NH7 Weekender Poona (2014): In Review

A millenial-indie-music-hipster-culture-affililiated-douchebag on her pertinent  critique of the fourth edition of the happiest music festival

The fifth edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender at Poona was something of a revelatory experience for me, since it was my first time just plain attending, instead of working on the festival, even if it had been at the seemingly minuscule rank of an intern or volunteer over the last two editions.

The most discernible difference in terms of the Weekender experience was the lack of the almost legendary ‘Weekender vibe’. Hailed as “the happiest music festival,” an attribute you’d usually find me whole heartedly concur with – the mundanity of stage hopping and prompt fetching of drinks at the bar in between sets – got to me by early Friday evening. The rush I’d experienced at Amanora (2012) catching acts in between sprinting from The Dewarists stage to the Production Room to the Bacardi Black Rock Arena and Box Office in six minutes flat while chugging a Red Bull and flashing that shiny walkie-talkie or even 2013’s Press Lane shifts with entertaining “My dog ate my band- I swear I was there yesterday- Please issue me a new one” stories and soaking up Dub Station’s infectious vivacity and crew chatter at the Production Room in between breaks; cannot be recreated for prosaic attendance at the festival.

View from the Top at the Happiest Music Festival

However, Weekender crew stories are best left for another time and place. Simply put, NH7 Weekender came across as no more distinguished than a multi-stage gig venue for me this year, or maybe familiarity does indeed breed contempt?

While I was very glad for the exclusion of Weekender staples such as Dualist Inquiry, Sky Rabbit, The Lightyears Explode and Blackstratblues on the bill this year – class acts that never fail to pack up a venue, but ones that Bombay - Poona folks have seen on umpteen occasions – Weekender newbies such as Nicholson, Curtain Blue, Nikhil D’Souza, Bombay Punk United, Voctronica, Tejas et al were refreshing additions. D’Souza was undoubtedly a highlight from Day 1 with his serenading acoustic melodies (Check out: “Storm Without a Sky”) while P-Man, Siddharth Basrur and Dinkar Dwivedi’s punk and alt-rock tribute to the scene (Bombay Punk United) on Day 3 deserves to be on the Bacardi Arena instead of the Tour Bus next year, to say the least.

Monica Dogra has been debuting her much anticipated solo work at the NH7 Weekenders and while the sounds are a lot more wholesome than the Shaai’r + Func electro beats, the stage persona stays true to her fiery self. A poor choice made in commencing her set with a rendition of retro classic “So Gaya Yeh Jahan” on Day 1, making her vocal limitations rather evident, the impromptu spoken word performance (“I tell you I’m tired. On the outside looking in, Ask if everything is pretty. Is my body so thin? And you work on that package, So the market sells out. And you wonder why you’re lonely when the music gets loud.”)  of yet to be released track “Pockets” and Grain (Gaurav Raina of Midival Punditz) coproduced “Good Thing” off upcoming debut album Spit redeemed Dogra. At the same stage, Roysten Abel’s new project: The Manganiyar Classroom - a choir of forty children of Manganiyar descent, if not as majestically enthralling as the Manganiyar Seduction, was as heart warming, and contends D’Souza for the Day 1 highlight spot.

Nikhil D'Souza

Prog metallers Skyharbor were hands down the Day 2 highlight, playing what’s being tipped as their ‘best set ever’, with their single “Evolution” and debuting "Patience" off Guiding Lights. While Delhi rockers Superfuzz’s closing their set on day 3 with a garage rendition of Tame Impala’s “Half Glass of Wine” with ace grunge style vocals from frontman Sanchal Malhar made me very thankful for their regrouping after six years, The Skavengers disappointed with an exhausted set list of Begum X and Delhi Sultanate’s same-old ‘real world stories’ and lacklustre live arrangement. Speaking of The Skavengers at the Micromax Mega Mix Stage, it seemed as though this year the organisers turned a blind eye to the concept of distinct genre-designated stages. Why a ska/ dub/ jazz band was programmed at the electronic / dance music stage (Yes, The Skavengers do pack in some groove, but so do half the artistes on the line-up, while the Micromax Mega Mix Stage is designated for downright electronica and dance music acts.) and not Copenhagen bass trio Alo Wala while Thermal And A Quarter was put at the MTS Discover Stage (replacing the erstwhile ‘Other Stage’) which is usually reserved for new acts or singer-songwriter sorts and Nikhil D’Souza at the folk/ fusion Dewarists Stage beats me. These are just a few instances of disorderly stage programming, not to mention the innumerable last minute scheduling changes which on speculation can only be attributed to OML losing their veteran management team of Girish ‘Bobby’ Talwar, Nikhil Udupa and Dhruv Jagasia.

