Scream for me Bangalore! ; Scream for me Bangalore!!!!! went Bruce. And scream and holler we so did. And who wouldn't?? Maiden, live, in the flesh, and you, right there, 20m from them, what a fuckin day!!!!!!!
Lights go out, Adrian, Dave, Janick and Steve rush out to the front, Nicko gets on his seat, and out of fuckin nowhere, Bruce, Bruce friggin jumps over the kit to come onstage(6 ft long jump) and completes the lineup. Crowd goes hysterical, what do ya expect?? Maiden, right there, dream come true man!!! Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some of 'em couldn't believe it, hands on their heads, & for the rest of us (like me) unable to control ourselves, we screamed ourselves hoarse. What happened in the next 2 hours is a phenomenon which cant be explained. For words can't do justice to elaborate what happened at the grounds on tht saturday night. A different world we were taken to indeed.
Maiden's ability to connect with us was truly a gift. From dedicating Wrathchild to Leon Ireland to getting the whole crowd to sing Fear Of The Dark it was an experience to be lived in, not something you'll get watching the DVD or by listening to 'em on your player or pod. You had to be there you faggets!!!!! See 'em live and you'll know WTF i'm talkin about. 'coz LIVE is where Maiden is, where Eddie is!!!!
A professional act in every sense, playing and performing. And yes, they pulled out every trick in the bag, nothin toned down or held back, same set, same energy, just like the maiden you've seen on the vids and concerts abroad. These Lads make their songs come alive on stage. Its some surreal Adrenaline Rush Phenomenon!!!! By the time the Tank with Eddie was on-stage the crowd had already gone bonkers (it was after Fear of The Dark you see) And when Eddie actually walked on stage in his matter o life an death military uniform, we were bowled over. Song of The Night - The Trooper, most of it on part of Bruce's crazy antics during this number. Wavin the Union Jack, tappin it on Adrian's head (very amusing), the possessed sprinting, climbin all the way up the railing(47 feet), to swivelling the the foglight over all of us, yeah, that was some performance, the energy the band exudes from this one song will get you scramming, singing, humming, jumping and headbanging all at once. Couple That with Wrathchild, Fear Of The Dark, Number Of The Beast, Run To to The Hills and a few more & you've got yourself 2 Hours of adrenalin pumping riffing and vocals. Eddie did show up, first in his tank (ya, a tank), and later during the encore in his military uniform, shooting at us with his gun. An amazing character and apt mascot for maiden, master eddie. His tank was damn amazing!!!! Had its barrel right on my face. Killer man, killer!!! Wish it had blown me to shreds.
And ya, a thing about maiden shows - you wont even know how sapped you are until after the show, they drained you thorughly. Some surreal Adrenalin Rush Phenomenon (ya, really!!!) those 2 hours were. That night i was a spent force, legs, hands, arms, feet, everywhere, agony. But who cares, certainly worth the strain!!!
Post concert, what a hangover moi was left with. Reality seemed boring and mundane. In a word, the journey back home was simply - shallow. Worries and fears that had crept in, were expulsed and laid to rest on the grounds that night. Never have i been so happy and relaxed. Those bastards'll have to bust their brains (like they have one) to pull me under again. I'm Livin' in a Dream!!!!!
Oh, for those of you wondering about the Set list, it was a mix old classics coupled with songs from their current album ( A Matter Of Life Of Death, you ibanovs!!!). Wish they'd played a few numbers more from their earlier albums. Still worth every fuckin second though. Cant wait for 'em to return. 17 months i think, muuhahahahaha!!!!....Maiden!!!! Maiden!!!! Maiden!!!!!!! Maiden!!!!!!
And for Those of you who didn't get IBANOVS, its an anagram of sorts, minus the S. Just read it back to front and you'll see. Just so you should know, its been borrowed, courtesy a Bong friend o mine, going by the name Of Kaushik, also referred to (though not with good intent) as Jhadoo(Broomstick). And looks like one too ;) No hard feelings with that last line i hope??
