Democracy & Doom Metal
🗓 posted Nov 22, 2024 by Josh Erb🔢 474 words
🏷 #travel #india #brief
Something I learned this past week, that I had no prior awareness of, is that alcohol sales are prohibited in the state of Maharashtra for 48 hours in the lead up to the state assembly elections. These "dry days" are observed up until the polls officially close at 6 p.m. on election day. Sales are briefly prohibited again at the end of the week when the election results are announced. The stated aim is to preserve public order and ensure that the voting public is clear headed when casting their votes.
Having a very shallow understanding of local politics here, and looking for an excuse to see a different side of the city, I marked election day by taking a local train down to Lower Parel for a death metal show.
It was a great time. Riding the local train for the first time, I felt connected to the city in a way that I haven't up until this point. Like a microscopic blood cell coursing through an endless network of arteries and veins that keep this hulking, incomprehensible leviathan alive.
As far as the show is concerned, I'm no expert on the nuances of metal, but the bands were good and the scene appears to be alive and well here on the other side of the world. The main opener was a local Mumbai metal band, Dirge and they killed it. I was so warmed up by the end of their set, the headliner could have refused to go on and it still would have been a great night.
But the headliner did come on, and they were just as good. The headliner was the New Zealand legends of death metal, Ulcerate.[1] They played a clean, tight set despite being just a 3-piece. The show ended shortly after midnight and we stumbled out into the dark streets of Parel. Our ears still ringing and our bodies still humming from the phantom touch of the bass drum's double-pedal.
Riding the train back up North after the show, Mumbai's hooks inched deeper down into my soul. I watched the city in all its haphazard glory glide me by, and a new sense of legibility stirred. It was nice moment of communion with this place I've only called home for 3.5 months. I am a part of this city. It will change me as I move through it. I experienced this epiphany, for the first time since we arrived, as a source of comfort.
I use the phrase "New Zealand legends of death metal" here to sound like I know what I'm talking about, but make no mistake, I had not heard of this band before a friend texted me asking if I was interested in tagging along to the show.
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