Another bone to pick with OML, that many endorsed post the festival was the alleged commercialisation, specifically pertaining to the ‘Bollywoodisation’ of the self proclaimed “100% indie” festival. The inclusion of Bollywood composer Amit Trivedi and Mikey McCleary’s retro Hindi remixes act ‘The Bartender’ aggravated many true blue Weekender devotees. Let's be honest, Weekender is a household name now (In Poona at least. Hell, my neighbour auntie and Mom had a discussion on us kids going for that "Weekender bands wala festival".) that caters to the mass demographic of an urban audience ranging from teenagers to people in their thirties. And, what does the mass demographic like – or is well acquainted with, to put it better? Mainstream Bollywood. And, Amit Trivedi definitely represents the finest contemporary mainstream Bollywood music (We have Sneha Khanwalkar now as well.), which I appreciate OML's discretion for. I adore Trivedi's music, so I had no qualms with him playing the festival. Except when I was there in the crowd – and the vibe just didn't cut it. In a sea of people chanting along to "Pareshaan, Pareshaan", I wished my old school friends would have been able to do the same for a TAAQ or an F16's track. If it's the "indie" ethic, that OML puts forward as the festival's USP - then programming Trivedi was a swindle. With every passing edition of the festival and its increasingly popularity, the aforementioned Weekender devotees nag at the degeneration of the quality of the crowd and vibe at the festival, but unfortunately by having a Bollywood songs set - it validates it.

Apparently, debutant Trivedi packed in a larger audience than day 2 co-headliners American industrial metallers Fear Factory. While one reason could be the more accessible location of the Dewarists stage compared to the Bacardi Arena, with the Dewarists’ close proximity to the entry of the festival grounds – we know it wasn’t so.

Sandunes (Live) Ensemble (L-R): Jiver, Mink and Sandunes

Other homegrown sets, namely – Duke Nucleya, Skrat, Reggae Rajahs, The F16’s, Sandunes, The Ganesh Talkies and Ox7gen (Live) – delivered stellar performances consolidating their unequivocal scene favourite statuses. The Raghu Dixit Project, Indian Ocean and All India Bakchod – each with specially curated festival sets attracted the biggest crowd on day 3 – again, maybe owing to the locale of their respective stages (TRDP and Indian Ocean at the Dewarists' and AIB at the Other Stage). AIB’s musical comedy taking potshots at Anu Malik, Salman Khan and B’wood with an adaptation of Australian comedy band Axis of Awesome’s four chord medley in only three chords (A Minor, G and F) – charting out Hindi film songs from 60’s classics to today’s item songs, won many a humoured hearts. Raghu Dixit’s set was introduced by OML boss Vijay Nair’s earnest narrative of the effort taken by him and (Vishal) Dadlani in creating a launchpad for Dixit’s music career, who kicked off the vibrant stage production with “Parasiva” - the opening track off his 2013 release Jag Changa, with the Nritarutya dance crew in tow.

Indian Ocean’s Tandanu, inadvertently enjoyed festival-headliner status, as most attendees decided to give the seemingly unpopular Vaccines a miss, post the fusion rockers set due to the slightly coinciding schedule. Opening with Vishal Dadlani on “Behne Do” whose sole duties were translating the Hindi/ Urdu lyrics to English, followed by mostly percussion jamming and ‘taalmala’ – performing thekas (phrases) to the beat, the monotonous set gained momentum when Shubha Mudgal took to stage with her power-packed vocals – abandoning which, a few indie rock fans (including yours truly) proceeded towards the Bacardi Arena to catch the London four piece headlining act.

The Vaccines surprised with outstanding finesse live, not commensurating with the nondescript indie rock sound on their recordings. Colloquially put: The Vaccines are a lot tighter live than they sound on their releases, almost by default – if I might add. Commencing with a ho-hum “Blow It Up” from their 2011 release What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?, “Teenage Icon” and “Ghost Town” from 2012’s Come of Age got the crowd stomping, inducing ‘them Weekender goose bumps’ befitting a festival headlining set. Frontman Justin Young informing us that the Vaccines hadn’t gigged in a year, having spent it writing a record and would be debuting some of the new material at Poona – something he never thought would happen either – got us even more ecstatic. New tracks “Dream Lover” and “I Want You So Bad” sound very promising and as short as other biggest hits “Post Breakup Sex”, “Wetsuit”, “Melody Calling” and  “I Always Knew” that also featured on the set list.

