Classes XI and XII are the toughest for an average Indian science student as he is forced to give in to this phenomenon called Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). IITs are believed to be the top engineering chain of institutes of the country and are also the host of best college festivals across the country. Saarang is IIT-Madras’ cultural fest and is often tagged as the biggest college festival of South India. ‘Rock Concert’ is the name of the pro band event which is headlined by international artists every year. In the past we have witnessed huge acts like Opeth, Hammerfall, Skid Row, Pain Of Salvation and Vildhjarta giving tremendous performances. After having an incredible 2012 with Opeth, Kreator, Lamb Of God, Children Of Bodom, Korn, Megadeth, Slayer, Guns ‘N Roses, Gojira, Testament and Periphery (whew!), it was time for the British intellects, Anathema, to rock us.

The show started at six o’clock sharp as promised, which was pretty impressive because such events generally don’t start at time, and The Family Cheese took the stage.  The Family cheese was formed when these three musicians met at the Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music and from their performance one could say that the brainpower possessed by these three is massive. Their music takes in elements from all sorts of genres: Blues, Jazz, Progressive, Electronic and fuses them brilliantly to be of sheer awesomeness for the listener. The crowd interaction of the band was really good, apart from the excellent music they played. It was sad that many people hadn’t turned out by then. They surely missed out the beautiful melodies on ‘The Cheese’, an awesome cover of ‘Comfortably Numb’ and skilful teeth picking by Apurv. They did face a couple of glitches in the sound as Homi’s amp bared some kind of problem and the band had to stop songs in between their songs. Yet, their performance was quite impressive.

After the delightful solo of ‘Comfortably Numb’, The Family Cheese’s set was over and Heretic took the stage. A commendable thing about the Cochin based Alternative Metal band was that they took almost no time to set the stage. Heretic kick started their set with a powerful intro and created an energy among the people (comparatively more in number than The Family Cheese). With perfect amalgamation of melodious choruses and thrashy verses and bridges, they played a very impressive set. Although there wasn’t much interaction with the crowd, the band’s performance was powered by their sound, being exactly the same as their album.

Next up on stage the stoner/doom metal band from Bangalore, Bevar Sea. The band has been around for quite some time now, but I never got a chance to see them live and I was looking forward to their set especially after the release of their debut album. The band entered the stage and I was quite surprised to see Ganesh in short hair; for a second, I didn’t even recognize him. Bevar Sea got us to headband straight with their doomy and skull-pounding riffs. By then, the theatre had filled up with a huge crowd and with Nolan Lewis, Salman Uyed and Sandesh Shenoy amongst the audience, it was quite a high profile one. Ganesh introduced the band in a classic way saying, “We’re Bevar Sea and so are you!” (People from Bangalore would understand it!) The band continues to play their set with sublime guitars and effervescent vocals on ‘Universal Sleeper’ and ended their performance with the ecstatic ‘Abishtu’.

Anathema had arrived at the venue in white vans during ‘Universal Sleeper’ and there was a surge of excitement in the crowd suddenly. After the stage for Anathema was set, I could see Jamie Cavanagh taking pictures of the audience from one invisible corner of the stage and he was as thrilled to play as the crowd was to witness Anathema’s show. People were in a state of anticipation when Daniel Cavanagh appeared on the stage filling up the whole arena with deafening shouts. “Anathema” demanded the crowd and so they got it with the beautiful “Untouchable, Part I” and you could see couples holding hands and humming the melodies of the song. The stage was graced by the awesome duet by Vincent and Lee on “Untouchable, Part II”. Vincent had taken a small lesson in Tamil I believe as I could hear him using the words, “Nandri” (Thanks) and “Vanakkam” (Hello) constantly through their performance, which pleased the crowd very much. The band had kept a perfect balance between the emotions and the music and created an impeccable flow in their setlist. The crowd, after a few songs, started enchanting, “Hoo haa hoo haa” and I could see the astonished looks on the band’s face as Vincent came up to the mic and said, “I have never heard such a thing in my entire life”.

The set continued with more songs from ‘Weather Systems’ and ‘We’re Here Because We’re Here’ as there was a rush of various kinds of emotions through every person. The songs sounded exactly the same as they sounded on the album, which I believe is an achievement for any band, big or small. Danny was the one with most energy on the stage as he was constantly moving on and off the stage playing spine-chilling solos and harmonies; the extended solo on ‘The Beginning And The End’ was the most impressive. Finally the band entered into that part of the set where they would play their older songs. Sadly there was shortage of time and the band couldn’t play a couple of songs decided but nevertheless, it was an awesome performance and we look forward to seeing more of Anathema in upcoming years. Hats off to the leading engineers of the country on organizing the event!