[neil.jericho]

The inaugural edition of Bandland was held in December at the Embassy International Riding School, Bangalore. With Goo Goo Dolls being the final act of day 1 and Deep Purple headlining the entire show, this was an absolute must attend for rock music lovers.

The best thing about these 2 day concerts is that there are bands that you absolutely love, great bands that you have seen live and enjoy watching on stage, talented bands that you heard in passing but never really listened to, and bands that you know nothing about.

Here are some snippets from their event guide.

[neil.jericho]

I got to the venue at least 20 minutes before the show started. After the late show fiasco of the recent Ronan Keating concert, I wasnt sure whether the organizers would be punctual or not. Thankfully, they were!

Rain clouds!

The Earth Below
This was the first time that I had listened to their songs. The band is young and talented. Though the music was a little heavy for my taste, I thought they did a good job as the opening act for a rock concert. With some seasoning, they will become a lot more polished on stage.

Rating - 7 / 10

Parvaaz
Several years ago, I had the fortune of seeing Parvaaz play in a much smaller setting. The band has a distinct sound which I really enjoy listening to. At this point of time, I had to ask myself, how good is this concert when you have Parvaaz be the second act on day 1?

Rating - 8.5 / 10

Skrat
Other than a couple of songs which I had heard, there wasnt too much which I knew about this 3 piece band. Their signature energetic, high intensity rock songs meant that the concert kept gathering momentum. They have jumped onto my must-listen list for January 2024.

Rating - 8.75 / 10

The War On Drugs
Before they started performing on stage, I honestly knew nothing about is Philadelphia based band. By the end of the first couple of songs, I knew I was listening to something special. The melodies, the songwriting, the arrangements and inticate structuring of the songs are exactly what we dont find in modern music. The crowd absolutely loved them.

By the time The War On Drugs finished their act, I was convinced that they are the greatest band that I had never heard of!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeaDE1magRk

My favourite song from The War On Drugs

Rating - 10 / 10. Easily the best performers and performance of day 1.

Thermal And A Quarter
After the absolute rock rush of the previous performance, I needed to take things down a level. I enjoyed TaaQ's performance from the back of the crowd. The highlight of their act was an excellent cover of David Bowie's classic "Space Oddity".

Rating - 8 / 10

Goo Goo Dolls
Lets be honest here, the #2 song on everybody's sing along list for Bandland (behind the easy #1 of Smoke on The Water) was the mega smash hit Iris, by the Goo Goo Dolls. I was really impressed by the professionalism and energy levels of the band. They played a really solid set and even when the songs weren't ones that the crowd was familiar with, the band never lost our interest or attention. An excellent live concert performance by masters of their craft.

Rating - 9 / 10

[neil.jericho]

I reached the concert venue too late for the first band's (Pacifist) performance and didnt catch much of the second act (Aswekeepsearching) as I lost quite a bit of time picking up a tshirt from the merchandise stall. More on this in the next post.

The F16s
I was all on board starting from this performance. I didnt remember watching them live (NH7 Weekender Music Festival, Bangalore) back in 2015. I was surprised by how many fans they had in the crowd, who were singing along to their popular songs. By the end of their act, I counted myself as one of their army of fans!

Since the concert, Ive been listening to quite a bit of their music and would easily recommend Moon Child, Sucks To Be Human and Trouble In Paradise (super fun song to dance to when you are stuck in stationary Bangalore traffic!).

The F16s

Rating - 9.5 / 10

Parikrama
What can I say about Parikrama that hasnt been said already? They are Indian rock music royalty. The crowd was in the palm of their hands.

Rating - 8.75 / 10

Amyl And The Sniffers
Without a shadow of a doubt, the band, and in particular their lead singer, were the highlight of day 2 and arguably, the best performers of the entire event. The vocalist, Amy Taylor, is simply dripping in unrestrained charisma. As a guitarist, I always find myself closely following the guitarists at a live performance but the magnetism of the vocalist simply mesmerised the crowd. The rest of the band was excellent, no doubt, but its hard to look past a naturally talented performer like Amy, who didnt stand still for a second. Later, I found that they are opening for the Foo Fighters at several shows in 2024 !!!

Amyl And The Sniffers

Other songs which I would recommend are Guided by Angels and Hertz. While their smash mouth punk rock isnt necessarily my regular cup of tea, I have to admit that as a live performance, they absolutely knocked it out of the park. Go see Amyl and The Sniffers live, if you ever get the chance to do so. You will not regret it. They are one of the rare bands that sound so much better in person, than in your car or on your home theater.

Rating - 10 / 10 for stealing the show from right under the noses of Deep Purple.

Deep Purple
Does the term Rock Gods even begin to encapsulate or do justice to the band Deep Purple? The band was founded at least a decade or two before most of you reading this were even born. They started off with Highway Star, played Smoke on the Water towards the end and IIRC, closed the show with Hush. The fact that iconic vocalist Ian Gillan and bass guitarist Roger Glover are still rocking live shows at 78 years of age, is astonishing! That said, Father Time is the one entity that no rocker can outrun forever. The guitarist Simon McBride did a fabulous job of carrying the load and making it a night to remember for fans of Deep Purple.

