SEPULTURA - Shilllong, India- 31/11/07

Now, I haven't been much of a Sepultura fan post-Cavalera era but that doesn't stop any self-respected rocker from watching them

LIVE, especially when you know they are performing around 100kms by the neighbourhood!!!

Who gives a shit about whether the Cavalera brothers are in the present line-up or not??Fuhgetbout Max, Derrick Green is here to

stay & Sepultura will go places with him.

Me & a guy I befriended on Orkut reach the venue after 4 hours of ass-banging journey & find it 2 b totally empty!!! A slight

confusion is actually going on about the timings of the gig....We encounter a guy 4m the Sepu mgt....An excerpt below:-

Me:-Excuse me, sir!

He:-Yeah!!

Me:-Are you from the organising side?

He:-No, I am from Sepultura!!!

Me:-(Surprised)But you aren't in the band, are you?

He:-No(laughs), I am from the Sepultura management, bro! So, where are you from?

We:-Guwahati

He:-So, how's like the publicity been there?

Me:-Almost nil!!

He:-(Shocked)Are you sure?Coz we've been told about huge posters donning each & every place near Shillong

Me:-You've been duped, man!!Publicity in Ghy. has been minuscule. A lot of guys thought we were jokin about the gig here. Its onlyin here that u find posters almost everywhere.

The guy with me:-When will the show start?

He:-A lil' confusion is goin here. Its supposed to start at 5:30 but the police wants it to be over by 6:00. We are tryin our best...Let'ssee!!

The guy with me:-Let's hope for the best!!

He:-BTW, did the channels publicise it?

Me:-Yes, VH1 did it.

He:-Is it local or its like one VH1 for the whole country?

Me:-No only 1 all over the whole nation.

He:-How many ppl do u think's gonna turn up??

Us:-BLEH!!!

He:-You know what? Thanks for comin man & Fuck those Bastards(points to a few policemen).

We won't start before evening(widelygrins)

Me:-Yeah man! Rock On & thanx for comin down here man.

He:-Its always our pleasure man. Stay true bro.

(Parts)

So we are here at the venue. Only 2 of us & around 400 fuckin khakiwallahs. You could sense trouble here, especially after the "mild" lathicharge during the Eric MArtin show....Anyways, time to get a few puffs.........

At last some action on the stage. Project Blend Limited (local band) have the sweet honour of opening for thrash metal titans Sepultura......You can just imagine how big this stage can be for an up & coming band & they sure didn't dissapoint the tag of an opening act. They are doin their soundcheck & playin some random parts. By that time the crowd swells from 2 to an amazing 10!!

After soundcheck we keep waiting & notice some more guys coming in. I notice the Lucid Recess(Ghy band) brothers Amitabh & Sidharth get in. We say hi & get the best place i.e. the front row against the barricades! Its around 4:45 now & PBL are finally readyto begin!!

PHEW... Gotta say its an awesome band & is tight as hell. They breeze through their setlist which is almost all OCs (APPLAUSE!!). I particularly liked "The Last Idol" & a few others which I totally forgot...They also covered L.O.G.'s 'Laid To Rest' & Death's 'Lack Of Comprehension'......A few locals coined this heady mix of N.W.O.A.H.M. & techinical-prog death metal as "METAL KHASI"....LOL!! Theyalso introduce their new drummer Jerry(fantastic drummer BTW).

Crowd count now is about 2500 & most of us cant help but wonder & at times loudly murmur about the poor publicity of theevent....Anyways, the crowd that's present totally laps up what PBL has to offer & wants more but the band leaves the stage for the BIGguys.

A break of around half an haour ensues & Hatebreed's playing at the P.A. system. Its almost 6 pm now & there's no sign of crowd trouble & the crowd's now touching almost 10,000...Its 6:05 now & almost dark here....The lights are glowing all in their thousandwatt glory(Total Pawnage here)...The Sepu. technicians are checking out the sound & the crowd's growin by the moment. Itstouched almost 17,000 now!! The band finally, comes onto the stage amid maddening roars & claps....

Total METCHUL momentman...I tell you!!! The very satrting riffs of Andreas Kisser starts off a headbanging frenzy & the band makes sure there's no respite.

In fact, the band just raises the bar a few notches higher with every song. The band mostly do a complete revisit of their old-agedays & we just loooove it that way... Crazy moshpits ensues during Refuse/Resist. Dante XXI is also represented during theirset... D'UH(coz Dante XXI is what they are supposed to promote)!!!

Their setlist, if I remember well is as follows (in no particular order):

-Biotech,Beneath the remains ,Territory,Mass hypnosis,Refuse/resist,Troops of doom,Bullet the blue sky ,Sepulnation, Convicted in life & Roots.....

They sign off with 'Roots' & the crowd's repeated chanting of 'ONCE MORE' goes unheard. The band thanks the crowd in random English & Brazilian & you can make out that they really mean it.....

Oh & Derrick does the Nameste to perfection..... Just hope that the show was a bit longer but 1 hour & 15 mins of crazy headbanging was well worth the pain I took by travelling in rickety Tata Sumos & potholed highways. BTW i also got clicked with Derrick....lol!!!

For a day Shillong became SEPULNATION!!!

THANK YOU Sepultura for stopping by & showing us some tough love!!!!\m/\m/

Sepultura now officially owns yours as well as mine ass\m/\m/

N.B.:- Have been hearing a lot of guys saying that the show registered an attendance of about 2500 people only.....Frankly speakin, you could hardly make out the number of people from the front row, but I surely felt it was more than that!!!

@READERSThere's a correction:-Crowd count was only 2500 during the show but as I was standing in the front row, I coud hardly make out the actual number of persons at the back....Please pardon the inconvenience caused, if any!!!

Review and photos by Shayan.

Review taken from Verbal Diarrhoea.

INFO at http://www.sepultura.be/.