Hallowed By Thy Name* - Iron Maiden

*No it isnt. I didnt get the name wrong. Its intentional.

It is an insanely cruel ordeal for a non-stop chatter-monkey who has his mouth forever working at x (a very large number) rpm and a continually evolving vocabulary to throw at you, such as myself, to find himself at odd ends to describe, to illustrate, or to otherwise paint a vivid picture of his life's experiences. Seriously, I kid you not. I mean it. You dont know how excruciating it was to have to end that sentence.

But thats not the point.

The point, the nub, the crux, the focal point of my words is that this is one such blessed ordeal. What does one say when a weekend vacation can be reminisced only through a couple of hours in it? When the memories of a road trip to another city, and of the two days spent there are entirely eclipsed by the memories of a glorious two hours?

How am I to find just the right words to express our fatigue, our exhaustion as we waited through a queue from 12 noon to 3, and then sat inside Palace Grounds under the glaring sun for another two hours, waiting for the concert to start? I'll give it a shot.

Apprehensions rose first, along with average temperature, as Campus Rock Idol winners FTN came and made glorious fools of themselves, headbanging and guitarbashing till they were packed off to an ignonimous exit by raised middle fingers and orchestrated cries of "F*** You!".

Then came Parikrama, creating a new bigger and better name for themselves and garnering thousands more fans, with an unexpectedly fantastic performance of purely original songs. The sun still blazed down however, with no signs of relenting. It was tougher to keep going back to the stalls to grab a glass of water. Bottles werent allowed, and no one would dream of giving up his place, however distant from the stage. The crowd had closed in towards the stage in a wide arc, as the countdown to Maiden finally appeared to have started. Perspiration, mixed with the rise of red dust at every step, and blended with the mutual body warmth of thousands of active excited metal-fans, came together to cook an atmospheric curry stewing with putrid smells and jolting with that tang of sharp adrenaline that passed in the throng from one body to the next smoothly like electricity. We were glued to our places, our aching shoulders held up straight as we looked around at this - our brotherhood of rock-devotees, tired and ecstatic at our current shrine.

The minutes passed by. Lauren Harris came and screamed her head off for a while, asking Bangalore to come on(!!!) in some vague, ambiguous way. She received her fair share of raised fingers, waved goodbyes, and cries of f*** you (interspersed with a bit of perverse but clever f*** me!. Lol).

We were waiting for Maiden, and we'd waited too long, tolerated too much exhaustion, ignored too much thirst, too much pain, to watch some young chick try and sing out of tune and have the nerve to ask us to come on. She passed too, like the idle wind that troubled us not.

And this is when words fail me. The entry of Iron Maiden, the rush of guitarists armed, the blast of arc-lights, the various coloured lights we remember from 80s concert videos, the power-guitaring to their latest album, A Matter Of Life And Death. Bruce Dickinson ran, sprinted and jumped, and at one point of time climbed and then slid down a 20 ft tall truss. All the while singing, screaming, shouting with vocal chords that never once wavered in their strength, their resilience, their intention. All we could do was watch in awe, in disbelief, first at them and then at each other.

We are at Maiden!!

What followed was an experience that I cannot do justice to right now. It was too magical for that. I wont ever forget it. Not least because of what Bruce said - There will be more rock concerts, more Maiden, but all of you guys here...you can say that you were here when Maiden first came to Bangalore.

And its true. India's first rock-metal concert. I was there. I shall smile when I see people downloading videos of it a few years hence.

Maiden in Bangalore '07? Yeah, I was there.

I was in that chorus of a 50000 people when we sang, yelled, screamed, shouted, blared, and otherwise burst out in true emotion:

Out of the darkness, brighter than a thousand suns.
Out of the darkness, brighter than a thousand suns.
Out of the darkness, brighter than a thousand suns.
Out of the darkness, brighter than a thousand suns!