British India

Approaching the venue for the night’s musical festivities, The Zoo, all that can be heard is a deafening drum roll followed by a long guitar wail that resonates from the building, beckoning to any stranger or passer-by to ponder what band could produce such a sound? And if its only 8.30pm, what’s the quality of the next band going to be? By simply asking the bouncer, a number of people were quickly enlightened that British India, the young rock outfit from Melbourne, were the headlining act for the night and are accompanied by two Brisbane support acts – The Gallant and The Rocketsmiths (the prior being responsible for the tuneful raucous going on inside).

The bouncer would then smile and quickly divert the street bound spectators attention to a big yellow sign reading: SOLD OUT! For some reason or another, these two words have become familiar with great gigs and concerts around the world and everyone who possessed a ticket knew that tonight was going to be no different.

Entering the establishment The Gallant are coming to the close of what must have been a very impressive performance if it was anything like the concluding 5 minutes, the boys were screaming and jumping around stage like a few HDAD kids full of red bull. These guys are 100% energy and have the skill and creativeness to back it up, using a lung powered keyboard with some songs.

The Rocketsmiths quickly followed with an extraordinary performance, ripping up the stage with a traditional country style of Aussie rock. Kicking off with a classic tune “Jeepers Creepers” the band, especially the lead singer, possessed a fun interactive stage presence that made the whole crowd, which was reaching maximum capacity at this stage, jump around as if it was a big bouncy castle at the country fair. Pumping out fast paced tune after smoking hot rock number, you cannot go wrong with The Rocketsmiths and they’re humorous and pleasurable stage presence, in addition to the rock’n’roll stage moves that even Jack Black would be proud of. And they finished their act off with a recently written song called “Getting drunk on the Jetty”, and with everyone getting a little bit tipsy - it went down a treat!
The crowd was now anticipating the final and obviously the headline act of the night – British India. With the unexpected hustle and bustle of fans trying to reach the best vantage point for the concluding act, it was apparent this young group from Melbourne have really sparked a lot of curiosity for music enthusiasts. With great interest across a broad spectrum of age groups, from teeny boppers loving the softer pop-rock tracks to the more experienced listeners getting into the harder, rawer and true punk rock sound, British India kicked the show off in style with their rougher sounding tune “You turn me on”. Followed quickly by “Because”, the young entertainers have never looked more at home, cruising around the stage as if they not only own it, but as if it was their slave.

Boasting the rims of a pair of classic blues brothers style sunnies, the lead singer has an amazing knack to expand and fill the room with his voice, no matter how loud the deafening riffs and drumming is coming from the band behind. This was illustrated in “Outside 109” and “Russian Roulette” (a recent favourite I found out), which got the entire floor of The Zoo shaking and bowing under the pressure of the happy spectators movements above. However, when it came to songs like “Tie Up My Hands” and “Run the Red Light”, it seemed a heap of younger females would emerge from the shadows instantaneously and start screaming the words to their favourite British India track. This was both good and bad, good as in they were females pushing past you, but bad as in these bitches were just here for this one or maybe two songs and that’s it - no respect for the catalogue of tunes the band packs each and every tour! The outfit finally came to the end of their set with “Black and White Radio”, which caused so much excitement the crowd immediately demanded an encore to finalise the musical festivities of the night – and British India did so happily! All in all it was a great night with British India at The Zoo.

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