Rating - 9 / 10

[neil.jericho]

Here are some other points which might be helpful for those who are planning to attend future Bandland events.
- A few days before the concert, the event organizers Book My Show will send you an envelope with the event details, wrist band, stickers etc. They will also send you soft copies of the event details on email and Whatsapp. You need to wear the wrist band when you enter the concert premises. The same wrist band acts as your digital wallet. You can top it up by paying through an online portal or by going to one of their many stalls and swiping your card or paying with Google Pay etc.
- There were lots of stalls for food and adult beverages.
- There were multiple stalls that served free water. Concert goers were encouraged to bring their own bottles or flasks, which could be topped up as many times as you liked. If you didnt have a bottle or flask, you could purchase a reusable large glass for Rs 50, which could be refilled infinitely.
- There was a stall for merchandise. They had a price list for only some of the t-shirts, bandanas etc which were on sale. If you wanted to to buy a t-shirt that you liked, you had to wait in line, then ask the team about the prices of the tees that you wanted, go back to the payment counter and recharge your band accordingly, then come back and stand in line again and finally, pick up the merchandise that you wanted. Needless to say, this was a highly inefficient process.
A lot of people were annoyed by the fact that they had to waste so much time just to pick up a tee. That said, the highly overworked young staff members did a great job of maintaining their cool and dealing with all the hungama. Hopefully, they arent put in such a difficult position the next time around.
- I loved the fact that every performance started exactly on time and wound up on time. This was a brilliantly managed event. It was so well managed that by the time you walked over from one stage to the next, the performance had already started!
- The parking fees were Rs 200 per day. There were clearly laid out parking slots. On the first day, I reached early. The parking attendants allowed me to park right next to the entry point of the parking (which meant the longest possible walk to the entry of the concert but the quickest exit at the end of the day).
On Sunday, I reached after the show started and was directed to park in the middle of the huge parking area. While trying to exit, I realized that the careless parking attendants had allowed two large cars to park right opposite each other, with very little space between them, at the entry into the row where my car was parked. It was impossible to take out any car bigger than an Alto or say a Jimny. This was grossly irresponsible of the car drivers and the parking attendants. At the other end of the row, there was no dedicated lane for an exit. So, if someone wanted to leave the concert early, they would have been stuck until the drivers of one of these cars decided to eventually leave the concert.
Luckily, I was able to find an empty slot at the other end of my row and squeezed my car through, to finally get out of the messy predicament. I saw the owners / drivers of a lot of other sedans (think Octavia size for reference), who simply couldnt reverse their car out because the gap between two consecutive rows of cars was insufficient. Needless to say, the organizers did a really lousy job with the parking arrangements. If there was an emergency, a lot of people would have been stuck because they wouldnt have been able to get their cars out safely. This was by far the worst aspect of the Bandland concert.
- It was nice to see so many musicians watching the performances with as much enthusiasm as the rest of us rock music fans. If you know your Indian musicians, at Bandland, you wouldnt have been surprised to see one of them standing next to you. I got the chance to talk to some guitarists who I have seen perform in various shows over the last 10+ years.
- As the vocalist of one of the bands so poignantly remarked, "How great it is to be performing at a concert without any DJs or rappers!!!"

[neil.jericho]

Overall, if you like live rock shows, you should consider attending a future edition of Bandland. The crowd gradually built in number and never got surly. The organizers had enough security and support staff to cover all aspects of the concert (except the parking, as elaborated in the previous post).

Those who wanted to enjoy as much rock music as possible, could easily do so. Others who came to catch a few bands, clearly enjoyed their time. And the music lovers who came only to watch the Goo Goo Dolls and Deep Purple, couldnt have been happier.

The regular ticket for 2 days cost Rs 6,999 (without taxes).
The regular ticket for 2 days cost Rs 7,795 (with taxes).
The total cost of attending came to Rs 8,195 (with taxes and parking for 2 days).

On the face of it, this amount can seem steep for a weekend event but for Indian rock fans, this was the best value for money event in a long time!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[PearlJam]

Yes, a rock show in Bangalore after more than a decade! Had attended almost all of them in the past, and never regretted even one. Rock shows always had a lot of takers in Bangalore, and I'm surprised it took so long for this one. Hopefully there will be many more in future.

This was an extremely well managed event. Lots of signboards to the venue, great parking, very child-friendly, very decent and well behaved crowd, and the seamlessly working wristband.

I wonder why they required you to load up money into the wristband first, and then use the wristband for every purchase. Probably it's to track the profit sharing. I spent what I topped up fully - but I'm not sure what happened to others who topped up more that they consumed. Did they get a refund?

Security was efficient. It was unfortunate that they were disallowing the harmless water bottles. But I wonder how people could sneak in cigarettes, especially of the "different" kind, those with smells that you could recognize instantly . Probably the relaxed checking here goes with the rock ethos. Don't want to elaborate more!

The stalls were simply not able to take up the load though, when everyone landed at the counters together. Long and slow moving queues, lots of waiting, and the staff simply being overwhelmed. This was the only small negative in the otherwise well managed event.

