‘More Than Words’ heroes to go Extreme tonight at ShiRock 2019

American rock band Extreme formed during the mid-eighties arrived in Imphal on Oct. 18 for their debut performance in India.

The band will be performing tonight at the closing of the ShiRock 2019, a four-day annual rock music competition cum festival, at Ukhrul district in Manipur.

ShiRock, one of the biggest rock music competitions in Northeast is held as part of state government- sponsored Shirui Lily Festival 2019 which is currently being held at three venues – Shirui village, Tangkhul Naga Long and Bakshi grounds in Ukhrul town.

The Boston(US) based band, soon after arrival at the airport in Imphal, drove straight to a hotel in Imphal where a press conference was held.

Addressing the press conference, the band members expressed their hope for a responsive crowd during the concert.

Reacting to a question on music and digitalisation scene, vocalist Gary Cherone opined that the consumption of music has changed because of digitalisation and streaming.

Sharing a similar sentiment with drummer Kelvin Figueiredo and other members, the band’s bassist Pat Badger also agreed that the internet has changed the music scene across the globe.

The band who took 35 long hours to reach India’s north-eastern state, did not make any announcement about the number of songs to be presented during the gig.

Many fans from various parts of the country have arrived to watch the show at the well decorated Bakshi ground in Ukhrul hill town where more than two dozens of rock bands are competing for the coveted title ‘Shirock 2019’ carrying a cash component of INR 10 lakh and the voice – the solo hunt for the individual prize competition.

On the opening day of ShiRock on Wednesday night, popular Scottish hard rock veterans Nazareth captivated more than 30,000 rock music lovers during their debut performance of more than 90 minutes.

With his high pitched scale vocal, new vocalist Carl also belted out a good number of popular tracks such as, ‘Love hurts,’ ‘Where are you now,’ ‘Hair of the dog,’ ‘This flight tonight,’ ‘Moonlight eyes,’ etc from the record holder albums and EPs witnessed by thousands of fans coming from various parts of the country.

(Our Correspondent)