A milestone achieved

I just returned from Springfest 2010 from IIT Kharagpur. It was a much anticipated tour. Nurvs of Steel finally got the debut I have been wanting to get for the past two years.

I'll begin from where it began. Jayesh had joined the band about a few days before the exam. We were still searching for a place to jam. And in Raipur, where people can be such assholes, it was a really tough thing to get. We could all practice at our places, but then, the neighbors were always a pain in the ass. It's okay when they play their shitty bollywood "music" (which rarely makes any sense) at full volume during our exams. But it's really disturbing to them when we talk on our phone (supposedly, we are shouting and creating a nuisance).

So, after the exams were over, we were done with selecting the songs we were to perform. We hadn't made our OC yet (and how could we, without a single jam?). So covers were our only option. The plan was to practice those individually during the semester break. 5k0uz3r was to go home, and so were the other guys. I dropped my plan of going to my parents' after I was not selected in the placement for CTS. 5k0uz3r got himself an Ibanez. Was good news, for he had to wait a year and a half to get that.

I spent the whole semester break in my place, alone and miserably. After it was over, Jayesh came back, and we started jamming at my place at low volume levels. It was kinda exaggerating that finally I was doing the songs I always wanted to do. Bharat was to come back some time soon. A day after he came back, we called him up, wanting to know his status. He obviously hadn't practiced any of the songs, for he hadn't any drum set in his home, and still wasn't practicing. We fixed a practice at his place for we had no other choice.

His place was big enough with an empty hall. But the neighborhood was extraordinarily quiet. The sound of the drums tore through the walls, and the neighbors were pissed off in a few days.

Meanwhile, we were searching for a place to practice. A junior's grandparents agreed to let us practice in their place, but that didn't seem to be a viable option to me. Metal is always way louder than any other kind of music. His grandfather then set us up to practice in a college (I'm not naming it to maintain their privacy). So, when the college is over, we could practice all night. On 14th, we shifted our stuffs there in a store room, and waited for Dev to come back. On 15th, we finally got our first jamming session together.

We figured that some songs were way to hard to be played on a single base paddle. We made tremendous changes to our list. With five nights of sleepless practice and college-less days, we were finally ready to go. We had to drop a few songs and change the rest few because of lack of time. All of the songs were metal nevertheless, with the exception of sweet child.

We set off for IIT KGP on 20th. All of us were very excited, and simultaneously a bit nervous, for the jamming session that day lasted just about 45 minutes, and we were not very satisfied with what turned out.

We reached KGP the next day. After the initial registration and check in thing, we were in the RP hall, surrounded by people. And when I say people, I mean a lot of people. The stink gets worse in the few days everyone is in there. The stink of their rotten socks and shoes. Good that it was winter, for without the blankets we were all using, the place would have been simply inhospitable.

The competition was to be held in the huge football (rugby) stadium. The stage was set, but we hadn't any place to prepare. There were no practice sessions for the number of bands coming up was just huge, and they couldn't give us slots for practice. We, however decided giving our preparations a final touch anyway. Bharat was the one who had to suffer the absence of drums. The rest of us three played along at the back of the stadium at nights, when it was all deserted.

And then we met this guy from a band called Minus from Ranchi. He was a real nutcase, I must admit. So whenever he started with his "I did this and I did that" bullshit, 5k0uz3r and I had to flee the hall. The canteens were awesome, for they were open all night, so that you don't have to think twice if you're out of cigarettes. The only bad thing was that they had all those costly cigarettes of the likes of Marlboro, which were all filter and no tobacco.

Kryptos were the judge in the competition and we'd decided to go on stage on 23rd, for that was supposedly the last day for the preliminary round.

The slot was then decided and we performed. I was wearing the tshirt of our band, that I'd painted a few days before actually going to KGP. The performance wasn't good for what we'd expected, but again, it was a debut. I'll probably write about what happened that day, but that won't be sometime soon. But I sure as hell was happy to see Kryptos giving us a horns up after we did Hallowed by thy name. Felt like honor.

Kryptos had a show that night. And although from their records, all I could deduce was that they were more influenced from death metal (that's because the only times I heard them was on radioverve), to my surprise, they turned out to be an Iron Maiden influenced band. Absolutely heavy metal.