Coming to the bands themselves, it was great to see opportunities given to upcoming bands, to showcase their talent. The upcoming ones had a lot of energy - but many of them were still "raw" - hopefully they will improve with more exposure. Parikrama still has it in them after so many years. So does Deep Purple - though they've really grown very old, they still had the energy and presence.

About Amyl and the Sniffers - I think they simply lost the crowd's support when they mentioned that India lost to Australia in the world cup finals. Heard people cursing and walking away.

Overall, a great way to spend the weekend.

[AMG Power]

Bandland Concert in Bangalore - Deep Purple with Smoke on the Water.

Ian Gillan on several occasions goes a whole octave lower. Improvisations on the riffs - you may or may not like it.

Have always felt a good tribute band do more justice to a song and stay true to the tune whereas original bands attempt far too many improvisations.

https://youtu.be/rXUMy0mm854?si=-mhN4_ztM_iescVG

[am1m]

Pretty surprising that a band like Deep Purple would agree to be just one among so many in a lineup of bands. Would have been unheard of at their peak. But on the other hand, it's pretty cool that they are still playing and touring after all these decades.

[AMG Power]

The main stars of Deep Purple are no more with the band. The guitarist and keyboardist were selected shortly before the tour.

So in many ways it isnt really Deep Purple as they were known and in part you could say they were the equivalent of a tribute band.

Most yesteryear hit bands aren't as good as they were anymore.

[hothatchaway]

I still listen to the same bands that I used to listen to growing up a couple of decades back, the likes of Nirvana, Guns N Roses, Audioslave, Green Day et al, so reading through this thread grabbed my attention when I realized that the Goo Goo Dolls were playing! While Iris was a bigger hit, my favourite is Long way Down (also featured in the soundtrack of the Hollywood blockbuster movie - Twister) I have lost count of the number of times I have watched the music video or just simply the audio, still can't get enough of it to this day, well into my 40s. I think they stopped recording good music after the 2000s.

I missed Metallica when they toured India in 2011 and played in Bangalore, haven't forgiven myself to this day. Was there when Slash toured in 2016. Wish I knew this was happening, was in Bangalore for Christmas, would have planned the trip differently.

Thanks for sharing this, Neil, also checking out the War on Drugs on Spotify.

[swarnava.ch]

Originally Posted by neil.jericho

The inaugural edition of Bandland was held in December at the Embassy International Riding School, Bangalore. With Goo Goo Dolls being the final act of day 1 and Deep Purple headlining the entire show, this was an absolute must attend for rock music lovers.

Thanks Neil for this great Thread. I am proud to say that I was there and what hell of a night it was. You have very rightly captured the details of the event. It was definitely well organized and my whole family enjoyed the show - Wife, Son, BIL and his wife. I wanted to attend this specially for my son - I am trying to get him to enjoy the era of Real Rock of 70s and 80s and he is already hooked on to Deep Purple. This was a great chance for him to experience the energy of a live event. Among the others, Parikrama was my Next best fav performers. Loved them. I had attended their concert many years back and dare I say, this was one step ahead. They know how to engage the audience. Played all of their crowd favorites and a couple new ones.

The event itself was well organized and managed. Lods of space, Food, Parking, Great Crowd. Would love to attend again next time. I am happy of one thing - usually such events with lineups predominantly happen in Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon. Atleast to my knowledge - this was the first event of this scale in Bangalore and the fans really loved it. There were audience members from as young as 1-2 yrs to 70+yrs (all ages).

Bangalore is now slowly getting set on the right track and I am loving it

[argho]

Very nice write-up. Many thanks.

[Aakarsh Gupta]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

Bandland Concert in Bangalore - Deep Purple with Smoke on the Water.

Ian Gillan on several occasions goes a whole octave lower. Improvisations on the riffs - you may or may not like it.

Have always felt a good tribute band do more justice to a song and stay true to the tune whereas original bands attempt far too many improvisations.

https://Youtu.be/rXUMy0mm854?si=-mhN4_ztM_iescVG

The improvisation is what makes a band magical live imo. Take any Zeppelin live performance for instance and it's a given that you'd see them go places in all of their songs. SRV AND Double Trouble did it. Hendrix did it. Sabbath did it. All of the legendary bands did it. Live is where they'll soar away from the restrictions of the studio setting. Granted that it can be hit or miss at times, but I for one really enjoy it.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

The main stars of Deep Purple are no more with the band. The guitarist and keyboardist were selected shortly before the tour.

So in many ways it isnt really Deep Purple as they were known and in part you could say they were the equivalent of a tribute band.

Most yesteryear hit bands aren't as good as they were anymore.

Man, calling the current lineup a tribute band is really pushing it in my opinion. 3 of the main guys are still there right? In a 5 piece band that has undergone so many changes and gave birth to so many amazing bands, that is saying something And the band has been playing since the late 60s?

And as for being good as they were, well Ian is in his lates 70s i suppose and it really would be asking for too much to expect him to sing highway star like he did when Machin Head came out in 1972

To the OP, nice write-up and glad you had a good time. Purple was the first concert experience for me way back in the 90s when they played in Palace Grounds.