This morning was a strange one. After a Hurricane, a journey to India that seemed to go on for days and a first day more epic than most, last night was my first in a proper bed in a good week. With the very fact I was in India still failing to sink in, it was a good ten minutes after waking up before I realised where I was, why I was here and possibly even who I was. Putting it simply: it was hard to believe this was only my second day in India.
Unlike the preceding week, however, today was quite straight-forward: head to the third and final day of the NH7 Weekender here in Pune. See music. Maybe have a few beers after.
With eighty bands over six stages, most of whom were performing contemporary music, it was easy to forget that the festival (or at least the Western concept of it) is still a new concept in the Indian Music Industry. NH7 was as good as or even better run than many of our own festivals in Australia. One notable difference, however, were the alcohol restrictions, which even the bands weren’t exempt from. Due to recent changes in the state, the drinking age was 25 and was isolated to three bars, none of which were allowed to provide a view of any of the stages. Even the rider had to be alcohol free. With the average age well under 25, this certainly provided a different sort of atmosphere, but did little to dampen spirits.
The final day of the festival featured four Australian bands, including festival headliners Karnivool. As I arrived on site at the event, I had the opportunity to watch the band soundcheck in the blistering Sun. It would serve as a stark contrast to the band’s set later in the evening, but more on that later…
After embracing my first opportunity to explore the festival site in the daylight (which would feature a “Junior Masterchef Cook-Off” today – the Australian series is huge here in India! Though this particular event would feature members from the bands playing at the event…), the public started to drift in and it was time to listen to some music. Delhi Suntanate was the first act I caught, an Indian outfit featuring a DJ and vocalists who were playing traditional Reggae music. From Bob Marley to “Ready or Not” by The Fugees, and a surprising version of Peggy Lee’s “Fever”, they had all the standards covered (pun intended), and they did as a good a job as any outfit. There was even a guy who was basically Shaggy in the group. Who knows, it actually may have been the man himself… all in all, proof once again that you never knew what you were going to get at this festival.
Speaking of which, Punk Rock has its audience here too, proven by local outfit The Lightyears Explode. For someone like myself seeing an act like this, it’s easy to get carried away with the thoughts that you’ve heard all these riffs before, and ultimately it’s far from anything new or exciting for yours truly. But for so many in India this IS a new thing, and it’s hard to argue as to how exciting or positive a change this is for the local industry. As so many bands were saying to me throughout the festival, however, there is still so little support for bands like Lightyears, but as the current Indian youth grow older, they’ll be the ones making all the decisions (as proven in the festival itself, widely run by a group of under-30s). So my only advice was to keep at it, keep building the scene – it won’t be long before wider Indian culture does embrace it – if not the world.
Speaking of supporting emerging talents, Canberra electronic duo The Aston Shuffle (pictured below) – here like the rest of us Aussies as part of OzFest – had brought their latest live show to India, which sees much of their sonud created live through electronic drum panels, synths, keys, effect nobs and so on. The vocals come pre-recorded but this balance between pre-recording and live works well for their music. The only downside was that they were on before the sun set, though they had people dancing up a storm all the same, with a crowd that had just about tripled in size by the end of proceedings.
Brisbane’s Sheppard, meanwhile, brought some colourful pop to the event, on the same stage that Big Scary had dominated the night before. Much like their predecessors, the audience remained primarily seated – which proved difficult at times for lead vocalist and keyboardist George Sheppard, who likes to get amongst the crowd – but nonetheless they made it work and the audience certainly seemed to dig their sound. “Around The Bend” was a track that made its debut at the NH7 set, and the track “These People” seemed to go down particularly well.
Colorado based Michal Menert of Pretty Lights fame (there’s a long story there which I won’t go into, but Google Michal and Pretty Lights… it’s a fascinating story) managed to obtain the biggest crowd of the day so far, producing some spectacular mixes. At times I imagined what I was witnessing was what it must have been like to have seen Moby when he was at his prime… back when Gwen Sefani was licking his head… you remember that yeah?
