TOUR REPORT: Indian Hardcore Bands PACIFIST and KONFLICTS Tour Nepal [India]

TOUR REPORT | Pacifist

Before you all hop into the following tour report by Indian hardcore band PACIFIST, we have to give it up to the band who constantly send us tour reports helping us document what’s going on in Southern Asia in terms of hardcore. The band recently hit up Nepal and came back with a trunk full of memories and a beautifully written report below. Respect.

It’s not a common sight to see hardcore bands in Nepal & India come together to throw down one of the most epic lineups ever. So when STRANGLE, KONFLICTS & PACIFIST got together to do shows in Kathmandu & Gangtok, it was the perfect cross-country tour that had a lot of firsts to celebrate.

xBreakingBoundariesx was a homecoming show for Strangle after their first tour of China, and the first time Pacifist have ever played in Kathmandu. While on the other hand in Gangtok, both Strangle & Pacifist played their first ever shows in the city at GujixGuji. And what’s amazing is the connecting thread that Konflicts brought into these respective scenes, truly making it a collaboration across scenes!

This was a crazy gruelling tour as well – travelling over 700+ kilometers across the Himalayas, from Nepal to Sikkim, all by road in a bus to play a few shows! The feat was no ordinary one, and took some conviction by the bands to commit & see through.

This tour had been in the works & a long time coming. We asked Konflicts frontman Yenden Phurba Sherpa his thoughts on what motivated the bands to make this happen –

“There was a long time vision of bringing in bands from India to the thriving scene in Nepal and vice versa. Nepal has always had a great punk/hardcore scene and rather a good one compared to us in India. (GujixGuji have previously hosted Nepalese bands like Nainsook, Youth Unite & Discord, in their first ever edition) With a great community like the KVHC (Kathmandu Valley Hardcore) helping it build even more, this felt like the next big thing to do to push the culture forward.”

Sidharth Raveendran, vocalist of Pacifist had this to say about this tour:

“We’ve always heard so much about the Nepal scene, and we’re so excited to play to an audience that knows their hardcore & is so connected to the culture on so many levels. The KVHC scene really made an impression on us with not just their fearless, confident and fierce expression on stage & in the pit, but also through their warmth & hospitality towards us. It felt like we’ve always known them, and they were just awesome to hang out & play shows with.

Big shoutout to Umang & Iksu from Nainsook, Ashish Kayastha from Strangle & his crew for taking care of us in Kathmandu, to having the pleasure of meeting the KVHC OG’s Vishal & Ashish (Six Coffins), Manish (The Doltish), Keroz (Discord) & to Sahil and the Alliance In Struggle team in Dharan for setting up the show!”

Speaking of the OG’s, here’s what we learned from Strangle guitarist & bandleader Ashish Kayastha on their recent run of shows in China –

“China was awesome. This was our 2nd international tour experience & this was an unforgettable one. The tour went very well, starting from Chonqing and ended in Hangzhou .We played 7 cities. Heaven On Fire was one of the biggest festivals we played and was so good and as soon as we came back we played a show with Pacifist, Konflicts and Nainsook at Purple Haze and went to Sikkim for Guji Guji Vol 6. The tour was a great learning experience for us as we learned so much from this and met so many new friends. All stops on the tour were equally impressive and we made a lot of good friends on the tour. The crowd in China was very supportive and a lot of people knew us from Unite Asia and thanks to xxvire for making it happen.

Speaking with the Indian bands, we asked how they feel about the scene in Nepal compared to the scene back home in India –

Sidharth: “They remind me of the scenes in Thailand & Indonesia, very confident in their identity, close-knit & thriving. But despite the fact, I don’t see that many opportunities for bands in our subcontinent when it comes to playing hardcore music or catching shows with a popular act touring in the region. India & Nepal usually get skipped, but we want to change that. We’re hoping this is the first of many to come, and our bands get to take South Asian hardcore places. We want to be a part of this cultural movement.”

Yenden: “The scene is Nepal is very huge, they have an added advantage of being a tourist hub where people from all over the world come over but the main observation we’ve had was that they had a sense of belonging, friendship and brotherhood. They were in it for life and not just a phase. Back home, in Gangtok it’s more of a shock value. People come to see the show with a sense of exploration – but for our scene to actually thrive and keep building we will need the same sense of belonging and care for each other which I’ve seen in Nepal.”

We asked all bands on what they feel about the future for South Asian hardcore bands, after these recent shows –

Ashish: “After the tour with Pacifist and Konflicts, we had fun knowing each other and playing together. It made us believe that there will be a lot of bands visiting each other and a lot of South Asian bands playing international shows in the future and thanks to Unite Asia for connecting so many bands!”

Yenden: “We have shown other bands that it is possible to do this even after being a band based out of a small North Eastern State in India. We’ve brought in bands from all over India and Nepal in hopes that other bands make connections so that even they also go out and do shows outside of the state. After 4 years of doing GujixGuji, we have gotten to a point where this is a bit more sustainable which gives us hope that we can keep doing this. The culture is headed in the right direction. We can’t force it to go big in a day. All we can do is keep doing what we’ve been doing, that is keep putting on shows, keep playing shows and keep putting out music.”

“We really put our heart and soul into this and have always been honest with the art. I hope it paves way for other bands to follow suit. The only reward we can hope for is to keep doing this and nothing more. Keep fighting the good fight!”

Sidharth: “I think the only way to move is forward, and for our scenes to work together more often, while acknowledging our challenges as a larger community. Our countries are vast & geographically challenging to navigate through. Our governments are corrupt, bigoted and keep our minorities segregated & discriminated against. The value of our passports & currency peg us as low ranking citizens in a racist world running on Western imperialism. We all know & acknowledge that Asian bands have it hard to begin with, but South Asia literally has it the worst. But we want to rise above it all. We want to find a way to flip the narrative, and champion our causes, our identity & break through the glass ceiling that comes with being brown.”

On a final note, the bands have this to say:

“We really put our heart and soul into this and have always been honest with the art. I hope it paves way for other bands to follow suit. The only reward we can hope for is to keep doing this and nothing more. Keep fighting the good fight!”