Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Porcupine Tree...

I watched PT last year in their first run of "The Incident" tour. They played a fantastic set, and the great album, note to note. Since it was my first PT concert, I did not know what to expect but in the end, I saw something so remarkable that I became addicted to live PT music. When they announced a second run of The Incident tour this year, I lapped up the ticket as soon as I heard the news. Once again, the stage was set at Warfield, San Francisco. Like Robert Smith of The Cure crooned, "They keep calling me..."

Enough has been said about this band and there are enough PT-heads out there just like me, who dig everything these guys put out and are as rabid in their pursuit as I am, if not more. So, this review of the concert is not about how much I admire PT or how good this band is or how much their music enriches my life but about the show itself.

Driving straight from my work in San Jose to San Francisco in peak traffic is a pain by itself but add to it the frustration of trying to reach soon enough to get to the front row. But the travel travails felt less as I was spinning The Incident for the nth time and as every PT fan knows, Time Flies and it did. And hour and half on the road ended and I was at Warfield by 750PM. Unexpectedly, Karnivool was already on stage, rocking the crowds and getting the heat up. I never heard of this band before, but man, were they good! I found yet another band thanks to PT after discovering countless great bands from Steven Wilson Head Quarters on the web (if you want to expand your music horizons and discover some of the greatest 'unheard' of bands, look no further than www.swhq.co.uk and check the play-list at the bottom). Karnivool were a killer live band and almost made me order their two CD's on Amazon the next day (I stopped since I have many others in the wait list for the buy button). All in all, by 830PM, Karnivool vacates the stage and 30 minutes for the mighty PT to march on. As the stage is getting cleaned, Gavin's ultra-cool drum kit is unveiled and so were Richard's keyboards. Colin's and John's guitars were placed in the racks and the SW's guitar tech starts checking his arsenal of Paul Reed Smith's and Les Paul's. 9PM, and the gentlemen walk on stage, saying a polite hello to the amazed and anticipating crowds and telling us all how much they like coming back to SFO. I was standing in front of Colin who greets us all with his usual charming smile. PT launches into the extended version of "Even Less" and forge ahead with an impeccable set-list.

Filled with a couple of shenanigans, which made the live show ever more endearing, SW missed a few notes on the lead to "Drawing the Line". At that point he said "oh #@!" and looked at John, who was forging ahead note for note. SW explained that the band is slightly off due to jet lagging. Not unless you were a hardcore music fan yourself that you would see what notes they missed and how many time signatures were off but the point is, doing these small "mistakes" made the band even more appealing than ever. It felt like you were watching humans and not some machines. You could see the soul in the band and I can say this for everyone standing there that, at that moment SW missed those notes, we were all one, we were all together and we were all so happy and smiling. I forgot all my worries and felt like a baby feeling the warmth of a mother's womb. To listen to tracks like "Russia on Ice", "Stars Die", "Wedding Nails", which are seldom played, was uplifting, to say the least. SW, who is often uncomfortable with his emerging image as a guitar hero, looked every bit the guitar hero on stage, ripping those beautiful PRS guitars apart. Gavin, Richard, Colin and John added their polished and sophisticated musicianship and did more than justice to each track on the massive two hour long set-list. I was really fortunate that PT played so long only because for the rest of the show they were playing along with Coheed & Cambria, so the set-list would be condensed to one hour. After exactly one hour, the band took ten minutes off with a timer on the stage showing the countdown. At exactly time zero, they came back and per my request (only kidding, but I was routing for Time Flies, as evident from how the ten minutes went past in a zip) launched into Time Flies. I wonder how SW manages to impeccably change his show from electric to acoustic and back and manage to do that so seamlessly making it look so easy. The second half of the show went past so fast, by the end of the show I was wondering if I was in a sleep of dreaming. It all ended with a song that got me into PT about eight years back, Blackest Eyes. So very poetically, the show ended for me where it started. I have come a full circle in my pursuit of PT.

