Gig Pix: The launch of Baran, by Parvaaz at Counter Culture, B'lore

Having been a part of their Wishberry campaign, I got my hands on the debut full length album by Bangalore band Parvaaz a few weeks before the official launch. The album titled ‘Baran’ blew my mind. I’ll comment on the album on a later post. I was looking forward to the launch at Counter Culture, it took place on the 6th of September.

The evening began with Vasu Dixit (of Swarathma) who set the ball rolling with Bindumalini, had a fabulous controlled voice. The short acoustic set also had Bindu sing with Kashif on a few Kabir-inspired songs. Vasu was accompanied by fellow-band mate  Sanjeev Nayak, on a few Swarathma tracks and he closed the opening set with the Swarathma hit ‘Topiwalleh’.

Vasu Dixit from Swarathma

Bindumalini

Sanjeev Nayak

Bindumalini with Kashif

Parvaaz started their set with Beparwah from the new album – a perfect song to set the evening in motion. Giving the band solid support on guitar was Anthony Michael Dias from Mad Orange Fireworks. The band then moved on to some of the older stuff like Marika, Aazadi, Dil Khush and others.

Khalid with Michael Anthony Dias

Sachin Banandur

Kashif Iqbal

The crowd was all set and cosy for the rest of the gig with the band resuming playing material from the new album. The band called upon Sanjeev Nayak to help out on Ab ki yeh Subah, from the new album. This was followed by Ramanan Chandramouli and Wilbur Colaco, who came on stage to help on the very daft-punk meets Michael Jackson (the early stuff) song Fitnah. Wilbur continued to play the sax on Ziyankar.

Parvaaz ft. Sanjeev Nayak

Khalid with Ramanan

Fidel D'souza

The band closed the planned set with Roz Roz that morphed into the thirteen minute masterpiece, also the title of the album, Baran. The crowd went nuts and almost rowdily demanded an encore. After a bit of deliberation, the band obliged by playing a completely new song- Mastaan. The launch of Baran was rather epic, right from the whole Wishberry campaign to D-day which had a packed house. The awesome lighting by the folks at Counter Culture was a big added element that made the music sound so much better. 

The one guy who danced right through the gig

Packed house at Counter Culture

Khalid Ahmed

Kudos to the boys from Parvaaz for putting together a great show, and a great album. Do go and buy it online and catch the band in your city. You’ll love it.