Headliners The Vaccines at the Bacardi Arena

What struck me as odd at the Vaccines set though, was, how there weren’t any stage visuals as is the usual stage experience offered at Weekender, especially at the headlining Bacardi Arena. Nor was there a stage manager or any OML crew in sight, apart from the Vaccines’ own crew. Also, while OML boss Nair made introductory speeches at Goldspot, Amit Trivedi, Monica Dogra and Raghu Dixit – I might be mistaken but it seemingly came across as the organisers completely ignoring The Vaccines to only come around at the end and make the announcement for the fifth Weekender scheduled for Februrary at Shillong. Or maybe as Young sang in “All in White” midway his set: “I was always wrong, you all in white”.

Noteworthy mentions the writer missed: Dinosaur Pile up, Bhayanak Maut and Foreign Beggars but did hear that there were actual 3D dinosaur blow-ups at the English Alt Rockers’ set which was the dark horse amongst the host of international acts, and that ‘Scenster Public Enemy #1’ Trivedi’s set was where all the metalheads were after the Bombay metal outfit performed at the Bacardi Arena dissing American metallers Fear Factory. English hip-hop group Foreign Beggars were also heard asking the crowd if they’d heard of Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia to receive cheering roars and a bigger cheer when asking about themselves.

Moving on to other international acts, Songhoy Blues on Day 1 won everyone over with their soulful and honest groove. Last act for Day 1, Goldspot’s highly anticipated Weekender debut lived up to the hype despite the mush with frontman Siddharth Khosla’s maudlin, acoustic rendition of “Ae Mere Pyaare Watan” and recital of stories behind family inspired songs “Evergreen Cassette” and “Resident Alien”.  “Rewind” and “Eena Meena Deeka” had the crowd chanting along and after the band succumbed to popular demand to play “Friday”, everyone in the front rows seemingly ‘lost their shit’.

Songhoy Blues at the Dewarists Stage

Motopony on Day 2 whose evocative acoustic track “Euphoria” was used for the festival’s 2013 teaser played a set as poignant, garnering almost as large a crowd as Trivedi’s did later in the day making them the Day 2 international highlight. At the MTS Discover Stage, British singer-songwriter Luke Sital-Singh brought some melancholy to the happiest music festival with his “sad songs” (his words, not mine!) even asking us mid set: “Still happy? I guess I’m not doing it right.” Rolling Stone Editor Lalitha’s recommended and Sital-Singh’s most popular hit, “Bottled Up Tight” and the “more angry then sad” track “21st Century Heartbeat” made us question if we’ve been too numbed down by today’s music to actually enjoy organic melodies and raw vocal power of the likes of Sital-Singh. However, the hotly tipped singer did play “one happy song” (“I got married last year. Figured that if there was any good time to write a happy song, this was it,” he added.)  “Greatest Lovers” before closing with “Nothing Stays the Same”.

Luke Sital-Singh and his Melancholy

On Day 3, Alo Wala’s set at the Red Bull Tour Bus definitely had the most fun vibes. With the infectious groove of dancehall track “City boy”, sampling of Nucleya beats and another “Eena Meena Deeka” cover (inspired from Goldspot’s set from the day before), rapper Shivani Ahlowalia’s distinct voice seamlessly fleshes out the global bass beats of the Copenhagen trio.

Now to the other non-music observations made (Standard Weekender fare):

Girls in crop tops

Girls with head bands

Girls with dream catcher hair accessories

Girl losing her boyfriend –scampering around, yelling: “Have you seen my boyfriend?”

People losing their phones, wallets and friends

Drunk people losing their phones, wallets and friends

People losing their shit

Drunk people losing their shit (that’s another ballgame)

People losing their shit more when the drone cam came around

Metalheads losing their shit to Nucleya

Metalheads denying losing their shit to Nucleya

Girls stalking Rohan Joshi around the festival grounds for selfies

Girls stalking Rohan Joshi around the festival grounds post taking selfies 
                                                                      Annoying dude with selfie stick

                                                                      East India Comedy (EIC) watching All India Bakchod

                                                                      Sandunes, Su Real and Jiver eating on the lawns at                                                                             the food stall area a metre away from EIC.

                                                                      Yeah, I think I'm done.