Busy day our last day in Chennai – Sean sang at a 28,000 member Assembly of God church in the morning, and in the evening we played at Zara’s Pub. One of the local papers had people there, and they loved it.
Here’s a video from that night:
After the show at Le Rock, we had to get up and catch a 6am train to Chennai. Paul had arranged a newspaper interview, and also a television interview with the local news affiliate. We were exhausted though. So it was really a surprise what the next day had in store… turned out to be one of our best days.
We started early in the morning by meeting at a swank hotel where Sean was to be interviewed for a show called “Autograph” on Souther Spice Music Television. Turns out the host of the show is one of the most beautiful women in south India – Paloma. We could do worse than spending the whole morning with the prettiest girl in town.
Immediately after the interview, we rented a cab and took the long drive down the coast to a town called Pondicherry. Its a beautiful town on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and the place we were playing was right on the beach. So the wind was blowing in off the sea and cooling down what was otherwise one of the hottest days yet. But we could only feel the breeze.
This gig was actually a mini-festival and there were about 8 bands playing. One of the bands covered a Living Sacrifice song. It was great.
So, beautiful women, beaches, and Living Sacrifice cover bands. Adds up to a pretty stellar day.
also… here’s some video of that band, Blood Covenant, covering “Reject” by Living Sacrifice:
We got only one day to rest before we hit the ground running. Paul had arranged for us to do an interview on Radio Indigo, which is the largest English speaking station in south India. The DJ whose show we were on is a believer, and he goes by the name Saggy. That’s a pic of us with Saggy above. We don’t have a copy of the interview yet, but we hope to have one soon and we will make that available. We did our best to not be preachy, but to also be bold. We found out that immediately after we left the building, the owner of the station sent a company wide email to not associate with Sean Michel, because the word was Sean is an evangelist and Radio Indigo is not a platform for Christian Evangelists. Saggy plans to air the interview, but he made sure to let his Hindu producer do the editing, which is pretty shrewd.
So after the interview, we had to get ready for a show that night. Sean had to meet some new musicians, practice with them, and then go to the venue to play. Turned out pretty good, actually. The bass player is from Ivory Coast and his name is Joaz. The drummer is from Bangalore and is named Jared. Here’s a video of them rocking Amazing Grace at a pub called Le Rock. After the show, the owner got Sean to autograph a guitar that he is going to frame and mount in the pub. Guess it was a pretty memorable performance.
That’s a picture of Sean and I crossing the border back into India. Its startling how fast the highest mountains in the world give way to palm trees. To get there, we had to take a flight from Kathmandu to some little town on the eastern edge of Nepal. The airport was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie – the baggage claim was a wooden counter and the whole terminal was just one room. From there, we had to hire a cab to take us across the border (pictured above) into a town called Bagdogra which is just on the Indian side of the border. We were concerned to not have anywhere to stay, but the Lord was watching over us. The night before we left, our friend Viku (the guitar player from Moksh) had us over to participate in a worship gathering. He heard our plans and told us his grandparents ran a hotel in Bagdogra. So it turned out that we had a place to stay. We stayed at marina’s motel one night (despite wifi being down, it was really nice) and then headed to the Bagdogra airport. We caught a flight to Calcutta, where we had a 6 hour layover. From there, we took a flight to Bangalore to meet our friend Brian, who has been kind of the point man for this whole trip. So if you’re keeping score, that’s 5 airports, 3 cab rides, 2 buses and a hotel in about 50 hours.
Over the next couple weeks, we’ll be based out of Brian’s apartment while doing gigs all over South India. He also has an Indian friend named Paul Victor who runs a ministry based production company and he’s actually the guy who has booked our shows in south India. Despite telling Brian and Paul how tired we already are, it seems we’re going to have to find a second wind because the next couple weeks are jam packed.
