This has been a week when the culture police has been out in full force in India. But this post is about an incident with a difference. For a change, it was the actual police that got into the act, this time to enforce public indecency laws that are more stringent in India than other place in the world, save for the Islamic nations of the Middle east and the “Gelf”.
The need to enforce “strict moral standards” is very strong in India particularly in Chennai where the nighty wearing maamis with towels over their bosoms (thanks to Terri for that particularly erudite description) still probably tut-tut nervously at the briefest sight of female ankle.
As a couple of our own Über bloggers will attest, the Chennai police is known to patrol the city with a vengeance (see this) to catch cootchie-cooing love birds (of the human kind) in the act of stealing a kiss or two. Or going after party animals or downing a peg or two (see this) at a private party, based on photos from a voyeuristic photographer’s camera.
And it gets worse because, the day after the police decides to undertake such patrols vigorously, the front pages of the vernacular dailies are full of pictures of cowering citizens who have been “caught in the act”. It does not matter to these maamus if the act was kissing or just sitting next to each other and discussing the stock market over Haywards 5000 and “masala kadalai”. If the alibi won’t fit, they won’t acquit.
So when a couple of rocking (half?) naked head-bangers decide to snog each other on stage, it was perhaps a certainty that these “authorized safe keepers of the nation’s morality” were bound to step in, with or without invitation (hat-tip DoZ, via email).
It all started when the Atlanta (GA) based garage-rockers Black Lips landed in India to play a few gigs at Pune, Mumbai, Chennai etc. After some lack luster (as evident from accounts of bottle throwing incidents) performances in Pune, the band landed in Chennai to headline the Campus Rock Idol showcase.
As the Guardian reports, that’s where things got a little too heated up for (mostly for the Indian police’s) comfort.
Unfortunately, this positive reception made them a little feisty. According to one blog, guitarist Cole Alexander stripped and jumped into the crowd, returning to the stage only to snog his bandmates. Such nude antics, at least in Chennai, reportedly qualify as indecent exposure – and soon the band was on the run.
And while the headbangers in the audience were lapping it up, the gig’s promoters were not amused.
“After the fiasco, which the kids seemed to like, the financial backers of the event were furious and threw us off the tour,” the band explained on their website. “They tried to get security to restrain us until the Tamil police arrived. We locked the door while they were kicking and banging on it. Meanwhile, we slipped out the other emergency exit.”
And when the police showed up at the hotel, the band and its tour guides faced a pivotal question of survival. What happened next could easily be a plot twist in a Guy Ritchie flick (not his recent ones though)!
Fearing incarceration in the jail in Chennai, which one of the band members (in a letter to the band’s fans) described as “teeming with tuberculosis, violence and live maggots“, the band was soon on the road trying to outrun the police.
At that point our tour driver informed us we would have to drive six hours to get to the next town and cross state lines where we would be out of the Tamil authorities jurisdiction, because apparently the jail in Chennai is no joke. Word on the street said that it was teeming with tuberculosis, violence and live maggots so instead of risking going there we fled the scene. The drive ended up taking 10 hours because of a horrific accident on the road.
Interestingly, the band (in their pre-tour interviews) had promised to tone down their performances to suit Indian sentiments.
Black Lips‘ live performances promise much in terms of on-stage histrionics including vomiting, stage diving, urinating and band members kissing. However, for their much anticipated India tour, the band has promised to tone down the on-stage antics.
After going through more “troubleshit” involving a “mysterious man”, the band had (as of last news) “booked tickets on the first flight out yesterday (26th January) to Berlin, where they are going “to instead work with another Indian, King Khan, on an upcoming EP“.
Watch this space for news on how this noir-esque comedy played out and whether the band made it to Berlin to work with that dubiously named desi.
Update: Sounds like earlier reports of the “fugitives in the run from Chennai police” were greatly exaggerated. A little birdie, presumably from Mumbai, told us that the Police were never part of the chase. Awww shucks!
In an interview with Vice, the Atlanta punks say some of the original story they posted in their blog — in which they said they escaped through an emergency exit with security and possibly the police on their heels — was exaggerated. So, while lead singer Cole Alexander did expose himself and make out with guitar player Ian St. Pé, no charges were ever filed and there was no police involvement over the riotous show, though the tour’s funding was subsequently pulled by the promoter.
While the reasons behind the exaggerated claims are unclear (mebbe it was the joints!), what is clear is that the band is now engrossed in making music with King Khan and apparently has already completed 4 songs in the one day that they have spent in Berlin. Bravo!
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