The incredible musicianship and the ultra-professional showmanship were compounded by the down-to-the-earth manners of the band, all of whom I met after the show. Hanging outside the tour bus, I first ran into Richard, who more than willingly signed my PT CD's and chatted. Gavin and Colin came out and took pictures and signed everything they were asked to. Out walked SW, with a casual and amicable approach. He greeted everyone, who were so excited to see him, and met all the fans waiting. We chatted with him and took pictures. I thanked him for the super set-list and for Insurgentis and Bass Communion. He gave me a surprising look and said thank you too. I have the happy feeling of seeing him off as he got back to the tour bus and I thanked him again for being so gracious after a two-hour show. John came out and I was very excited to run into him again, after having met him last year. John, is another inspiration with his mellifluous guitars and enchanting vocals. I said how valuable John is on the stage for PT to pull of those intricate vocal harmonies and the complicated guitar parts. As ever humble, he was ultra cool and said its only the practice that makes anybody a good guitarist. John, you are a mensch. If you want some great rock music, check out John Wesley's website (http://www.john-wesley.com/), where you can download his music for free although I recommend paying at least $20 for each album since there are way too many freeloaders out there these days. The musician has to not only make music, but also eat and pay bills right!

Bottom line, this has to be the best concert I have ever been to from all the scores of shows I see. Thank you for the music PT and my pursuit of the sound of muzak continues...

Soilwork - Live @ Slim's San Francisco

Book review: The Difficulty of being Good by Gurcharan Das

“The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living” -- Socrates

Doing a review of Mr. Das's extraordinary work "The Difficulty of being Good" is like trying to describe Sistine Chapel to a blind person. Yet, I am going to make a sincere effort in doing this because like Yudhistira says "I must". Since Indian philosophy unfortunately is fused with religion ("Hinduism" is not an organized religion around one book or one person), its hard for people to directly compare Mahabharata to Ancient Greek works of philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Its not taught in school since it has religiousness attached to it. Like Mr. Das himself says, if kids in Italy can read "The Divine Comedy", why cant kids in India learn Mahabharatha? Especially if doing so could make them better human beings? I would like to call Ramayana and Mahabharata, Indian tragedies, much like Greek Tragedies. Both end up causing tremendous agony to the reader by the way they end. But, ironically they both teach the reader about the value of life through tragedy. Both are attributed to two different authors but its likely that these works were authored over centuries with multiple redux versions. Much like the works of Aristophanes and Sophocles, these works are filled with deep human emotion, melodrama, fatalistic suffering and moral dilemmas. In both the epics, all the protagonists end their avatars after completing an odyssey that is filled with great suffering, longing, warring and separation from loved ones. Hence, I think they are much like the Greek tragedies. Now, tragedy is a strange emotion. when projected on external parties, it has the power to cleanse the audiences' emotional state of being and give them a sense of relief grown from utter despair. That's called catharsis. Different people find catharsis though different mediums, some through music, some through artwork and others through writings. I believe this magnum opus of Mr. Das, is his own catharsis.

By constantly craving to understand "dharma" and "dharmic religions", by constantly taking out examples from current day world and juxtaposing the same to Mahabharatha's world, he brings a perspective that is awe-inspiring, beautiful as well as pragmatic. By vicariously questioning the existential angst of the human condition and sometimes answering the same through these projections, Mr. Das tells a tale that is filled with anguish, suffering and pessimism yet somehow manages to create a light at the end of a turbulent and dark tunnel.

Mahabharata is carved into 18 books. It tells the story of an ancient Indian royal family. The crux of the book (or books) tells the story of warring cousins who both claim a right to their ancestor's kingdom. Who is the legal heir to the throne is actually a matter of debate. As the eldest, the throne belongs to Karna, but he was conceived before his mother, Kunti (also the mother of the five Pandavas), was married. So Karna, was left in a river much like Moses was. Yudhistira and Duryodhana are born a few seconds apart. But legally Dhrutharastra was only guarding his brother's throne so succession should fall on Yudhistira, the eldest of all the cousins (105 in total). Duryodhana, usurps the kingdom through a fraudulent game of dice and sends Yudhistira and his four younger brothers into exile. After returning from a fourteen year exile, Yudhistira requests his share of the kingdom, only to be denied even a single province. This leads to a great war between the two families, in which Yudhistira "wins". This is the basic plot of Mahabharata in a single paragraph. But the epic itself is seven times larger than Iliad and the Odyssey combined. Its the largest literary work ever written by mankind.

