A tambourine jingles; light go off. Deepankar pulls out a harmonica just as the drums kick-in. The harmonica jam builds and lasts a few minutes and offers both catharsis and transcendence to the listener. Centerstage, lights falling on his wild face make it appear angelic for a few moments before the guitar, the bass, and Deepankar’s roaring rage of vocals come together on chorus.
After the applause for a Stones cover Deepankar turned to the audience: –
‘This is a rock show for those of you who don’t know let me tell you that at a rock show you don’t clap…’
‘…YOU SCREAM!’
We screamed till our lungs caved in and then we danced till our lungs fell out of our mouths. Aided by an endless supply of music, madness and miscellaneous substances we felt that life had finally become a Linklater movie.
We lost our senses and in middle of a song intro a sweaty, long-and-messy-haired Deepankar who had climbed up a table and was surrounded by a pool of fans started to — whistle. A whistle like no other before. It was a whistle that could make you melt or freeze. It could make you weak in your knees…
He whistled to the audience the lure of a beautiful dream and we saw that Deepankar’s eyes had mercy. He was to save us all from whatever it was that haunted him!
‘They don’t just perform. They curate an experience.’ Says one of their devout concert attendees.
Theatrics are a part of Deepankar’s gimmick. He is inspired by Cassady from On the Road and Hunter S. Thompson from Fear and Loathing. He taunts and mocks his audience to incite their energies into expanding. He falls to the floor, rolls, shouts gibberish that is musical still and then rises by the time the chorus hits.
A good act is better live, and a great act makes you feel like the studio version needs to be re-recorded.
‘Hill Song’ is psychedelia meets Iggy Pop. It’s a no-holds-barred and no-fucks-given psychedelic rock song. It is both Dirty’s ode and answer to their inspirations.
We’re in the hills baby
Gonna get some thrills
‘Like Never Before’ is Motorhead, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin combined and having a child. It is a hard-headbanger with an unforgettable groove. Sexy is the right word to describe the song’s spirit.
It takes a lot to keep up with a band that is just testing your limits. Things keep breaking- tables, chairs, glasses, heads. But the most overwhelming part about these shows is the danger of being one of the last ones to keep rock alive. Police have stopped them mid-concert for being too noisy. They got banned from The Piano Man for outrageous behavior.
At IIT Bombay Deepankar pulled an unbelievable feat when he climbed up through stage scaffolding mid-performance in Eddie Vedder style. It was as scary as it was legendary. This bad boy behavior follows these rockstars wherever they go as it followed the likes of Jim or Lemmy.
Community is a very important aspect of Dirty Class. ‘There’s no scene! We’re the scene!’ Deepankar tells a group of fans before concert. They wish to instill and inspire an extreme sense of individuation like the kind that was in 60s.
The best minds of my generation were destroyed by madness…
Afterparties occur in dingy clubs, empty parks and usually go on till the last one quits. It is all about keeping up with Deepankar…
Kartik says that he loves to party till the Monday morning after the Sunday concert. ‘Because I love to see all those guys in the metro going to work and then there is me. It makes me feel better about myself.’
Community because the art of existence lies in coexistence. Deepankar is saintly with his words sometimes. Sometimes he’s just outrageous.
‘I drink because otherwise I will leave all this and become a hermit!’
The outrage pervades out from his words to Dirty’s live shows in which I have seen a fifty-year-old cartwheel while they played a Tribute to Grateful Dead. At the same gig they had a five-year-old child on chorus for:
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
Fire! Fire on the mountain!
A chorus that went on in repeat for about twenty minutes…
Deepankar and Kartik met at Parikrama School of Music in Hauz Khas Village. Deepankar was a teacher to Kartik. They met each other as Kerouac met Cassady. Both recognized the crazy in each other. Rest is still in making…
We can share the women
We can share the wine
The lyrics to a cover go…
They have shared the stage with some of the biggest acts in the country: Indian Ocean, Parikrama, Boomarang, etc. They are regulars at Summerhouse, Home, Depot 48, The Mission Bay, The Piano Man, etc. They have performed at big stages such as Bir Music Fest, Motorama, etc.
Everybody in the circuit hails Deepankar as heir apparent to Jim Morisson. He’s around 27 and just as crazy as Jim was. He doesn’t just give a show. He directs it. Deepankar says his goal during a performance is to make their audience ‘trip’ – he shines spotlight on audience members, whilst handing them the mic in the middle and doesn’t shy away from writhing on the floor, mid performance in a way reminiscent of Jim Morisson.
It’s peak performance art in which his body becomes a vessel out of which spurts something bigger than himself.
‘That’s the loudest you guys can get?’ Deepankar teases the audience. He’s a quintessential rock hero…
The more energy the audience demands the more energy the band gives. Kartik’s guitar playing is stunning. His solos bleed out of that guitar. He enjoys what he does… He sings backing vocals that uplift the choruses in a way reminiscent of Frusciante. Kartik’s nickname is Knopfe… after Mark Knopfler who his father simply adored. His parents are present at almost each show and his father is always dancing. His mother is proud but worried. She is haunted by the cliches of the rock and roll life…
Bijoy is a subtle and sharp bassist. He’s lowkey though he has every reason to be cocky. He has been in the industry for so long that he has shared the stage with stalwarts both remembered and lost. He runs a famous studio that goes by the name of BigFuz in Humayunpur that serves as Delhi’s ghetto for rock n roll underground.
What works for the band is that they are all inspired by each other… all fans of each other. They can pull any Classic Rock number but they like Grateful Dead the most.
‘Dead has everything!’ Deepankar concludes!
After giving a couple of outrageous solos Kartik sighs and still feels that: – ‘There’s a tune in my head that is always better than the one in my ear…’
I wonder of Tartini’s Devil’s Trill Sonata… A Devil came to Tartini in a dream and played a tune so beautiful that Tartini composed the best of his work in trying to recreate that tune but still he sighed and said – ‘You should have heard that Devil in my dream…’
Maybe all art is just a mad chase toward that tune in the head, that Devil in a dream…
To expel so much energy for art is unnecessary but Cobain wrote right when he said that – It’s better to burnout than fade away…
The thing with being a rockstar is that you are not a rockstar by choice. You’re not a rockstar because you perform rock songs. You’re a rockstar because you embody the edgy lifestyle. Because you do what nobody needs to in a world where nobody cares and you do it because you believe…
In a fair universe Dirty Class would be the best band of our times. But I am satisfied with them being just my favorite secret… And now yours…
