By Aniruddh ‘Andrew’ Bansal
December 7th 2012, Furtados Music Store, Juhu (Mumbai), India: For the first time after a gap of eight months, horror metal band Albatross played a Mumbai gig, and it was quite a unique one at that, one that I enjoyed as much as any of the four previous times I’ve seen them this year, if not even more so. They played this show in the basement of the Furtados store, and while there was no ‘stage’, the small size of this basement along with the space taken up by the band’s stage set-up left room for very few people, which was not a bad thing at all. I’d rather be part of a small show that’s packed, as opposed to a half-empty club or an almost empty arena. Even though I was seeing them for the fifth time within a period of 10 months, it’s been a different venue each time, so that’s kept things interesting for me. But the venue change aside, this particular show was a lot different, and as a result, a lot more enjoyable.
I reached the store at around 6 o’ clock, and the show started some 15 minutes later. The small crowd consisted of Albatross’ fans and friends. This gig also included a guitar clinic by Nishith and Vignesh, so the gathering also had a handful of guitar enthusiasts and students. They opened up with “Uncle Sunny At The Tavern”, following which the clinic began in full earnest. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the two of them handled themselves, and the quality of their clinic. Based on my interactions with them thus far, they didn’t come across to me as the kind who’d enjoy delivering a clinic. But they sure did, and it got better and better as they felt more comfortable talking to the crowd. In fact, if the vocalist hadn’t reminded them that they had a set to play, they could have continued on forever talking about arpeggios, scales, modes, sweeping techniques, string skips, and what have you. They demonstrated some of the guitar riffs and solos used in Albatross songs, in great detail. At first people were hesitant in asking questions, but the interaction grew with each passing minute. Some of them started taking notes on their smartphones as well. It was good to see such enthusiasm towards music theory. It ended up being a very fun-filled, informative and interactive clinic.
Moving on to the performance part, the band played a new song (the title was announced yesterday as ‘In The Lair Of Dr. Hex’) which will be on the next release. I thought it sounded pretty cool, and had an air of freshness to it that distinguished it from the material on the two released EPs. If the next release has more songs like this one, it should turn out to be a fun listen. Then they got into the nitty-gritty of the set, and out came the older songs and cover tunes. They did ‘In The Court Of Kuru’, ‘From Ashes Comes Life’ and ‘Dining Table’, each having a crushing impact on that tiny room and the people in it.
The covers included ‘Bark At The Moon’ and a special rendition of Motorhead’s ‘Ace Of Spades’, with Hellwind guitarist Kiron Kumar taking over from Nishith, and Kris Rathnam from Colossus doing the vocals. Albatross’ customary Priest and Dio covers of ‘Nightcrawler’ and ‘Holy Diver’ were played as well. I’d love to see them do a ‘Breaking The Law’ cover sometime, complete with Priest’s dance moves.
Albatross don’t really have any gigs planned for a while now, so it was good to catch this show, and I think it’s fair to say it was worth the trip through the horrendous Mumbai traffic for everyone in attendance. This gig showcased the technical prowess of the two guitarists more than anything else, and gave us a glimpse into the new material. Here’s to the next Albatross release! \m/
Set List (from memory, probably in the correct order):
1. Uncle Sunny At The Tavern
2. In The Lair Of Dr. Hex
3. In The Court Of Kuru
4. From Ashes Comes Life
5. Bark At The Moon (Ozzy cover)
6. Nightcrawler (Judas Priest cover)
7. Dining Table
8. Ace Of Spades (Motorhead cover)
9. Holy Diver (Dio cover)