Mood Indigo’s Livewire is nothing but a year after year legacy that is carried on for semi-professional bands to have their chance to display their considerable talents & Potentials.Bands like Parikrama, Vayu & Zero the Now very well-known bands are amongst the few who could showcase their musicianship with Livewire serving them as a platform or an abode which has helped them to gain good recognition.For you to get an overview;for the first time all aspiring Indian bands got an opportunity towards reaching the international level as Livewire goes International this year.Whats more exciting about “Livewire” this year is knowing whats in stock for the winning Team – which im trying to keep as a secret that soon will be revealed.

It all started on the 17th Dec 2011 at about 1.30 Pm .Each band had to give their best shot in about 25 mins – that was their allotted time-slot to prove their worth in the Livewire semi-finals competition. IIT Bombay doesnt ever fall short of good venues and NCC Ground was one of such to consider for the semi-professional bands or even amateurish bands who played their set. Some of the Highlights of the event is surely captured by me and even interviewing the aspiring bands was interesting.

Bandlist for the competition (14 Bands) :
Geepers Creepers
Grimmortal
Highway to heaven
Evil conscience
Final Surrender
Modern Mafia
Hoodwink Circle
Burn-out Syndrome
Turnkey
Existence Failed
VerSes
Spud In The Box
Grammy Winning Effort
Blues Conscience

Final Surrender: They seemed to have an interesting set of their Metalcore style of Music.Although they had some interested audience gathered near the stage, many were sitting on the maintained stadium or were findng their time somewhere else.Judges called for a break after their set.

Modern Mafia: They started soundchecking about 4.15 PM. They were finding some difficulties during the soundcheck where quite a few times jarring sound and a loud thunder-like sound blaring out from the front monitors scared many of them present at the venue including the band. These guys came with a formal attire wearing Suits & formal clothes, Bass guitarist had worn an Hat on his head. Their Punkish attitude showed-up not only by their looks but in their Music as well.Just after the struggle with the soundcheck was overcomed. They played a song called “Honey” – which goes like this lala-laralala..la la laralala…which was very impressive and sounded as a sing-along part for the audience to find themselves hooked-up to it.For this song they got a good applause by the young college audience.Then they played another impressive song called “Optimist” just after setting a message about their fanatically driven funny outlook in Music which they considered to be an high expectation of the people about them. Chanting choruses like “Take me away..Take my Life..didnt sound too optimistic to me but irony of the fact is that it wasnt sounding bad either. As obvious it goes around with all the Punk cult that these guys chose to do a chick-driven
song when there was 5 mins left for their set to get over.They also tried an entertaining gimmick as they called-up a guest member who had a prop-kind of instrument in his hands and played that for less than a minute – which wasnt really impressive at all.

Hoodwink Circle: This next band was in no rush to start their mettle until was told your time starts now -it was about 4.55Pm. They started off with a song called “Late”.The crowd seemed to like this one – again loud applauses from the crowd was heard. Then they played a very cool song called “Conscious” – The Vocalist addressed this song as “it holds a deep meaning in my life & it means a lot to me”.This song indeed had some intricate melodies and this is where i began to feel the chills for the first time the etire Livewire semi-final concert.Those soothing melodies playing in the backdrop was too captivating for that evening.the guitar leeds were sounding melodic and sharp.Which is needless to say “Conscious” gained a
good appreciation from the crowd and will be like an highlight in their subconcious mind. When it was 14 mins left for the band to bring it on some even more interesting music, they brought their sensitive side-up again with the song called “Failure” The vocals were sounding very well with proper high notes and well-controlled Falsetto taking the song to its peak.

Then there were other bands like “Burn-out Syndrome” who played a cover of one of the songs of the band “Threat signal” didn’t really sound appealing to the crowd and the mood of the audience was put-off completely.Even the judges were finding themselves too restless and so they used this time to laze around.”Turnkey” seemed to put-up a good convincing set of their style.On asking couple of IIT Bombay students & the Organizers at the onset they all had an opinion about Turnkey’s live act was sounding good.Other bands like “Existence Failed” from Pune was next to have the chance to pull the crowd- i think they bareley managed to do that.

Verses: The best of all the acts was at this point of time according to me. This band creates an energetic self-stimulating peice of metal music. Their soundcheck started about 6.50pm when the darkness found its place that eve- some Melo-death Metal feel for the mood was conveyed by “Verses” which was a clarion call for real Metal-heads. Their approach on the stage seemed to be very Promising. They played their first song called “Treshold” which was enough to start giving chills during the intro part of it and you could imagine as the song advanced to its tightness with growl vox and some mesmerizing clean vocals done
by Sagar (The Keyboardist of the band).They were highly Melodic and wasnt cheesy but Metal. Upon asking the band they revealed that they take influence from Dark Tranquility, Arch enemy and not COB.The Keyboard feel was too good throughout their set and the band had an amazing stage performance and chemistry.The band disliked the crowd sitting around and to know that some of them dispersed because of the pevious bands putting up a disappointing act.So they called upon people to come closer and the connection with the fans took into effect. The lead guitarist “Suraj Dutt” even came down to the quadrangle towards the crowd in front and showcased his friendly/Fan-building nature by lending his hands to them.Many were seen laying
their hair down ~ Headbanging to the core together.They tried all that they could to make everyone at that NCC Ground to stand-up and give a shit for their laid-back attitude.They did manage to do it well, for major chunk of the crowd felt the spirit of Metal with “Verses” being on the stage.Just as the Keyboard intro starts for their notable song “Call for Salvation” there were many hands in the air- clapping and it was so much profound to feel that it got the crowd going crazy throughout this spell of their time- And indeed to feel Salvation is here.Some or the other band had to do justice to the event and “Verses” were nowhere falling short of setting that thing right. The Last song “Damnation” was very tight as well. Its intensity was so full that it gave the audience every moments worth in their presence.They surely managed to draw many metal-heads towards the front of the stage and headband with them.Now it was enough to get crowd surfers around but no one ever did. So i couldn’t have missed-out on Interviewing these guys.They were very friendly too when i got hold of them backstage and it was fun to know more about them. Metalbase Team will soon like to post an interview of this band that was conducted backstage with them.

