The Guitar Smashers

When Kurt Cobain smashed his guitar on stage after almost every gig he played with his band Nirvana,the ritual started by Pete Townsend got a new meaning. The idea of destroying the guitar was hip,exciting to watch,signified a great gig,and the instrument’s career ended with that particular performance. Now,guitar smashing comes to the Capital with Hard Rock Cafe celebrating its third anniversary on Thursday evening.

This has Parikrama’s lead vocalist,Chintan Kalra,at the helm. “Every band goes through their own guitar-smashing phase.The whole thing has not been very institutionalised in India but it has been popular internationally,and is a way to make a particular performance unforgettable since the instrument can’t be picked up again for any other gig,” says Kalra. His band Mob Marley — with Nikhil Vasudevan of The Ska Vengers on drums,Raghav Dang of Reggae Rajahs and Rohit Kulkarni of Think Floyd on guitars and Sid Mathur of Jolt on bass — will spew Bob and Damien Marley classics. The latter part of the evening will be about originals,with touches of reggae peppered with hip hop and rap.