Over the next few months, pop and rock lovers are in for multiple treats by international acts, with Canadian star Bryan Adams, British group Coldplay, and singers Dua Lipa and Akon lined up. There are the big festivals too, with Bandland in Bengaluru on November 23 and 24, and Lollapalooza India in Mumbai on March 8 and 9 next year. Organised by BookMyShow, both festivals are vastly different, though they feature a good mix of international and Indian performers. Bandland is entirely a rock festival, and Lollapalooza cuts across genres, from rock and pop to desi rap and Indian indie acts.

The line-ups have been announced, and reactions on the social media and WhatsApp groups have been divergent. After all, British hard rock pioneers Deep Purple played at Bandland last year, and superstar Sting rounded off the last Lollapalooza. They were in another league. The headlining acts this year are both American acts formed in the 1980s. While hard rock group Extreme is slotted for Bandland, punk-rock stars Green Day will grace Lollapalooza.

Both bands have had their glory days, and a couple of iconic albums. And though they have been touring actively, their newer releases have received lesser attention. Some rock fans feel they are coming down a couple of decades late.

Let’s trace their track record. Extreme is known to mix energetic rock numbers with soulful power ballads. In fact, its most successful song More Than Words, from the 1990 album Pornograffitti, is an acoustic guitar-driven ballad that says expressing love is more than just saying ‘I love you’.

Extreme was formed in 1985 by vocalist Gary Cherone, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, bassist Pat Badger and drummer Paul Geary. Their sound blended hard rock, glam metal and pop-rock. They released their self-titled debut album in 1989, but Pornograffitti took them to newer heights, with songs like Decadence Dance, Get The Funk Out and More Than Words.

The group members split from 1997 to 2003, when Cherone even played with popular band Van Halen. However, three of them reunited, getting in Kevin Figueiredo on drums and releasing Saudades De Rock in 2008. After a 15-year gap, they released six last year. The first single was the hard-rocking Rise, and Bettencourt’s solo was much-admired. Again, there was a mix of harder numbers (Rebel and Banshee) and slow ones (Small Town Beautiful and Here’s To The Losers), besides the cheesy Beautiful Girls.

Like Extreme’s Six, Green Day’s 2024 release Saviors has some fabulous songs covering different styles. The track The American Dream Is Killing Me is about unfulfilled dreams, and Look Ma No Brains is about mental health issues. Bobby Sox is about a date request and Father To A Son is self-explanatory. Yet, with many people not keeping pace with the band’s progress, the album hasn’t made the impact created by Dookie (1994) and American Idiot (2004).

A three-piece Californian band formed in 1987, Green Day is one of the groups which helped in reviving punk-rock in the US. The line-up consists of vocalist-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Drint and drummer Tre Cool. While the albums Dookie, Insomniac and Nimrod built up their following in the 1990s, American Idiot was recognised as a path-breaking concept album, inspired by American political events. Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Holiday, the title track and Wake Me Up When September Ends are all considered rock classics. The similarly-themed follow-up album 21st Century Breakdown (2009) was well-received too, but later albums met with mixed reactions.

Besides these headliners and many Indian acts, both festivals have other interesting international bands. Bandland has American heavy metal group Avenged Sevenfold and English art rockers Everything Everything. Lollapalooza has singers Shawn Mendes and Louis Tomlinson, American guitarist Cory Wong, and rock bands Glass Animals and Nothing But Thieves.

It’s always difficult to programme such festivals, and keep everyone in the crowd happy. With big budgets and logistics involved, ticket rates are high. Maybe music lovers will use their discretion. Many may just prefer Mahindra Independence Rock in Mumbai this November.