By Nawaz Yasin Islam
SHILLONG: “A 34-hour journey, easily the longest traveled for a concert and undeniably the most exciting!” are words you rarely stumble upon when bands of International repute and excellent caliber grace your hometown to shatter earlobes and leave one in a trance of musical ecstasy.
Visualize a band concocted together with influences like Van Halen, Faith No More, Tool, and Fishbone and let each member add a unique snazzy touch ranging from Phish to Guns n Roses to Trance music. The answer is the obvious…Hoobastank!
The four-member Alternative Rock outfit with elements of post grunge has arrived at the ‘Rock Capital’ for a promising performance of epic magnitudes at Polo Grounds on Saturday.
“When the idea of a show in India came up, I immediately informed the others and a decision was arrived at in a second…Let’s do it!” said guitarist Dan Estrin.
Hoobastank has seen a few lineup changes including bassist Markku Lappalainen leaving the band in 2005. The four-member band fronted by Doug Robb has been actively touring to promote their last album Fight or Flight, playing shows organized by the United Service Organization for American troops across the world including Iraq.
Hoobastank, which has had over 10 million copies sold worldwide, has a huge fan following in India and are coming ‘just’ to Shillong following a non-stop journey from California to be a part of TNT – The Northeast Today’s sixth anniversary celebrations.
Following a brief interaction with the media at the Tripura Castle premises, the members headed to Bethany Society, where they were greeted by a terrific rendition of Bob Marley’s Get up, Stand up by the rightfully termed ‘gifted’ children.
A credible aspect of the show would be the sound system which is said to be at par with International standards and entirely managed by sound experts from North East.
The lights, the adrenaline and the fans will take centre stage on Saturday as the rockers will dish out a 90-minute set of sheer exhilarating music.
“We have selected a list thoughtfully and hope it turns out well,” said an excited Doug adding that their song selection was based on singles, album releases and most importantly, songs that have videos made out of them so that people can relate to it.
A lot is expected from the band who has many hits to its credit with The Reason being at the top, followed by the much acclaimed First Of Me, Crawling In The Dark, The Letter, and If Only and Magnolia (which is dedicated to Doug Roub’s daughter) songs that have ruled the billboard charts in recent years.