Grammy Winning Effort: Their soundchecking gets over by 7.45 pm and seemed to be quickly done. This 5 member band showed they had got the balls to show what their Music means to them but they convinced me they’re not Metal but Hardcore stuff even during the Interview with the vocalist.The crowd did seem to be interested in their Music. According to me they were sounding good -so the credit was on their part for the good soundcheck when it semed there were amps blown-up.What was interesting of them
to witness was that the Vocalist comes down from the stage & moshes around and gets the crowd headbanging on their last song.He was pushed around by an angry mosher in the crowd and his fall was broken by the bench that was kept at the front of the stage.It was a great stage performance by the band and an attitude by the vocalist that showed they really have something to offer more in their future gigs. Just after their last song they left a message “Enjoy the rest of the Evening” and the crowd had a great response to them.I was taking an interview in the general crowd with the Vocalist “Dayus” and asked about how they came-up with their band name? .He told me then, that the idea of naming the band came-up when he was listening to
“Phil Collins” in the car and was having fun, so it is associated with all that story.It was interesting to me, No wonder” why these guys didnt want to sound Metalcore on their semi-final encore but Hardcore as they go along with no tag of Metal into their music!

Blue’s Conscience: The last band for the Night was “Blues Conscience”. An attire like John Mayer -Neat worn suits & hat talked more about them before their music could be heard.While utilizing the time to perfect the sounds of the monitors they had hurried some great lines making gimmicks like ” The Mike is Feeding back” and some pesky little jokes as such. They started their first song with a well done greeting “Good evening IIT, We’re gonnna play some blues tonight”.They played blues-like Rock n Roll but didnt quite fit to the Livewire theme for Karnivool or Metal to expect.They were damn good if only i was to consider their Genre of Blues all the more to that effect.They played a song called “Obama” with a kind of a role-play going on the stage between the vocalist(The same man is the bassist) and Barrack Obama.I’ve pen-down some of these reflective words of this song played in their setlist,”When Mr.President came to Taj all went to him- you know what i said to him?, “Mr. President – You stole my girlfriend !!!” -This was very entertaining mostly to all girls. Now this becomes even more interesting from here onwards as they take to their next song “Shagging My Dog” preluding it with a line “You may want to keep your pets away”..Aha.I must say this was an OK-to-be kinda song.But the fun and rock ‘n’ roll-laden blues nature did
not end..as there was “Sex Minutes Left”(Another comical way how the vocalist put this across) to play their last song

“Kamasutra”.They used a kind of mouth organ for this song.She said Kamasutra is on my mind..Kamasutra all the time…..in the middle of the night” and people were seen foot tapping and thumping and even chanting on as Go-go-go- Kamasutra”.And with this they end the semi-final competition by a loud “Thank You & Good Night”.They had some hillarious song-titles and lyrical lines with spontaneous gimmicks that were put across, was too much of a fun-da-me(n)tal factor for people into the various classical sub-genres of Metal to ponder.They were decently well for their kind and sounded very professional. Nevertheless, They didnt win the competition but got some equivalent appreciation and applause from the crowd.

Everything was running as per the schedule when talked about the timeline with the Organizers (Praful, Ketav and Ashay – Students of the IIT Bombay).The semi’s competition came to an end at about 8.29 PM in the night. Results were hurriedly announced soon after the judges were called-up on the stage to do the honors. Shawn Pereira (The Echoes) , Reinhart Dias (Blakc), Roop thomas (Blakc), Claver Menezes (Zedde) were among the judges for the Livewire semi-final competition. Shawn Pereira revealed the name of the winners and points gained by the respective winners of this event.
The winners of the GBOB-Livewire (Semi-Finals) are:
TURNKEY- ( Seeking 3rd Place with 69 Points out of 100)
VERSES – (2nd Place with 71 Points out of 100)
HOODWINK CIRCLE – (1st Place with 80 Points out of 100)

The excitement of the Livewire does not end here – as all slowly and steadily leave the venue in the hope of seeing “Karnivool” live in India for the first time and also the afforementioned winners battling to claim the GBOB-Livewire Winners title (Grand Finale) – which was held on the day just after this.

So i bring back the exciting question i asked at the very start of this gig report,
What all for the winners of GBOB-Livewire?, And to answer that:

1) The winners of Livewire would be India’s official and only entry into GBOB-worldwide. The GBOB-worldwide would be happening in June 2012. The travel and hospitality of the selected band would be borne by GBOB and Mood Indigo.
2) The top 3 winners of Livewire would get to perform at all the Hard Rock Cafe’s across India.
3) The winning band would get to record their debut album in collaboration with a reputed recording studio.
4) The top 3 bands would get to open for Karnivool.
5) All the above prizes are apart from the INR 70,000 cash prizes and INR 1.1 lac Furtados vouchers for the winners.

~ This is surely Fantabulous as far as “rewards and recognition” is concerned for these hardworking semi-professional bands who have made it this far!.METALBASE CREW WISHES THEM ALL THE BEST IN VENTURING THE FINAL and FOR THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF THE BANDS at the GBOB WORLD FINALS ~

Written By ~ Samir(Sam) Alvares - MBCR
(City Reporter for Gigs @ Metalbase)

Click HERE to visit the GBOB INDIA Profile