Hyderabad Gig Series Mad Parrot Returns After Seven-Year Break

A lot has changed in the seven years since indie gig series Mad Parrot was put together by artist Pranati Khanna aka Peekay and sound engineer, bassist and songwriter Abbas Razvi (from thrash/death metallers Godless). “Some of the venues and bands from back then don’t even exist anymore. All of us from the organizing team have grown old too,” Khanna says with a laugh.

In December last year, while Khanna was getting her first tattoo, plans for a tattoo convention with rock performances on the side were being discussed, which eventually led to the revival of Mad Parrot. It had hosted its third edition in 2016 and is now continuing its pay-what-you-want entry fee and plans to split the earnings equally between each performing musician on the bill.

Or the fourth edition on June 11th at mainstay venue The Moonshine Project and its sister venue EXT by Moonshine Project, Mad Parrot will host New Delhi act Kraken, metal bands like Godless and Hostilian, singer-songwriters including Sidharth Bendi, Niteesh, Priyanka Nath and pop artist Peekay. Also on the lineup are rock bands like So Much to Carry and the Songsmiths, multi-instrumentalist producer Vibefixx, hip-hop crew Rival Mob, rapper Nio Endo and more.

The organizers says another key reason to bring back Mad Parrot was to showcase independent music in Hyderabad at a time where Telugu cover bands, Bollywood acts, tribute gigs and EDM artists are ruling the gig circuit. “On a weekend, we have at least 50 to 60 bands playing,” says Razvi, who runs a live concert equipment company called Infinity Pro Audio. The lack of artists playing their own music means that even venues like EXT run out of fresh names to program within a few months, according to Razvi. Even with calling down Kraken, Khanna and Razvi point out that previous editions of Mad Parrot introduced Hyderabad to then emerging artists like Chennai’s The F16s and Mumbai-based The Family Cheese. “People get exposed to that [out of town] band and suddenly love that band and maybe they get more chances to go and play in the city. We’re hoping something like that will happen with this,” Razvi adds.

Mad Parrot is taking over the entire Moonshine Project space, using their basement for a different stage, with live graffiti and more. “We’re also building a skate ramp and turning it into a mini skatepark,” he says. There will also be fashion and print stalls, plus tattoo artists rap cyphers, among other activities. For Godless’ set, there will be visuals set to their music for the first time. Khanna says she’s getting back to pop-rock sound, performing Peekay’s upcoming album in its entirety at Mad Parrot.

While Mad Parrot used to be an annual gig series, Khanna notes that it’s very “trial and error” with the current edition, in terms of financing and organizing it. “I would love to do Mad Parrot in other cities and dig into the lesser-known, talented acts from those places,” she adds.

Mad Parrot 4.0 takes place on June 11th at The Moonshine Project, EXT by Moonshine Project and Moonshine Basement, Hyderabad from 12 pm onwards. Get details here.