BOMB Thursdays with Bombay Bassment

Bombay Bassment. Photo: Vinit Bhatt

Last fortnight, Andheri’s Kino 108 turned into an underground punk bar of sorts as five bands came together to kick off the new fortnightly music series, BOMB Thursdays. The mid-week gig this time comes ahead of an extended weekend, so if  you aren’t all packed for a weekend getaway yet, head to the suburbs. On the bill tonight are three Mumbai acts including school-going rockers Unohu, who were last seen on stage at the crowd-funded Control ALT Delete, young alt rockers The Fringe Pop and popular hip hop band, Bombay Bassment.

Bombay Bassment, who we caught up with ahead of their performance at Snoop Lion’s Pune gig, last performed in their homecity in November 2012 as part of India Music Week. The quartet will perform an hour-long set of their dance-friendly tunes tonight. “We will perform a completely new version of ”˜Show Me What You Got’ and a new ska track titled ”˜Son Of a King’,” says drummer Levin Mendes. The band’s rapper, Bobkat, will be joined by jazz singer Lara Pinto [she previously collaborated with Louiz Banks on his album, Moonlight in Goa] on their dubstep-heavy set staple, “Midnight.” “We usually perform this song with samples, but this time it will be just Lara,” adds Mendes.

The Fringe Pop, like Unohu, made their debut at Control ALT Delete at Sitara Studio [the venue also hosts their second gig tonight, an electronica night featuring Ox7gen, EZ Riser and DJ Amul. Details here]. Tonight, The Fringe Pop will play their first acoustic gig. “We haven’t done this before, and we are very excited about it,” says frontman Shreyas Kendurkar. The band recently won IIT- Bombay’s Mood Indigo rock band competition Livewire, landing a record deal with Chill Om records. Their debut album will feature seven songs that talk about “our life experiences, the way we see the music scene and love.” Kendurkar adds, “We will hit the studios in the last week of April and we hope to launch the album by May.”

Unohu, the youngest act at the gig, will open the night with what they call “disco party” music. “Our songs are fun. We want people to enjoy our music and we don’t play serious stuff,” explains drummer Shashwat Karkare. The young alt rockers, who took a break from gigging to prepare for their board exams, now plan to work on new material. About their set tonight, Karkare adds: “It’ll be a varied set with slow and fun songs. We have songs with just guitars and piano and some of our songs are really not exactly heavy, but, well heavier than the soft piano ones.”

Bombay Bassment, The Fringe Pop and Unohu perform at BOMB Thursdays at Kino 108, Mumbai. For details, click here