That’s a picture of Machhapuchhre, aka Fishtail Mountain ( over 20,000 ft. above sea level). This pic was taken by our friend Crystal, who accompanied us to the town of Pokhara where she took this picture. We headed to Pokhara because it is the second biggest town in Nepal and we thought we’d have some opportunities to share there. Also, our friend Kav, who is the one who organized all our work here in Nepal, was being relocated to Pokhara. So we didn’t really have any plans, but the night we got into town Sean and I just walked around the happening part of town and tried to find some places to play. We walked into this one place called “The Old Blues Bar”, which we figured was perfect for us. We flashed the newspapers from Kathmandu, and they were more than willing to have us play the next night. We did the same at a bar called “Busy Bee” with the same result. The night we played the Blues Bar, a monsoon came through and we were stuck in the bar till nearly 2am. The bar leaked pretty bad, and it was funny to see those dudes using whatever they could to scoop up water and throw it outside – only to have it pour back in. But it was good because we got to bond with the rest of the people rained in the bar and even got opportunities to share the gospel. The next night at Busy Bee was not as good of a show, as the stage is not situated in such a way that people are faced that way. So most of those in attendance weren’t even paying attention. In any event, we were blessed to hang out in Pokhara and hopefully we were able to scatter some seeds and make some contacts for the M’s there that will bear fruit eventually. Plus, its just a beautiful city and we were glad to have seen it.
We head back to Kathmandu tomorrow and catch a flight the next day on our way back to India. I think we’re going to miss Nepal quite a bit. Everyone says the Nepal is not a place you go to only once. I can certainly feel an urging to make that the case for me.
That picture is of Sean doing a radio interview for a Christian radio station broadcasting out of Kathmandu. We were actually supposed to be heading to Darjeeling the day of that interview, but we got word that Darjeeling was closed to foreigners right now. There are many factions and political/religious groups that use mob force to impose their will and they basically shut down roads and businesses just to make their point. The only thing you can do is wait it out, as the government is too weak or disinterested to do anything about it. What makes the Darjeeling situation interesting is that it is actually in India, but is pretty much inhabited completely by Nepali’s. So it probably has something to do with wanting to make Darjeeling a part of Nepal. Anyway, what it means for us is that we’re staying in Nepal an extra week than planned. So one thing we got to do was this interview.
Another thing we got to do was play at a bar called Moksh. This bar is owned by a guy who plays bass for probably the most famous band in the country. We also heard Sting played here when he was in town. They have a house band, and they ended up playing a couple jams before Sean did his thing, and then they came back up and backed Sean for the second half of his set. It was a packed dive-bar crowd, and they were totally into the tunes, clapping and singing along. The guitar player and drummer in the house band are both believers, and told us later they were inspired to see the crowd so into songs about Jesus. They said they are going to change their approach and be more proactive with sharing the gospel with their music. There were two other comments we heard that are worth noting. There was one lady who told us she was embarrassed and scared when she first realized the songs were Gospel songs. She is a Christian, but her many Hindu friends were there and she didn’t know how they’d take it. But she said as the set continued, she just didn’t care that her friends saw her and she just let go and was worshipping, clapping and singing along – publicly declaring to her friends who she belongs to. Also, the guitar player, Viku, told us that he spoke with some people after the show who were scared the Hindu gods would be angry at them for singing along and clapping to songs about Jesus. Viku was able to speak boldly and told them to not worry because Jesus is more powerful than those gods.
Here is a brief clip of Sean playing at Moksh with the house band. Its a cover of Bob Seger’s “Kathmandu”.
Well… Sean’s famous in Kathmandu now. Taxi drivers are giving us fair rates now, so that’s a plus.
Its been a great weekend of shows, contacts, ministry, and fellowship. We absolutely love this place.
*by the way, if you manage to read the articles note that many details were lost in translation.
The above picture was taken from out of our window at the Norwegian Guest House, in Patan area of Kathmandu. When you got scenery like that, it just seems to make everything a little better. We met the owner the New Orleans Cafe the other night and actually had a burger there. You can actually get beef here! Its scarce, as most of the population is Hindu. But its available. Sudesh, the owner of New Orleans Cafe, has turned out to be a great friend. He is having us play at both locations of New Orleans Cafe, as well as arranging another show for us, contacting local press to promote the shows, and on top of that is letting Sean use his Fender guitar amp. Sudesh is not a believer, and despite his Hindu background doesn’t seem to have much religious belief at all. We are praying for his salvation and the opportunity to share with him.