I couldn’t stay for too long at Michal, as it was time to see the third Australian act of the day, none other than Sydney’s own Jinja Safari. The band got their jam on amid some technical difficulties, playing some new tracks as well as their obligatory inclusions such as “Peter Pan”, which began with an apology from Pepa for his use of the Sitar in the track, admitting he “wasn’t a great Sitar player”. Indeed, talking to him before the show, he was quite nervous he would offend the crowd, with India being the home of this loved instrument. But with that in mind, surely there are few more appropriate places than this to whip it out? So, while a backdrop screen played clips from silent films, Pepa received a great reception, something which certainly relaxed him for the rest of the trip.
This isn’t the Jinja you thought you knew. This is definitely a band who is a little more mature and a little more willing to work outside the boundaries that most young bands face – the limitations of their own skills. Something tells me (and indeed the band confirm this) that the debut record isn’t too far off – it all sounded impressively well fleshed out today at the festival.
After Jinja, a band no stranger to Australia, Bombay Bicycle Club were making their Indian debut with Ed and Jack in acoustic mode. This was not a usual way for the band to perform, and they made that well known to the crowd – but they still made it work, albeit with melodies often borderline unrecognisable from their original form.
There were a LOT of fans of the band in the crowd, singing along to most songs louder even than the band themselves could manage, and requesting tracks new and old. Opening with “Evening/Morning”, Jack and Ed played a solid set that included “Lights Out, Words Gone”, “Ivy and Gold”, “Motel Blues” and “Magnet”. For the last two tracks, the duo invited the percussionist from Vernon Noronha, who played earlier, to join them. They closed the set out with “Always Like This” and “Shuffle”. The full band will be heading to Australia for Falls Festival and a few sideshows, so be sure to check them out!
I was told that if there was one Indian act I had to see while I was at the festival it was Kailasa. With violins and electric guitars, it was a contemporary take on the sort of music we’d refer to as “Bollywood”. But there was more than this, with influences such as funk and reggae also making their way into their unique, diverse sound. All in all, a very enjoyable set.
Next on the stage was the amazing Seun Kuti and Egypt 80, who at the time of publishing this article just popped by Australia, too. With an amazing brass section (amazing everything, to be fair), this was a band with great power. They were, after all, the band of Seun’s father Fela Kuti, to whom he pays tribute at the start of his show with a cover of Fela’s track “Zombie”. Seun had great energy on the stage and ran through a set that occasionally featured himself on the saxamaphone. Highlights included “Mr Big Thief” and “The Good Leaf”, his ‘political argument for Marijuana’, which featured the singalong lyrics ‘…plant and make it grow!’. Not a bad way to end the set, if I do say so myself.
Meanwhile, closing out the festival in the Bacardi Rock Arena were none other than Australia’s Karnivool who were playing to a mammoth crowd singing along to every word of every song. Indeed a far cry from their soundcheck, which featured 3 or 4 white guys in the crowd bopping their head and trying to find shade as the band worked things out. Absent from the soundcheck was the fire cannon that shot into the crowd, a great addition to the high energy set; something Ian Kenny and his troupe of Western Australian misfits are well known for. From tracks like “Dead Man” to newer, unknown tracks that popped up, the band had their crowd in the palm of their hands, with their fists in the air from start to finish.
India definitely approves of the ‘Vool.
And with this, the impressive NH7 Weekender – India’s “Happiest Festival” – was brought to an end. The festival will be reappearing with a different lineup later in the year in Bangalore, but for the Australian contingency it was time to move on to Mumbai… but not before a night that involved a few too many beers with Bombay Bicycle Club for yours truly and an afterparty that delayed our movements the following day by at least a few hours. Definitely worth it, though I daresay my stomach never quite recovered from that hangover… but more on that later…
Photos of Karnivool and The Aston Shuffle provided by the bands.
READ THE OTHER NINE PARTS OF THIS SERIES HERE.