Mr. Gurcharan Das, educated in philosophy after which he became a senior manager at a world-class company before voluntarily retiring, authored "The Difficulty of being Good" with a deep passion as well as deep detachment. To his credit, he does not treat Krishna as the God while trying to understand the denouements of his actions. I believe this brings a sense of fairness into place. If you are aware of the stories within stories of this epic, you would agree that it becomes very easy to be deterministic if you choose the protagonist to be divine. We can just say, "hey, it was meant to me. this is God's will". But the ensuing suffering is human. So why would God want humans to suffer so as to make a point?

Being an Indian himself, the author knew the Mahabharatha inside out (of course he spent years studying the same under scholars at the University of Chicago), but he does not assume his reader to know the same. His erudition shines through across various chapters, in which he relates the dilemmas from the ancient epic to the problems of the modern world. He astutely tackles the complex episodes of this ancient prose with remarkable objectivity. He constantly compares and contrasts Mahabharatha's philosophy to that of the Western world. He writes freely and in an easy to understand compare/contrast format about the teachings of some of the greatest philosophers such as Socrates, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, Kant, J. S. Mill and others. Breaking down his work into a few sections, he constantly exposes current issues by contrasting them to the issues in Mahabharatha.

Writing on Duryodhana's envy, which in the first place creates all the problems in the epic, he exposes the envy that caused the chasm in Reliance, the largest Indian company. He compares the silence of Bhishma to that of India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, while picking an able person as the next President of India. Had Draupadi been alive in this age, she would have questioned the corrupt Indian bureaucrats about their dharma in delivering basic services to the Indian masses. He questions his own glory-seeking trends when writing about Karna's constant status anxiety. He questions if George Bush Jr. felt the despair of Arjuna before going to war in Iraq. To me, these are astounding comparisons, which never crossed my own mind although they now seem so obvious now. This a mark of a man who is deeply moved by this epic and has keenly observed these characters in a detached way. These are some of the marks of Mr. Das's burning intellect.

By comparing Yudhistira's deep remorse after the war to that of Ashoka's, Mr. Das makes a point that maybe this was the work of a different author working during the Budhist times of 400BC. By drawing inferences from the works of Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Sophocles and interspersing those ideas with that of Descartes, Locke, Rawls, Mill and others, Mr. Das creates a rich and complex moral web of life that will keep this book a living embodiment of what the elusive dharma is. If dharma is subtle as Bhishma says, how are we ever supposed to know what it is? If dharma is the right thing to do, who is to define what the right thing is? If Hitler's deplorable acts and heinous crimes were committed in the name of the right thing for him, is dharma personal (to him) or is it universal (for us and the allied forces)?

The author gives a superb introduction to the evolution of the word dharma, from Rg Vedic (1500 BC) times till the current day. That's the evolution of this elusive work over an approximate period of 3,500 years. That time-scale starting now in 2010 would end up in the year 5510. I wonder what dharma would come to mean then!

I have a lot of takeaways from this book. In a world like we are living in today, its not easy to be a good person. That is how capitalism/democracy has evolved in the last 100 or so years. Capitalism follows the Darwinian dictum that its only the tough who survive. So how could one be tough and good at the same time? Its difficult to be good when an honest man looks at the wealth a corrupt politician and thinks "look what being good gave me". That's what Draupadi asks Yudhistira in the forest, "why are we suffering while that evil Duryodhana is enjoying all the luxuries of the world?". I think what Yudhistira says here is a lesson for all us. He says, "I do this because I must". There is a certain Faustian tragedy attached to all our lives currently, because we just cannot understand the nobility of Yudhistira's words.

Businessmen, they say should be tough, make tough choices and have thick skin. Companies like Microsoft become bullies, innovation-killers and so on but also create a lot of shareholder wealth. Microsoft, Google or any company for that matter exist to make money, probably at any cost. Can they be good in their conduct and yet be successful? Milton Friedman said that "a company's only job is to make money". Point being, if the world was Microsoft's Kurukshektra, it was waging a war, sometimes immoral (like the slaying the Bhisma if you will) and sometimes, moral. Again, its difficult to be good. Is BP an evil company for the way it behaved post Gulf of Mexico? Is Reliance an evil company because they say that it bribes for business deals? Or is it a good company for the wealth it created?

