Coshish and Rainburn Team Up for Shows in Mumbai and Pune This Week

Rainburn will perform in Pune and Mumbai this week alongside Coshish. Photo by Sharon Sylvia.

If you wondered just how wide the scope of progressive music is, just ask Bengaluru prog rock band Rainburn’s guitarist Vats Iyengar. He says, “To me, Stevie Wonder in the Seventies is prog; Radiohead is prog.” Yet, it’s been difficult for the band ”“ who released their EP Canvas of Silence in 2014 to international acclaim ”“ to land gigs outside southern India. They’ve now lined up their first shows in Mumbai [June 9th] and Pune [June 12th] with help from fellow prog rockers Coshish and music blogger and investor Ramakrishnan Krishnan.

If Rainburn hasn’t been able to break out of Bengaluru, Mumbai-based Coshish have always found it impossible to set up shows in the North and North-East of the country. Says drummer Hamza Kazi, “Any club or organizer wants bands that get them business. Even though we’ve played to big crowds in Mumbai, it’s still a gamble [for the organizers].” However, the drummer does admit they’re returning to play their fourth gig in six months in Pune. The band heads to café venue The High Spirits for the first time, performing a selection of songs off 2013’s Firdous and year-old newer songs such as “Circular Time” and “Revolving Sevens.”

Rainburn, on the other hand, are working to release their latest song “Merchant of Dreams,” which is part of their setlist for both shows this week, along with the entire five-track EP. While their guitarist Toshimoa Jamir left the band earlier this year, they roped in Mukul Srivastava after a round of auditions. Turns out, they’ve got another change to make for these shows owing to Srivastava suffering a fractured leg. Iyengar says, “We’ve got [Bengaluru-based guitarist] Benson Chacko filling in, and he was part of the auditions as well.”

Iyengar draws from the likes of prog acts King Crimson, Porcupine Tree and fusion band Shakti on “Merchant of Dreams,” which will be recorded and released with a music video in the coming months. The uphill struggle with promoting prog music hasn’t deterred Iyengar from planning the second, possibly scaled-up edition of a showcase gig called Progworks dedicated to the genre. He says, “It’s all in the planning phase, but were looking to work with Coshish and make it much bigger, hopefully in October.”

Rainburn and Coshish perform at Hard Rock Café, Andheri on June 9th and at High Spirits, Pune on June 12th, 2016. Event details here.