Anil Ganti

The clouds of joblessness and boredom tend to loom over the head of every student after they’re done with their exams. Having finished my exams a few days ago, the hitherto anticipated ‘freedom’ was translating to be a  nightmare with a dysfunctional PC and a non existent social life . So the news of a gig at a place not far from where I live came as a breather for an otherwise boring day. The bands to be playing were relatively unknown and the genre to be played was also not something I’d stomach easily. But boredom conquered lack of musical tolerance and me and a friend turned up at the venue at the scheduled time.

Every gig I’ve been to, however large scale it may be, HAS to start well after the scheduled time. The time we got to the place, the only activity going on at that point of time was the soundcheck. As we watched the drum kit still being set up, we took the cue and exited the place. An hour of frantic phone calls  and randomly picking on  strangers and laughing, the gig showed some signs of life. The actual music started a good one and an half hour after our arrival.

Exasperated from the endless wait, we entered the small improvised arena with the amps blazing right next to our ears. The first band to play was something reminiscent of a lamb of god, mercyful fate and emperor orgy. The ear splitting cacophony continued for some time before finally ending our misery. The second band’s sound was abysmal, which prompted us to exit the main stage area towards the exit. Then begin our nefarious activities, at the end of which, everyone was largely indifferent to the noise around us.

The second attempt to try to make sense of the second band was also futile and we exited the stage for a second time to hit the bar. Here was where we relaised that the recession had got the better of us and we could cough up enough only for one glass of highly diluted vodka which had to be shared by three people.  The saving grace for the day was the random bumping into an old school friend, who practically spihoned a beer into my relatively empty tummy(I dont like drinking on an empty stomach).

The remainder of the gig was spent headbanging to decently covered ACDC tracks, laughing randomly at each other and prancing about aimlessly. I returned home with a T-shirt that stank heavily of tobacco, nice red puffy eyes, breath reeking of spirit and a creepy looking smile which I somehow could not ditch till an hour after I got home.