For a professional account of the happenings on the night of 17Th march,2007 follow the link below ::
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2007/mar/20sld1.htm
Monday, March 19, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Tom Hess :: The Eternal Fire
Yes Elda, it is a copy-paste, but its worth for the ideas suggested in the paras below. Besides tht, i'm too weighed down with assignments, tests and sheets to have the strength and time to post. A lot of people may second that. So until better days are here again, updates are likely to be seldom.
The Arty ::
Think back to the time when your interest in playing guitar was born. Remember the time when you got your first guitar and actually started playing it. For most of us, even when we were totally beginners, clueless about how to play anything, it somehow didn’t matter because we were just so excited about beginning our musical/guitar journey. I can remember the exact day I bought my first guitar (January 31, 1986). I was extremely excited about owning a guitar and banging around on it making all kinds of terrible noises at first.
That feeling most of us felt at the beginning of our guitar days is what I call “Fire” or “Inner Fire”. It is something like the first weeks and months of a new romantic relationship – very new and exciting and the desire to maintain that passion feeling is strong. But over time (weeks, months or years), that passion to play music weakens. Of course you still have at least some interest in playing and becoming a better musician, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.
What I hope to do here is help you to get back your fire (or if you still have it, I want to help you to never lose it). The most important thing you must do is recognize what the factors were that caused you to feel less motivated and excited about playing music. Over time, some players begin to feel inadequate in their ability to reach their goals. A more common factor for some is not really having clearly defined goals or a good strategy to reach them. Its important to remember long term goals are long term. As long as you work to move forward, you are progressing. If progress is slow, understand this is normal. Of course there are things you can do to dramatically speed this process up such as practice more, practice more efficiently and work with a really good teacher that can show you how to do improve faster.) Other people become too focused on getting better and lose sight of why they started playing (to play and/or create music they love!). Keep reminding yourself of why you wanted to be a musician in the first place. Besides simply thinking about your early playing experiences, go back to your roots and listen to the same CDs (or cassettes or LPs (if you are old enough to have any of those). Listening to my earliest influences always reminds me of my early music days and I just can’t help to feel that eager beginner feeling again.
I’ve mentioned some of these next few points before in a previous article, but it’s worth mentioning again here.
Find out what truly inspires you to want to play music, write music, jam with your friends, etc. Whatever it is for you, go there and marinate in that inspiration. Get your mind in that place and focus on it. Many classical composers (and other serious artists) go to artist colonies for weeks or months at a time. For them being in a beautiful environment with serious artists of all kinds is extremely inspiring and a great place to write music, practice, reflect among other things. Personally, I like to travel to Europe in the summer and do most of my serious composing there. There is a house I stay in overlooking a valley with large trees and beautiful sunsets. It is very inspiring and I always do my best creating there. Your inspiration may be musical (listening to some great players, bands or songs. It may be going to concerts. It may be a set of things that are totally nonmusical (like a special location or being around special people, etc.). You must find whatever it is and go there, you might be surprised at how fast you feel that burning desire to really play more, write more, to be more.
Never ever compare yourself to other musicians! If you sit around and think about how much better of a player you are compared to your friends, this will probably only lead you to contentment and will steal away your drive and fire to improve. If you think about how much your friend (or any other musician) is better musically compared to you, this often leads to feelings of dissolution about your progress and your goals, which also can lead to a lack of motivation and fire.
When you began playing guitar, how good would you have to be in order to be happy with your playing? And where are you now? When I was starting out, I thought if I could play Iron Maiden or Metallica songs, I would be happy for rest of my musical life! Of course the time came when I could play all those songs, but I didn’t feel as happy as I thought I would when I first made my goal. That is because, before I even reached that goal, I had already set new goals. These new goals were good for my progress, but I made the mistake of never really appreciating and enjoying the success of reaching my earlier goals. I robbed myself of the pleasure of feeling happy about my hard work paying off. Of course by now I have learned that lesson and do thoroughly enjoy each new goal that is reached. It is my hope you will learn that lesson now and not after several more years of playing guitar.
