An Evening With Slain: HRC Hyderabad

Last evening found me at the Hard Rock Cafe, Hyderabad out for a late evening of fun. When I got there I did not expect to find a live gig slated for performance. The band was Bangalore-based Slain and you can find more about them here.

I ordered my customary evening drink when I am at a low-mid budget place – Vodka with soda and sprite (yeah I know, but except for the Dublin at the ITC Kakatiya and the Seasons Bar at the Taj Krishna, the rest of the places serve absolute swill in the name of single malt, I mean I would not even serve house guests some of the stuff that they carry on their shelves) together with an order of plain olives and the HRC bruschetta.

The bartender excitedly gave me a rundown about Slain and their opening for Maiden last year in Bangalore and I was like – yeah, ok we may have a show here. First track started off at 9.30 PM, accompanied by the yells and catcalls of the (under-the -circumstances) “mosh pit” crowd – a few dozen teeangers, some of whom were of indeterminate sex (and no, I was not drunk by then!!)

My impressions: Terrific fucking bass – I could not hear the hear it at first and then I sent a message across to the console to have them check the audio. The bassist, Naresh I think his name was, rocked – both on Slain’s own compositions and on the covers (usual Bon Jovi, couple of Metallica and some other group I cannot remember). Loved the bass on Metallica’s Enter Sandman (that has now got to be among the most ass-whipped song for today’s metal bands, toppling GnR’s Sweet Child o’ Mine

). Anyways, not to digress, tight bass – I loved it.

Vocals: Bad. Come on man, you are influenced by several metal leads and trying to play catch up. And please do not try (what sounded to me like) a Dee Snyder-Bruce Dickenson combo, it failed to impress.

Percussion: I liked the solo bit with the keyboards accompanying it (well, admittedly, it was a very very pale version of Portnoy-Rudess, but wtf some musicians having fun, am only to happy to play along), which gave me an opportunity to appreciate the drummer. My sole gripe was on the main tracks, he was playing a laid out structure from the album track. Come on guys, that’s the whole fucking point of a live gig, you are not bound by studio rules or time-to-track and all that shit. Improv a little, explore a bit – do a double hand ride or a cymbal ride or experiment a bit more with the time signatures – don’t just stick with a thrash version of the ādi tālam or staccatto beats that only sound good when Lar Ulrich or Tico Torres play them.

Leads: Twin leads and both quite decent. I briefly chatted with one of the leads, Manek at half time and asked him if they would consider playing Dream Theater (after all they had the line up – leads, bass, keyboard and percussion) but he was like hmmm, lotta effort man, we play the usual covers y’know. Hmm, Ok. Just see what I said to the drummer – “improv man, improv on a live gig. You have all licence.”

Keyboard: Not much to say, kept tinkling in the background and I could only hear one full piece on the accompaniment with the drum solo.

All in all, a performance garnering five and a half to six points (including a point and three quarters for onstage energy), on a ten scale. Slain are releasing a debut album sometime in August. Decent talent but a long way to go.

Cheers
S