We’ve also met a local pastor named Arbin who will be hosting us at an event his church has planned on Saturday. He’s been extremely helpful and insightful, and has offered to drive us wherever we need to go. Its cool to hear how the Gospel is spreading in these parts – where it seems Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, and Anarchy are the rule, new churches keep popping up. Its an amazing testimony that is not without the price of persecution, but it doesn’t seemed to have slowed the advance of God’s Kingdom in this country.
Nepal has proven to be quite a bit more Western. Turns out, almost everyone we talk to here has spent some time in the US – which is strange since I’ve never met a Nepali in the US. But apparently, most of them capable of pursuing a college degree do so in the US. Also, many we’ve met have just backpacked and hitchhiked across the states. kinda strange, but also very interesting. The smog is a problem in Kathmandu, as it is in a valley (still 5000 ft. above sea level) nestled underneath the Himalayas. Almost everyone has a mask to cover their face. They look like Cobra soldiers – which makes me think two things: i gotta get one of those masks and i really hope the new GI Joe movie doesn’t suck.
Anyway, we’re looking forward to the show tonight, and the rest of them throughout the weekend. Here’s a pic of Sean at the New Orleans Cafe before he plays tonight – keeping that light shining.
This has been truly our first bad day. Yesterday, we drove down from the hills with Joey and his family, as he had a meeting in Delhi and we were due to fly out from there. We finally got to meet up with JoJo from Wild Fire Tribe, and we stayed at his house. We stayed up pretty late talking and jamming with him, but we had to get up to catch a flight that left at noon to Kathmandu, Nepal. Sean and I got up in plenty of time, but JoJo did not. Plus, there was the obligatory greetings and breakfast… but we were insistent that we needed to leave. So around 10 am, we finally departed for the airport. Delhi has maybe the worst traffic in the world, and so it took us a little over an hour to get to the airport. By the time we got to the check-in desk, it was 11:15, and they refused to let us check-in, saying we were too late. Beg and plead as we might, our only alternative would be to purchase new tickets (since the ones we had were non refundable and non transferrable). Flustered, we shelled out $500 for a new flight… more than twice what the original ones cost, but it was the only flight left and we had to get there that day. So as we’re waiting, Sean and I completely forget about our multi-tools on our person. Of course, they were confiscated at security check. As I was trying to bribe the officers (that’s accepted and encouraged over here), our names came over the speaker. We were about to miss the second flight! So we abandoned our knives and rushed to our gate. We took a bus to the plane, and when we got there and they wanted to see my boarding pass, I couldn’t find it or my passport. So they flagged down the bus we had just got off of, and fortunately they were still on there. So we board the plane, frustrated, flustered, but glad to be sitting down and done with it. That is, until the pilot came over the speaker and said that they were “missing a part” and that we would be there indefinitely while they tried to replace it. After two hours of sitting in the plane on the tarmac, we were finally in the air towards Nepal. Our contact in Kathmandu, Kav, had no way of knowing that we had missed the flight. But fortunately, she was diligent and was waiting on us after we had gone through customs and baggage check. We took a cab to the guest house we would be staying in, and as we were getting out of the cab, I asked, “Sean, where’s your pedal board?” We had left it at the airport – just completely forgot about it when grabbing our luggage. So we hurry back to the airport, and by the hand of providence ran into the airline workers just as they were leaving. We were able to retrieve the pedal board, and head back to the Norwegian Guest House and finally unwind. As rough as the day had been, we are anticipating some great things in Kathmandu. We know that opposition is many times a sign that we are doing something right, and so in that regard its somewhat encouraging. But we are now exhausted, and have taken a serious hit to our budget. But we’re in a beautiful country, staying in a peaceful place, and looking forward to the next few days.
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