Tom Hess is a professional virtuoso guitarist and teacher. He has toured in many countries through out the world. To find out more check out the official Tom Hess web site.
The Arty ::
Think back to the time when your interest in playing guitar was born. Remember the time when you got your first guitar and actually started playing it. For most of us, even when we were totally beginners, clueless about how to play anything, it somehow didn’t matter because we were just so excited about beginning our musical/guitar journey. I can remember the exact day I bought my first guitar (January 31, 1986). I was extremely excited about owning a guitar and banging around on it making all kinds of terrible noises at first.
That feeling most of us felt at the beginning of our guitar days is what I call “Fire” or “Inner Fire”. It is something like the first weeks and months of a new romantic relationship – very new and exciting and the desire to maintain that passion feeling is strong. But over time (weeks, months or years), that passion to play music weakens. Of course you still have at least some interest in playing and becoming a better musician, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.
What I hope to do here is help you to get back your fire (or if you still have it, I want to help you to never lose it). The most important thing you must do is recognize what the factors were that caused you to feel less motivated and excited about playing music. Over time, some players begin to feel inadequate in their ability to reach their goals. A more common factor for some is not really having clearly defined goals or a good strategy to reach them. Its important to remember long term goals are long term. As long as you work to move forward, you are progressing. If progress is slow, understand this is normal. Of course there are things you can do to dramatically speed this process up such as practice more, practice more efficiently and work with a really good teacher that can show you how to do improve faster.) Other people become too focused on getting better and lose sight of why they started playing (to play and/or create music they love!). Keep reminding yourself of why you wanted to be a musician in the first place. Besides simply thinking about your early playing experiences, go back to your roots and listen to the same CDs (or cassettes or LPs (if you are old enough to have any of those). Listening to my earliest influences always reminds me of my early music days and I just can’t help to feel that eager beginner feeling again.
I’ve mentioned some of these next few points before in a previous article, but it’s worth mentioning again here.
Find out what truly inspires you to want to play music, write music, jam with your friends, etc. Whatever it is for you, go there and marinate in that inspiration. Get your mind in that place and focus on it. Many classical composers (and other serious artists) go to artist colonies for weeks or months at a time. For them being in a beautiful environment with serious artists of all kinds is extremely inspiring and a great place to write music, practice, reflect among other things. Personally, I like to travel to Europe in the summer and do most of my serious composing there. There is a house I stay in overlooking a valley with large trees and beautiful sunsets. It is very inspiring and I always do my best creating there. Your inspiration may be musical (listening to some great players, bands or songs. It may be going to concerts. It may be a set of things that are totally nonmusical (like a special location or being around special people, etc.). You must find whatever it is and go there, you might be surprised at how fast you feel that burning desire to really play more, write more, to be more.
Never ever compare yourself to other musicians! If you sit around and think about how much better of a player you are compared to your friends, this will probably only lead you to contentment and will steal away your drive and fire to improve. If you think about how much your friend (or any other musician) is better musically compared to you, this often leads to feelings of dissolution about your progress and your goals, which also can lead to a lack of motivation and fire.
When you began playing guitar, how good would you have to be in order to be happy with your playing? And where are you now? When I was starting out, I thought if I could play Iron Maiden or Metallica songs, I would be happy for rest of my musical life! Of course the time came when I could play all those songs, but I didn’t feel as happy as I thought I would when I first made my goal. That is because, before I even reached that goal, I had already set new goals. These new goals were good for my progress, but I made the mistake of never really appreciating and enjoying the success of reaching my earlier goals. I robbed myself of the pleasure of feeling happy about my hard work paying off. Of course by now I have learned that lesson and do thoroughly enjoy each new goal that is reached. It is my hope you will learn that lesson now and not after several more years of playing guitar.
Tom Hess is a professional virtuoso guitarist and teacher. He has toured in many countries through out the world. To find out more check out the official Tom Hess web site.
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