Now this was a gig we were looking forward to. For some of the MT crew it would be the first time seeing the headliners. For myself, it would be show number 5 (Glasgow Garage then tonight)! The queue was right up the street when we arrived for the sold out show, and there was some delay that kept everyone outside until around twenty minutes past the stated doors time, which was making a few people anxious as they didn’t want to miss the openers. Thankfully a decision was made to delay Demonic Resurrection‘s start so that the venue was filling nicely when they came on stage. Talking to them afterwards, there were no cuts to any of the setlists due to the delay so I assume they made up time with swifter set changes.
Demonic Resurrection’s songs aren’t the shortest, but they managed to fit five melo-death classics into their half our performance while frontman Sahil “The Demonstealer” Makhija chatted nicely with the audience between tracks. They’ve not been back in the UK since 2019 when they played Bannermans and were last in Glasgow a year earlier than that. Despite the delay, the reception for them was very positive – and deserved.
By the time we were being regaled with “Krishna – The Cowherd”, the venue was pretty busy. While there was no friendly violent action for their set, there were plenty of heads facing their way and I suspect that many people will be looking them up at home. I know someone behind me was asking their friend who the band were for that exact reason after they had finished!
I’ve been wanting to catch Sahil and his band for some time, and tonight’s quick set has definitely got me wanting more. Here’s hoping their next visit isn’t another six years.
Next up were a band I hadn’t really heard of but who I know some of our Moshville Times crew were very much looking forward to. Based in London, but with from Venezuela, and New Zealand, Calva Louise added to the international feel of the evening. Their style is rather eclectic with lead singer / guitarist Jess Allanic occasionally pulling a keyboard over to tinker on, and bassist Alizon Taho also messing about with samples.
Credit to the band for stopping very suddenly during “Third Class Citizen” to ensure that one audience member was safe early in the set. I’m not 100% sure what happened, but the signs were good that everything was OK before they continued.
Being completely honest I found them enjoyable to watch, but the songs had a bit too much going on in them for me to really get my head around especially as a first encounter with their music. Having said that, three of the people I was at the gig with were quite happy using words like “amazing” and “brilliant” to describe Calva Louise’s set so obviously I’m simply the natural dissenter. I did find myself warming a little more to them by the end of their set, and “Oportunista” had me thinking that maybe I should be giving them another chance.
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We didn’t have too long to wait for the lights to go down again, this time for New Delhi’s biggest (and not just in of band ) metal crew, Bloodywood. Walking on to a specialised chant from the hordes of “Bloody, Bloody, Bloody-fucking-Wood!” they launched straight into “Dana Dan”, setting the bar high for the evening. As with many of their songs, there is a strong social commentary behind things one (domestic violence) though the band don’t take time to put this message across as they usually do. Perhaps they’ve opted to snip bits of audience chatter rather than songs due to the delay?
Regardless, we’re one song in and the security staff are already earning their beans catching crowdsurfers. The pit is wide open and it doesn’t get any smaller throughout the whole set. The reception for new (nu?) song “Nu Delhi” is as good as it is for any of the older songs, and this is fair given that it’s an absolute belter. The band themselves are as on as good a form as I’ve ever seen them, moving around the stage and energising the audience.
Voices are raised for “Aaj”, an absolute headbanger of a chorus, and the pit goes mental. How they manage to get the flute to come through clearly in the mix amongst all that chaos is beyond me. The tongue-in-cheek ode to Indian food “Tadka” gets a live Glasgow debut, and much like “Nu Delhi”, goes down a storm. In fairness, Nu Delhi is a strong album. They could throw in anything from it and nobody would complain.
“Jee Veerey” couldn’t not be on the setlist, though a surprise addition was “Bekhauf” which originally featured guest appearances from BabyMetal. Sadly, they weren’t ing us this evening but the song was popular enough regardless! “Machi Bhasad” was another mandatory inclusion in the set and is a song I always point people at if they want to know what Bloodywood are all about. It’s also got one of the best music videos I’ve seen in years.
“Halla Bol” and encore “Gaddarr” made up the remainder of the set, but there are other highlights to point out. Credit to Jayant for the lengthy list of names he gave out when introducing the “band”. It takes more than the musicians on stage to bring a show to you, and he went out of his way to namecheck as many as possible.
And then there was dhol-meister Sarthak appearing on the dancefloor for one song. Surrounded by security staff (in case we, I don’t know, stole him?) he rattled out his Indian rhythms while a circle pit ran rings around him. I love moments like this, and it put a lovely shine on what was already a bloody amazing evening.
Bloodywood continue to go from strength to strength. They’re touring on a great album, their live show is packed with energy, fun and emotion. If you’ve not seen them then you really need to. I genuinely hope that Karan’s parents have forgiven him for giving up his legal career to take a chance on his “startup” all those years ago!
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Photos by Skull Lens Photography
