In black and white...maybe a few other colors as well.

We received our first paycheck last night and we were too tired to do anything but smile. We were tired, hungry, blown and extremely dazed. There have been times when you really don't know if you've had a good day or not and yesterday was one of those.

To be fairly honest, to ourselves mostly, we're not a college competition band. It is true that in India, most bands are formed to play college fests and competitions. One of the most talented metal bands from Bangalore released an EP recently with a total play length of 14mins. No matter how fucking amazing those 14mins are, it still just proves one point - college fests are culprits for many of the crappy bands out there.

20mins is premature ejaculation in terms or music. 20mins makes happy sound-guys cranky. 20mins on-stage to off-stage is the reason bands make 3minute songs. 20mins is the reason song structures have stagnated over the years and 20mins is the reason for a lot more misery than what's just been mentioned.

But, hey who am I to stop college students from trying in some way to contribute to the music scene. I know how retarded one can feel while pitching the concept of a rock show to a principal who's as old as this country has been free. They don't understand what "Sound-check" is. They don't know who Jimi Hendrix is and of course they don't know what metal is. Electronica is a concept still by far unknown to the average joe, let alone the head of the college. What I do know, is that college-people are suckers for competition. They Like acknowledging and rewarding talented young peoples of the youths for the wonderous works and demonstrations of their skills in the various extra curricular activities.

That is the hard truth. Art, Music, Dance, Acting and even advertising is an Extra-curricular activity.

Yesterday was a tiring day because we attended and performed at a college fest. A competition at that.Yes, we walked the whole 9yards and played those 20mins. We played even though the sound guy couldn't recognize that he was having earthing problems and asked our guitarist to play without his effects pedal. We played the 20mins to a few friends who'd traveled all the way to watch and support us and the judges and the students who'd put all this together and to the cowboy-wannabe who was deep-throating a pen like there was no tomorrow.

When it was done, we were left with half the satisfaction. Although we had what people claimed to be a pretty tight set, we weren't sure if we were up to the standards - standards of the competition, standards of the judges. How the hell do you "standardize" music? No matter how experienced a judge is, he/she can not  move beyond their own sensory perception to understand what the band in front of him/her is trying to do and most definitely not in 20mins.

Anyways, these are exactly the things that left us puzzled. Whats even more confusing is that the metal band I mentioned earlier is going to be one of the headlining acts of this year. Last year, they didn't even make it to the finals.

What was kick ass about yesterday though was all the band bonding that happened. People were introduced and new friends made. Drinks were shared and smokes passed around while death metal and psychedelia stood in the same circle with the classic rock boys.

Here's to the hope that we'll get to the finals.

Peace bro!