Independence Rock XXII - Day 1

The Following events takes place on the First day of Independence Rock XXII
All these Events happen in Real-Time.... :D
Date: 8th Sept

Time: 7.20 am
Place: In my bed.
Mood: Where the fuck is Verma!


Just got out of my bed n was really excited to go to attend my 5th or maybe 6th I-Rock, and driving down to mUmbai on my Bullet added more to the excitement. After lots of persuasion i managed to make Verma agree on driving to mumbai instead of sitting in Bus for 3 hrs.


Time: 8.20 am
Place: Still Pune, @ my home
Mood: Looks like verma went to mumbai alone

Still no sign of where is Verma. Called him up 30 mins back, he said he is on the way.After 10 mins, he Man arrives. Time for some breakfast

Time: 9.30 am
Mood: All set, Lets go baby!

Distance on Speedometer: 2500
Breakfast done, calls made to home, checked everything. Common baby, what are we waiting for.... Time to rock.. IRock, here we come..



Time: 11.20 am
Place: Lonavala
Mood: Do we stop for some .......

Reached a place in lonavala, had some coffee and sutta's, our first stop since we started from Pune. Drove constantly at 60kmph. the road was gud and traffic was less. I didnt wanna ride fast as i had just completed the running

Time: 11.40 am
Place: Lonavala
Mood: Lets go!

Started off from Lonavala after our stopover and the next stop we had planned was Vashi. Took the way from Khanadala ghats, the view was beautiful, and we drove on to the Expressway till the Khopoli Exit. I was a bit scared on driving on Expressway as the cars drive at 100+ but luckily the distance from Khanadala to Khopoli was jst 5 kms.:D

The road from Khopoli was bad, broken roads with big holes here and there.

Time: around 12.20-12.40 pm
Place: looks like road JNPT
Mood: We are lost!

haha. we came to a junction where it said. Mumbai , JNPT (straight), Panvel By-pass ( right), Goa ( Left), so but obvious, we took the straight road ahead. Driving about 20 Kms, all we could see was Trailers and lots of Trailer trucks on either side of the road.. Man are we going the right way???
We stopped at the Toll-Plaza and asked for directions. He said, "straight up u'll hit JNPT and the sea, u have to go back and there is a diversion that goes to Mumbai...". 'Diversion, what diversion, there was no sign of such a road' . Anyways we went as per his directions and saw a broken road and That was the DIVERSION he talked bout.
After driving on the horrible broken bumpy road, we reached the so called Marine drive of Navi Mumbai - The Palmbeach Road. Finally we made it to navi mumbai at


Time: 1-1.20 pm
Mood: We are in Mumbai
Place: SaiKala.

Met kasi n other gang there and took some rest. We made it to mumbai in around 4 hours and still no sign of stress on me. maybe verma might hv been tired, but we are here to see IRock, watch Parikrama perform...woo - hoo :)

Time: 3pm
Mood: Excited

We prepared our missles and left for the Hard Rock Cafe @ Worli


Time: 4pm
Mood: Fucking Traffic... I'll kill someone under my bullet
Place: Somewhere lost in mumbai

Time: 4.30pm
Mood: Yey!!! Hard Rock Cafe Baby
Place: Hard Rock Cafe


Finally we reached Hard Rock Cafe. Wow!!! this place looks awesome, with all the original Guitars, drum rolls etc hanging, man this place rocks!!! There were guitars of Rolling stones, Led Zep, etc etc hanging on the walls, this place has been decorated beautifully. One hell of a place. but one hell of an expensive place
The cheese sandwich tat i ordered costed 275 bucks.. but still i guess its worth going there esp when there are live bands and good rocking music




Time: 5pm
Mood: Calmed
Place: Hard Rock Cafe

Here comes our partner in crime.. satbir singh from Punjab :P...and look at his Handlebar Moustaches :D
We finished our burgers and drinks and checked out the Hardrock Shop, but alas coudnt buy anything as we had no place to carry that stuff.

Time: 5.30pm
Mood: Rocking
Place: Leaving Hardrock Cafe

On our way to Andheri, tats the place where IRock is happening baby.. Yeah!

Time:6.30pm
Mood: Fucking Traffic... I'll kill someone under my bullet
Place: Somewhere in Andheri


Time: 6.45pm
Mood: Phew!! Finally
Place: Chirakoot Grounds, Andheri


Time: 7.00pm
Mood: Abe jaldi peeo saalo, we are missing the fuckin IRock
Place: Fun Republic

Those bugger, Atul n Satti went off to have some beers before they went in. and bloody some band was playing "Killing in the Name by RATM" :(
I was mad at them but what to do, so accompanied them to Fun Republic

Time: 7.30pm
Mood: Yeah!
Place: You know where

We r finally in the ground, and some band called 'Half Step Down' was playing originals. Not that great but luckily it was over soon.

Then came 'Ceasers Palace'. Their singer....was fucking awesome. Awesome voice he had and they played 2 covers (dont remember) but they made crowd rocking. Their originals werent bad either but hearing it for the first time, i dont remember any of it now.

Then came 'Scribe'. I remember one song that they played. It was called 'No body takes picture of the drummer' :D. They were noise machines. Dont know what they were singing, what they were playing, all looked crap to me and i am sure to Satti n Atul too. But the crowd was loving it and it was evident from the big Mosh-pit that was happening in the front.
Unfortunalety Scribe was the winner to this year's IRock. Another Heavy metal band won as it has been happening since all these years..
No one appreciates good old Classic Rock ny more :(

Time: 9.10 pm
Mood: Where the fuck is Parikrama


And here they come - The Gods of Indian Rock.
Its always exciting to see Parikrama perform. This must have been my 3rd or 4th concert where i get to see Parikrama, after all tats y i came all the way from Pune.
They started with - some originals like Vaporize, Load Up, Rhythm and Blues.
Their voilist Imran was fucking awesome, he was jamming with Soham and he was fucking fast on his voilin... it was simply mind blowing

Then came an Iron Maiden Cover... coz they opened up for Iron Maiden in UK.
But i was thinking are they gonna sing 'But it rained' and before i could end my thoughts , they started off with it. The whole unruly crowd was chanting that song as if i dont know what has mesmerized them. Gone was the mosh-pit and everythin was organized as it was before Scribe :P
Out came our missile and off were we in heaven ;)

Then was a suprise instrumental done by Imran (mostly) called 'Open Skies'
If you havent heard it before, here is a you tube link they played in UK



and here is one recored by me . Sorry for the shaky video... i was rocking baby :)



Finally they played AC/DC - Highway to Hells and the crowd was back in the mosh-pit mood... but alas all gud things come to end and it was 10pm. The fucking Mumbai police and its rule of no shows after 10. crap them

Time to head back to Vashi after dinner.

Time : 2.30am
Place: Vashi
Mood: Sleepy


Time to sleep guys. we have to be at IRock again and watch the 'Dinosaurs of Rock'.
Gudnite
and Rock on!