Gig Review: AsWeKeepSearching ‘Zia’ Album Launch, Mumbai

Aswekeepsearching put up an audio-visual show for the audience. Photo: Swaraj Sriwastav

Since March, Ahmedabad post-rockers aswekeepsearching have left no stone unturned in promoting their new album, Zia, starting with a series of listening sessions across various cities. The band followed up the sessions with launch gigs across four major cities: Pune, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai.

For the last gig of their campaign, which took place on Wednesday, Mumbai’s Antisocial Khar bore a completely different look. In a Facebook post, frontman Uddipan Sarmah urged people to come help them set up the venue. Under the direction of live production manager Shipra Venkatesh, the band ensured that it was an audio-visual experience made by the fans, for the fans.

On gig day, starting soon after noon, the venue was decked up with origami birds, made in sync with the Zia album cover. The birds were glued to string and put up in patterns on the ceiling, with attention to detail reminiscent of the Lead Paper Feet Shoes album launch by Mumbai rockers Spud in the Box last year, where they had paper pages strung up to accompany a sound and light show. Ultraviolet light was used to light the birds up, which turned the venue into a neon-starred cave of sorts. Coupled with similarly surreal projections, the resulting effect brought Zia to life.

Mumbai post-rockers Cat Kamikazee, also promoting their debut EP Raining Cats, took stage first, churning out long melodic lines with syncopated beats. Following them were New Delhi-based instrumental-rock act Zokova. Zokova turned out to be the audience pick of the evening and got the crowd grooving with a mix of atmospheric/noise, guitar-loop driven sound, which essentially sounded like Trent Reznor on steroids.

Closing proceedings were the headliners aswekeepsearching, delivering as promised. High on energy and feels, their set consisted mostly of tracks from Zia, including crowd-favorite “Kalga.” The band was joined by Mumbai-based violinist Ajay Jayanthi. They also performed a couple of tracks off their previous album Khwaab, ending the night with a celebration of art in all its forms: musical, audio-visual and textual.

Click through the gallery below to see pictures of the event. All Photos by Swaraj Sriwastav.

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