The instrumentation was good, the original compositions were cool, the covers got the crowd jumping. Bands on stage abused the sound guy, bands backstage abused the organisers and RSJ, Bangalore bands swore never to return. Busy policemen went around scaring the smokers, the rockers examined each others T-shirts, the headbangers worked on their neck action. Finally, the results were announced to the usual mix of cheers 'n jeers and Zero had won the big prize with Freedom coming in second. I'm not going to don a judge's hat and comment on the results, but having done a little post-event cud chewing, I have the following observations to make.
Bands have simple needs.
All they really want is good sound, judges that treat every genre and band fairly, and a crowd to play to. I know it's easy to louse up things, even on multiple counts, but I feel that what went wrong with Livewire this year was more than the inevitable goof-up. It was lack of understanding on the organisers part that these bands spends a lot of time and money preparing for this event. Some of them travel 3 days to reach the venue. They then get up on stage and play for 20 minutes during which they have a right to demand the best possible sound and alert, qualified judges.