A word of advice to all music lovers living in and around Pune and Bangalore – do NOT miss Bacardi NH7 Weekender in your city. I just witnessed the Delhi edition of this festival and I can’t stop singing its praises. Meticulously planned and extremely well executed (kudos to “Only Much Louder”), Bacardi NH7 Weekender was one of the finest music festivals Delhi-NCR has ever witnessed. It was massively promoted on Facebook, where a lot of useful information was published for the concert-goer. Things such as, a descriptive map of the venue, easily readable directions to the venue, shuttle service to and from the venue, Homesafe drivers, and forty ticketing counters, made the experience a lot less cumbersome. Dog lovers could bring along their pets by registering with the organizers beforehand. Though I don’t understand why anyone would want to torture his/her dog with the high decibel levels at a concert. Don’t know what that was all about.
Anyway, the “happiest” (as advertised) music festival kicked off on Saturday, 13th October, 2012. I had been down with fever for the past three days but I just couldn’t resist experiencing an event of this magnitude. I somehow managed to reach Buddh International Circuit in Noida. With a venue map in one hand, and a beverage which helped me forget that I had fever, in the other, I headed straight to the Bacardi Black Rock Arena where Zero was rocking out with “Mariachi”. They went on to play most of their popular stuff, ending their set with PSP 12”. Having seen them live after three long years, I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the festivities. After watching Zero’s set, I decided to wander around the venue a bit. A lot of colourful hats, wigs, eye gear, foam devil horns and other fun music festival gear and accessories were made available at the venue, and people seemed to be enjoying them a lot. Eristoff Wolves Den was the next stage that I landed up at. Basic Love of Things or B.L.O.T, had some mad 3D visuals accompanying their set, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Anoushka Shankar, Shaa’ir + Func and Kaiserdisco were some of the other artists that I managed to check out while Parikrama was simultaneously unleashed at the Bacardi Black Rock Arena. All of them kicked major ass! By the end of the night, I was extremely “happy” and couldn’t wait for Sunday. Drinking quite a few of those beverages had made me forget all about my fever (and a lot of other things too). With a dream line-up, the first day of Bacardi NH7 Weekender was a huge success and yet, there was a lot to look forward to.
Sunday’s line-up included artists like Swarathma, Soulmate, Blackstrat Blues, Scribe, Bhayanak Maut and Indian Ocean, among others. I wish I could be omnipresent and listen to their entire sets, but alas, I am merely a mortal man. Anyway, I managed my time and saw each of those bands briefly before it was time for Dave Mustaine and friends to take stage and blow away the Indian audience for the second time (they performed in India last in 2008), with some pure, old school thrash metal. They busted out some classics like Symphony of Destruction and A Tout le Monde. Celebrating twenty years of its existence, they played the album, “Countdown to Extinction”, in its entirety and ended with a tight rendition of Holy Wars. Delhi “Matalheads” were out in full force and enjoyed the thrash metallers to the hilt. I spotted a few, wearing shirts with slogans like “Pure Punjabi” written on them (Yes, at a Megadeth concert). I pray for their souls. Besides that, it was a weekend well spent. Just the kind of break, a B-schooler like me needs.