To follow a "swadharma" (personal dharma), and still go with these draconian times, seems more feasible than to follow "sadharana dharma" (universal dharma). But, at the same time, its important to constantly know what the right thing to do is, whether its not polluting the environment or not doing immoral activities. Gulf of Mexico is immoral but its because we demand gas that drove BP to deep sea. Doing so, BP delivered shareholder returns pretty well in the past few decades but at what cost? A cost whose negatives are "externalized" and a tragedy whose pathos is "commonized".

As we flow like twigs in this water, trying to live a detached yet attached life, we are looking around for meaning to this journey. It was Socrates who said “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living” and we are all in the throes of examining and defining some meaning to this bio-chemical reaction. The great point the book makes at the end is trying to give more meaning to this existential angst by telling that its compassion that is needed to lead a fulfilling life.

Dharma could be interpreted as various things. It could be duty, right thing to do, morality, non-violence or even compassion. When Yudhistira steadfastly refuses to enter heaven if his dog is not allowed with him as well, that's when we realize that compassion for the world we live and compassion for fellow creatures is actually what makes us human. Yudhistira's observation from his strife-filled life is that dharma is compassion. Its not only about doing that elusive right thing, but also doing it with compassion. "The Difficulty of being Good" is a stupendous work and personally it helped me in my quest to understand my own dharma as well as the dharma of these times. This is not just a book to be read and recommended, its a book to be referenced for the rest of my life.

Once, We Were All Butterflies...

The Big Four Review

After all these years of head banging to Metallica and Megadeth separately, I could once do it at the same time albeit in a virtual setting removed thousands of miles from where it was happening. In the true spirit of metal thrashing madness, Hetfield and Mustaine played together on one stage, next to each other. I think its the big heart of Metallica that ultimately made this possible (contrary to popular belief). This mega-band has no single reason to take Anthrax and Slayer with them but they probably did, for creating some history.

And it happened on the night of June 22nd in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was digitally beamed to select theaters across the world. I watched it in AMC Cupertino on the replay. Much to my chagrin, some of these songs were cut (I wonder whose discretion) and only a select were beamed. The individual reviews follow.

Anthrax

Anthrax, a band I very much admired during the John Bush years and still do, played a set-list from the beginning of their career. Joey Bellodona, whose voice, music and albums I never cared for, looked old and out of place on stage. He also looked quite ludicrous with his funny mannerisms. Now, Anthrax is a strange band. Its quite common among metal bands to change lineups a bit here and there, but this band had an incredible seven vocalist changes, six guitarists play merry-go-round with four bassies and three drummers. Can the real Anthrax please stand up?

Anyways, my pet peeve is this. John Bush, who in my opinion (I really know my metal history well), made the best Anthrax albums from Sound of White Noise to We've Come Back For You All (only to break up again) was re-instated into the band in 2009. He played Australia and some random dates in Europe and was getting prepared to do Sonisphere 2010. Kaboom, in comes in Belladona and out goes Bush, ONCE AGAIN. This band is a frigging joke. To have no stability at all is a problem. Come one, even Megadeth changed lineups but Anthrax is an extreme. Do these guys even know who is in the band at any given time? After the incredible WCFYA album, so many years were wasted. That momentum was never taken advantage of. Bush was in and out, and all of a sudden they find Belladona? I was sick in my stomach when Belladona left the stage saying, "Anthrax is back". Yeah right buddy, from where and till when?

Megadeth

Been into Megadeth since about 20 years now. But why the hell did they play before Slayer? It's easily a bigger band (both in terms of quality and number of records sold). Anyways, Megaman took the stage like the seasoned pro that he is and ripped that flying V apart. Helped by the supremely talented Chris Broderick, and long-time ally Davidson on bass and Drover on drums, Megadeth nailed the Rust in Peace set-list. Mustaine has been doing a RiP 20 years anniversary tour and so was on top of his game. An incredible guitarist, his live playing is superb as he unplucks those complicated leads meticulously. My biggest complaint about this band, is again the lineup. I understand the limitations but no matter how talented Chris is basically playing Marty's leads right? All those incredible leads from RiP/Countdown they played were composed by the peerless Marty. Anyways, its an imperfect metal world out there.Mustaine lost no venom in his voice and he nails those intricate leads note for note, live. Megaman indeed!

