The missing chords

Bengaluru is saturated with sobriquets — ‘Garden City’ or ‘Garbage City’, ‘IT hub and ‘Startup Capital’. It was also once known as the ‘Mecca of Metal’ in India and the ‘Rock and Metal Capital’ of India. Big names such as ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Megadeath’, ‘Sepultura’, ‘Lamb of God’, ‘Lacuna Coil’ and ‘Metallica’ made waves when they came here and people took to metal as an attitude.

The concert by ‘Iron Maiden’ in 2008 brought this city on the international ‘metal’ map. Youngsters took the growling way seriously than expected and tickets, with a fairly low entertainment tax, sold like hot cakes. That apart, artistes from other genres like Bryan Adams, Enrique Iglesias, Ian Anderson and others too had performed in front of an admiring audience here. However, the number of international artistes, apart from EDM, coming here has considerably declined over the past few years.

There is a shift in the scene. The reasons vary — from the market to the support for it.  Arpan Peter from ‘Overture’, a company which handles concert production, artist management and curates musical acts, talks about it from a purely economical perspective. “Though the entertainment tax is low, which is 10 percent, it is better than most cities; tickets and venues are priced higher.

The dollar rate is quite high and there are a number of venues which are far off and nobody wants to travel in the chaotic traffic..” However, he doesn’t forget to add that metal and rock and roll has a completely loyal crowd and bands will continue to tour rather than coming to perform a gig. “Tours will become popular, where rather than having one show with 10, 000 fans, four shows will see 12,000 fans which works better financially for promoters as well. Also, other genres do not have a dedicated audience like metal and rock. The support is completely seasonal and shows will depend on the artistes coming in as every genre has its own audience, own economy and own market.”

Sandesh Shenoy of Cyclopean Eye productions and one of the organisers of ‘Trendslaughter Festival’, says that though metal fans will always be metal fans, the ‘floating crowd’ of metal today is a problem. “College-goers  aren’t exposed to that much of international music the way they are exposed to EDM. Funding can also pose a threat as parties have to take care of the entire process — from arranging the venue to looking after the sound and light.

Many times, there is also no support from local authorities when we want to get in an international band and no party wants to invest a lot and lose money.” He also agrees that other genres like pop don’t garner the dedicated audience that metal does. “Pop music completely depends on the flavour of the moment. Once the artiste has played in the City, people tend to shift and follow another one. I also feel that the reign of the ‘real pop’, which is the 80s pop is over and the legends who were to be established have been established.”

However, Salman Syed, the man behind the metal festival ‘Bangalore Open Air’ says that at least six international acts come to Bengaluru every year, despite the challenges organisers and festivals face in terms of money. “Support from local authorities is necessary now. The bureaucracy is tight. One also has to be smart when one approaches sponsors but otherwise I think Bengaluru still stands as the culture capital of metal in India.” John Thomas from ‘MotherJane’ describes the reduction in international acts in the City only as a form ‘recession’ or ‘a long hiatus’. He says, “The independent music scene was overstated and marketed to a level where it was unwanted. The scene lacked in content and quality. There was a decline in revenue and eventually, sponsors backed out. But I feel that this is just a temporary period and feel that the metal scene will come back to life again.” 

Sandesh says that the underground metal scene will continue to thrive and Salman looks at a healthy future for metal with loyal fans. “We are already planning for the next ‘Bangalore Open Air’ concerts and we wouldn’t be, if we felt that there was a crisis in the City.”