Artist to watch: Rock & Roll Renegades

A band is in the middle of ”˜Black Dog’ during a sunny afternoon sound check at the Kohima local ground, the venue for the Hornbill National Rock Contest. The vocalist has a distinct cheeky streak, an instant audience magnet. A gawky Peter Pan character minus wings, vocalist Donald Warjri, is prancing about stage in a vibrant skull cap and bumble bee sunglasses. The drummer does an Ian Paice roll and the guitarist is a Hendrix freak. Other bands watch the spirited performance with undisguised admiration. Not a bad act post an overnight bus ride with too little sleep and too much fun if such a state actually exists. The Verbs have just landed in Kohima from Shillong. “We were the only guys up the whole night,” says 25-year-old Warjri recalling the bumpy bus ride. His younger brother Russell, 20, the youngest band member, as if to justify the racket they created, says, “We had no choice because our seats were right at the back.” Drummer Shawn Morehead, 25, is still recovering and talks only in spurts while guitarist Victor Miller, 21 is as charged as he was on stage.

Formed in 2005, the Shillong band’s sound is rooted in rock & roll. The band has eight originals and some more instrumentals ready and has been gigging around Shillong and Guwahati regularly. Their songs are about hope, says Russell. “It’s about screwing the man who’s screwing us and whatever’s happening around us,” he explains. The Verbs has recently begun writing some material on the recent church attacks in Orissa. “All we want to do is gig and spread the word man,” says a sleepy-eyed Warjri. The bands are set to tour Shillong soon after the Hornbill Rock Contest.

The band burns quite a few miles on the tour circuit. Morehead, who also does sessions with Shillong-based blues band Soulmate has toured with them, while vocalist Warjri toured with the Roots festival this year. Enough experience to know understand what an audience wants. “More and more Indians are taking to heavy metal, and our gigs keep changing to suit the venue. But our backbone is rock & roll,” says Warjri.

The band also loves the blues and looks up to Soulmate whose frontman Rudy Wallang has been generously swapping music notes. “He’s given us a lot of pointers about keeping a band together,” says Miller. Adds Warjri, “He was recently feeling low on the day Mitch Mitchell passed away and called us over to jam because we too were pretty bummed out at the death of such a talented artist. Rudy shared his heart out and I think that’s what makes for a great musician.” Miller who worked in a call centre in Mumbai just “for the experience” is also in awe of the professional music scene in the metro. “I was really surprised to know that Teemeer [Chimulkar of Sceptre] makes about Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000 per guitar lesson in Mumbai. It’s an industry out there and that’s how it should be in the North East too,” he says.

When they open the finals of the Hornbill Rock Contest, it surprises us for the second time in a row, when we watch the metal-craving audiences in Kohima lap it all up ”“ Led Zep covers, originals and all.

The Verbs performs on full battery from start to finish, with Warjri climbing up on the massive four-foot speakers at the end of the show, eventually emerging as the big winners of the Hornbill National Rock Contest. Morehead also bags the prize for the Best Drummer, is as dazed as he was on the day of the sound check, this time around in disbelief perhaps. The band gets to go up on stage again after the round of prizes have been announced, and Warjri’s singing ”˜I Will Survive,’ to a headbanging audience ”“ an affirmation of the fact that rock & roll is ready for a renaissance in metal land.