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American heavy metal rock band Queensryche rocked thousands of fans and rock music lovers during their debut performance in India on the closing day of five-day ShiRock 2018 Festival, an international rock music festival cum rock music competition for best bands in NE India from April 24-28 at Bakshi ground in Ukhrul, the beautiful hill town of Manipur, 84 km north east of Imphal on April 28.
The progressive metal band took the stage around 9:30 pm by belting out all time good ‘Revolution calling’ penned by the band’s former vocalist Geoff Tate and guitarist Michael Wilton as their opening number of the non-stop 90 minute show.
The band’s front man and vocalist Todd La Torre also unleashed a good number of popular tracks including ‘Empire,’ ‘Queensryche,’ ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ ,’Breaking the silence,’ ‘Road to madness,’ ’Eyes of the strangers,’ etc.
Playing for a huge crowd numbering to 25,000, the five member Seattle based metal band took 38 hours to reach Imphal for their debut show in India, the vocalist Torre continued to render the band’s touching ballad ‘Silent Lucidity’ and mind blowing powerful track ‘Take hold of the Flame,’ during his first ever performance in India’s Northeast region, which is emerging as the most popular destination for international rock bands.
Though music loving audience the lauded the amazing (non-stop) performance of the visiting American band during Saturday night show, some of the hard core Queensryche fans who drove down straight to the hill town to witness the feast of metal music expressed disappointment over the absence of guitar and drum solos by Michael Wilton and Casey Grillo. “We really miss the guitar and drum solos,” feels Nobody, a fan from Imphal.
On the other hand, Mizoram’s Reverse Tragedy walks away the winner’s title with a cheque of INR 10 lakh in the ShiRock 2018 rock music competition after competing with 20 rock bands of the region.
The first runner up title (with a cheque of INR 5 lakh) was awarded to Avora Records (Mizoram) and Ambush (Assam) while the second runner up title (with a cheque of INR 2.5 lakh) to Dream Street (Manipur) and Jammers Graveyard (Assam). Popular choice award of the fest was bagged by Fame The Band of Meghalaya while the Alamle Herrang from Senapati (Manipur) was adjudged as winner of 2018 Tribal Euphony.
It may be mentioned that ShiRock 2018 Festival was organised as part of Manipur government sponsored Shirui Lily Festival (April 24-28) that aims in promoting the conservation of the endangered state flower Shirui Lily and also to promote young talented artistes.
Shirui Lily flower is a unique and rare species of terrestrial lily grown naturally, and only found in Shirui peak in Ukhrul, Manipur. This seasonal flower blooms in Summer.
Our Correspondent