Slayer

I hate Slayer. I have never ever liked them and I never will. Slayer to me represents everything that is disgusting about metal music. The pseudo-biker persona, the tough-guy exterior, disgusting lyrical content, arrogant smack-talk all come in a nice package of ZERO musical ability. That right, Slayer music is crass. There most popular riffs are what Mustaine can compose when taking a crap and their most popular lead is worse than a good quality YouTube amateur composition. This is a band that gained popularity through notoriety. Due to a serious lack of musical talent, these guys resort to controversialism. Araya should call it a day, he is old, sick and trying too hard to put that tough metal dude pose. Hanneman's and King's guitaring is a joke. If you know the basics of lead guitar playing you would know that their leads are essentially fast pentatonic runs with loads of whammy induced atonal noise pollution. I hate Slayer so much, I personally banned them from any aspect of my life. I even skipped watching Megadeth live since they are touring with Slayer. Slayer is bad for health. The day this band quits, will be the day I will get myself something nice. I fell asleep watching Slayer till I was awakened by the Ecstasy of Gold. Again, I hate Slayer.

Metallica

There is a reason why Metallica is the greatest metal band ever. Probably the most cliched topic you will ever hear when two idiot metalheads come together is "Metallica sold out dude". That right dudes, they did and I never complained and look what I got. I got Death Magnetic. I skipped St. Anger but I do enjoy a lot of songs from Load and one or two from Reload. Thats ok with me. Its 2010 and if you watch them live, you will know why band has no peers in this kind of music. If ever there will be a "Built to Last" kind of book on rock music, Metallica will be a prominent feature. The Beatles had no line up changes, Led Zeppelin broke up when the drummer died and Pink Floyd managed without Roger Waters. Somethings in life are irreplaceable. Nobody can take the place of Cliff Burton and nobody will. In that sense, Jason Newstead (that was the line up for me growing me, James, Jason, Kirk, Lars) was a place holder. But remember, this is a perfectionist band that is tightly controlled by the creative abilities of James and Lars. Even Kirk has a side-role to play. So as long as James/Lars/Kirk are together, thats Metallica for me. As far as I am concerned, Godzilla could be playing bass in place of Robert Trujillo, I could care less.

Here is the set-list from Sofia, Bulgaria. * represents the songs that were cut from the live beam.


1. Creeping Death
2. For Whom The Bell Tolls
3. Fuel
4. Harvester Of Sorrow
5. Fade To Black
6. That Was Just Your Life*
7. Cyanide
8. Sad But True*
9. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)*
10. All Nightmare Long*
11. One
12. Master Of Puppets
13. Blackened*
14. Nothing Else Matters
15. Enter Sandman
16. Encore:
16. Am I Evil? with Megadeth, Anthrax and Dave Lombardo
17. Hit The Lights
18. Seek & Destroy

What kind of an idiot would skip Blackened, Sanitarium and All Nightmare Long? But they were skipped from the theaters. Watching Metallica live is a treat. I did in 1999 in England and I will never forget it. They truly put a lot of effort into their performance. James showed the audience the Big Four pluck during Noting Else Matters. Its incredible how this band still sounds fresh and good after all these years. James' voice was excellent and Kirk's picked his notes perfectly (except missing that harmonic squeal in the second solo of MoP, for you hardcores). There is probably an element or two of jealousy when it comes to this band for all their success. But lets not forget their musical talent. Its only Megadeth that comes close to matching that among the "big four". The set-list was similar to what I saw myself all those years back except a song here and there. But ending with Hit the Lights and Seek was a complete pleasure to watch. Nostalgic and just plain simple metal riffing.

The big moment was to watch Mustaine and Hetfield play together with all the others running around and hugging each other. I am sure it was all done in good spirit. It looked genuine and heartfelt. Is there a reason why Slayer was missing from the mix except from the only talented member of the band, Dave Lombardo? I surely did not miss them on stage. Probably Hanneman and King felt too proud to share the stage with the others. Or more closer to the truth, they were just being themselves, pricks that is.

All in all, it was all worth it just to watch Metallica and Megadeth share the stage. I am sure there will be a next time, and there is my YouTube video for times I miss this. Too bad there was no such thing in 1999. Thank you technology for spreading some good music...