M E T A A A L L L !!!!

Perhaps reflecting the over-the-top nature of most things in India, the most popular youth music in India is Heavy Metal. AC/DC, Perl Jam, Metallica, and Rage Against the Machine are some of the most popular bands. So the other night, I went with some friends to see the "Woodstock of India," Independence Rock XXII, which was sponsored by Nokia's new line of music phones. It was mostly original music, but every band was required to play 2 covers. I saw just as many mobile phones held aloft to record songs as I did Slayer t-shirts, which were numerous, believe me.

This particular band is Boomerang, from Nagaland, where Bryant is originally from. You'll see the crowd shouting some really really bad words--the crowd was expressing their displeasure at the guitarist, who had popped a string and paused the concert to retune.



Later in the night, the members of the crowd amused themselves by starting enormous mosh pits. They'd line up in rows, holding shoulders, and run headlong into the crowd, as a means of making the pit bigger. While it was weirdly not connected to the music, as such, it might have partially explained the extremely low ratio of women to men.