Hey Hey In Rockers and Welcome to The Lobby for this month's catch up! It's been a lot of travel for the folks of GGDS this month as we went to do a festival in Bangalore India! It was our first visit to India and it was a whirlwind trip, not even 3 full days for the visit but we fit in a bunch of stuff in such a small amount of time, I'll do my best to fill you in!
We flew from NY to Frankfurt, Germany and then after a lengthy layover made our way to the gate for our Bangalore flight! I had a chance to sleep as did the rest of the guys, so we were fairly fresh when we arrived in Bangalore at 4:00 in the morning! After checking into the hotel and a little bit more sleep we met up with our tour coordinators and they took us out for some sightseeing around the city. Our first stop was at a temple in the downtown area called the ISKCON temple, one of the largest temples in Bangalore which is in honor of the story of the Hindu deities Radha Krishna. We witnessed some of the rituals and ceremonies and toured the temple with our group before we headed into to do some shopping at a local shop. After finding a nice little Ganesh statue to bring home for my daughter and checking out some of the amazing jewelry, Hindu statues, and traditional clothing we made our way to have some lunch at a local restaurant.
The restaurant we visited was a traditional Indian restaurant that served several curries and other Indian dishes, with no plates or silverware as is the custom, so as our table full of western rock musicians enjoyed our delicious curries and rice served on a banana leaf we clumsily shoveled food into our mouths with our bare hands like the locals! When in Rome right? The meal really was delicious, but we were all exhausted and went back to the hotel to rest up for a bit before heading to a dinner the promoter arranged for the band War on Drugs and ourselves who were also performing on our stage the next night. It was a nice time, but we had been traveling with a vengeance and we needed to get some rest before the show so we quietly exited the party and got to bed for the night.
The next morning, we got up for soundcheck and went to a dusty field which was used for horse riding throughout the year. The festival had 2 large stages with Indian bands performing on one and the international bands performing on the other. As I mentioned on the international stage with us on Saturday was The War on Drugs and the following night featured Australian punk rockers Amyl and the Sniffers and the legendary British heavy metal band Deep Purple. The festival went off without any problems at all, the crowd was amazing, it's still unbelievable to me when we are literally on the other side of the globe and people are sharing the songs we created with us all these years later. I can't wait to make another trip and see more of the country of India, the people are so kind, and the food and culture are just amazing. I hope to be back soon and make some more music for the Indian people!
I'm wishing you all a super fun holiday season and I hope 2024 is the best year ever for my friends here in the pages of the Mighty In Rock, until next month, keep it real and make sure to live your best life every day!
Peace!
Robby