seemed to be a new band member on stage, a fat el stupido with a still camera clicking away to glory. WTF was he doing up there??? Joe was doing the guitar god act posing on the ramp while a fan blew his hair and scarf about.
Steven then tried to get the crowd sing along some real obscure song, I still don't know what song it was but the gimmick failed miserably. We were getting real tired of it all and were planning to leave and hit a pub where we got some real music...and booze. But we hung on for some more time as they were playing 'Living on the edge' but soon we lost all our patience and started falling back. When we cleared the crowd we realized that there was not a big crowd at all! the Rs.1800 enclosure was hardly half-full. People were lazing at the back and watching the show on a big screen. A bigger surprise was the Rs.1200 enclosure. It was so far off that the stage was not visible at all, partly due to the giant screen they had put up for them behind the sound engineer's rig. What a sham! I wouldn't want to pay 1200 bux just to watch the show on a giant screen. DNA's got to think of some better way.
By the time we reached our car, the band was saying 'Thank You, Good Night!' to the crowd. The main set had lasted only an hour or so! We were sure that the encore would be 'Janie's got a gun' and 'Crazy' but we didn't want to stick around. I just wanted to close my eyes, I wanted to fall asleep and miss the whole thing.
Bottomline: I've been to college band concerts that were more exciting.
There were three levels of security checks, but we managed to sneak in a couple of Antiquity miniatures and a few smoke sticks. The concert arena was bigger than Maiden's and with good reason, Aerosmith was bound to attract a larger crowd and maybe they learnt a few lessons from the claustrophobic enclosure at the Maiden concert. Whatever the reasons were, we were standing quite close to the stage and still had a lot of private space. And then began the wait...
There was no opening act, just a stupid promo by RC where they made a few folx play the air guitar and the audience judged by hooting. Stupid though it was, the winner walked away with a guitar autographed by Aerosmith. An hour down the line (7:30ish), the crowd began to get restless. We had run out of booze and cigarettes, and our legs hurt from standing for so long, still there was no sign of the band coming on stage. There were no opening acts to warm up the audience so we settled for singing ourselves and generally making mirth. The PA system was playing some random songs and the screen was displaying signs like 'Hi Bangalore' and 'Welcome to Aerosmith Concert' in fonts that made it look like a cheap ad for some toothpaste.
The band finally got on stage by 8:15 to the tune of 'Taste of India' which was followed by 'Love in an elevator'. Then came 'Cryin' and 'Love is hard on the knees' and they crowd began to warm up to them, but then they sang a couple of songs from the 'Honking on bobo' album and everything fizzled out. Steve was up to his usual tactics of thrusting his pelvis, hopping about the stage and making faces at the stage cameras. There seemed to be a new band member on stage, a fat el stupido with a still camera clicking away to glory. WTF was he doing up there??? Joe was doing the guitar god act posing on the ramp while a fan blew his hair and scarf about.
Steven then tried to get the crowd sing along some real obscure song, I still don't know what song it was but the gimmick failed miserably. We were getting real tired of it all and were planning to leave and hit a pub where we got some real music...and booze. But we hung on for some more time as they were playing 'Living on the edge' but soon we lost all our patience and started falling back. When we cleared the crowd we realized that there was not a big crowd at all! the Rs.1800 enclosure was hardly half-full. People were lazing at the back and watching the show on a big screen. A bigger surprise was the Rs.1200 enclosure. It was so far off that the stage was not visible at all, partly due to the giant screen they had put up for them behind the sound engineer's rig. What a sham! I wouldn't want to pay 1200 bux just to watch the show on a giant screen. DNA's got to think of some better way.
By the time we reached our car, the band was saying 'Thank You, Good Night!' to the crowd. The main set had lasted only an hour or so! We were sure that the encore would be 'Janie's got a gun' and 'Crazy' but we didn't want to stick around. I just wanted to close my eyes, I wanted to fall asleep and miss the whole thing.
Bottomline: I've been to college band concerts that were more exciting.
posted by The Soulforged @ 10:35
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