Lucky 13

Thirteen years ago, a festival called The Great Indian Rock began with bands from across the country competing at Delhi’s open-air theatre Hamsadhwani.

In its thirteenth year, The Great Indian Rock gets a bunch of foreign bands and travels to seven cities

Thirteen years ago, a festival called The Great Indian Rock began with bands from across the country competing at Delhi’s open-air theatre Hamsadhwani. This season, with the name tweaked a little to The Fuel Great Indian Rock, the fest will have a new avatar as it transforms into a national concert tour, spanning seven cities — Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Shillong— with 21 Indian bands and three international acts. “The festival has always aimed at providing local bands a platform to write and perform good, original music. It is not a competition anymore, it is purely bands in concert,” says Amit Saigal, founder of the festival.

After the fest kicked off at Mumbai’s Andheri Sports Complex on Friday, it plays out in Delhi on November 1 and 2 with myriad subgenres of rock spelt out by bands such as Them Clones, Kryptos, Undying Inc and Frequency alongside the hard rock act put forth by the Swedish band Freak Kitchen (in the picture) and the Norwegian black metal bands Sahg and Satyricon. “The foreign bands and the Indian bands together will add to the festival since it’s always good to mix things and see what comes out of it,” says Saigal. “Well, to be honest there is nothing super happening in the western hemisphere. It is here that all the energy is happening,” says Mattias Eklundh, vocalist and

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guitarist of Freak Kitchen, which also performed at the fest last year and have been so smitten by the country’s rock and raga that in their upcoming album they have Indian classical musicians like flautist V Selvaganesh playing.

But it is a first for Sahg and most of the Indian bands. Saigal says all that mattered in choosing them was a good, original song. “It doesn’t matter how fast you play, it is all about good song writing,” he says. And with bands putting out their originals and pushing the envelope, this season seems to be bigger than ever.

The show starts at 5 pm at Hamsadhwani amphitheatre.
Tickets are priced at Rs 250.
Contact greatindianrock.com

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