Nokia’s Yaoshang Festival - Imphal Reviewed

Reviewer: Leema Phurailatpam


Photo Credit: E-Pao Manipur


24th April 2011 with some murky clouds lurking in the sky. I had planned to go watch Nokia’s Yaoshang festival Rock Show a long time back, which was supposed to be held at (YAC) Range ground. But the venue was changed due to some unforeseen reasons. Well, finally it was officially held at the NCC ground.


Crowd gather at the venue mostly were guys, I could see only few girl in crowd, I wonder if the girls are not interested in rock or they were not as lucky as me.


I reached around 6.30 pm and Tapta had just closed his performance with his last number.


The Anchor of the show called the next band to perform with the band introduction. These five member group Dirty Strike were so talented and their song was so refreshing .Enjoyed their song “where do I belong" they try to be something different from the others, neat haircut, ironed shirt and a very neat look, but their talent cannot be underestimated. The band also performed songs of their new album EP. Their music sounds something like a combination of the band of Green Day and the Beatles but who cares when it sounds so good. The Dirty strike was definitely one promising band.


The Chronicles from Sikkim, starts with some heavy metals like Highway to hell, from AC-DC, damn good one and the crowd went wild singing alone with Girish (the vocalist), The magic moments of the show was when Girish with his velvety voice crooned the classic number of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to heaven”, Mother’s nature light drizzle falls created a mystic spell among the crowd. The band also played a Jimi Hendrix’s number, for some of the guitar lovers it was a real treat. The chronicle rocks the stage, simply superb.


Last band to performed were Boomarang, “oh boy, they have quite a reputation in the country “.First thing that come to my mind when I saw them was they have an enigma about a rock star, the vocalist with Bob Marley’s hairstyle was pack with bundles of energy. Damn good guitarist again that got the stamina like any other I have seen live, they were live wires. Their song Rhythm of revolution, Trip, and Split down in the fire of RATM was good. They made the crowd dance to their tune, head banging style, plain jumping one or as simple as raising hands, they got wild response from the crowd. There music were a blend of Heavy metal, Reggae and Hip hop, usually they music were known as junk rock. Some other numbers were, War, Violence a song with the message of peace, and Chemo flash.


In Manipur, Shows Permits were only till 9.00 pm and time usually fly so fast when one is having a good time. The band performed their last number “Home” the album was yet to be released. We, the lucky crowd got the chance to listened for first time live, and honestly it was a beautiful song.


Thanks to the Nokia and the Chumthang group for organizing such a great event. My evening at Rockville has come to an end, a night I would treasure forever; an evening of unadulterated pure rock music. Those rock lovers who could not make it to the show they have no idea what they had missed. Good crowd and good music, with smoking effect plus tip top sound system. But the drizzle scene with the background laser light setting just made an icing on the cake, it was deliciously awesome.