Half Step Down and Cyanide to rock Shimla under Pubrockfest 2008

Shimla would soon rock to the beats of two bands playing live at the multiplex Ritz cinema hall. The tours of these bands fall under Pubrockfest 2008, a Rock Street Journal which started in 2005 with a 4 gig festival featuring 12 bands in Delhi. The festival has not only sustained itself but also expanded and it is good to know that towns like Shimla do make to their lists. This year the festival would make way into 20 cities with 60 gigs through May, June and July.
Half Step Down, a blues-rock band with influences right from Cream, Hendrix, to Led Zeppelin and Dave Matthews would perform here on June 21st. The band etched from a college band features Dhaval, Rudy with Jishnu and Srijan on guitars and drums while Rohan backs vocals and Shiv’s has his hands on the keys. They plan to record and release an EP soon.

On June 22nd, the already famous Cyanides formed in 2001 would play here. The original team consisted of Dhaval Mudgal (now Half Step Down) as the Vocalist, Rohan Solomon on Guitars, Bharat Bindal on Bass, Rahul Sainani (now Joint Family) on Guitars & Shardul Mehta (now Joint Family) on Drums. One of India’s youngest bands playing their own original compositions has won the Pepsi Storm 2002. The final team consists of Rohan Solomon with Vocals and Guitars, Bharat Bindal with Bass/ Backing Vocals, Srijan Mahajan playing it hard with the drums as Rohan Kale would handle chords at guitars. Their influences range from Porcupine tree to 12 Stones, Breaking Benjamin to Godsmack and Limp Bizkit to U2 and many more.
Get ready to rock!

Neha Chandok