If you’ve loved watching street musicians like guitarist Estas Tonne on YouTube, then the city has a surprise in store. Next time your weekend stroll might be enlivened by young talents from Showtime Kochi. This collective of musicians—which started off with 10 people and now has 19 members—has already rocked the city with their tunes thrice, in places including Panampilly Nagar and Decathlon in Vytilla.“Showtime Kochi is an accidental venture that was triggered off when some of us got acquainted at a local battle of bands competition. Right before the World Music Day, 2017 someone proposed the idea to jam at everyone’s favourite hangout—Street Scape,” says a founding member and rapper T V Arjun.
Keep ’em coming
After the success of the first event, the collective decided to make their gatherings a monthly habit. With the musicians practising distinct musical roots—like rock, pop, rap and metal—and being from popular bands like Ravens in the Sea and Samsara, each session is different from the previous. While the first get together used acoustic instrumentation, later on, the supporters brought in their own amplifiers to enrich the sound. “Our platform welcomes even amateur musicians and we aim to create a musical ambience in the city. We realised that the city’s crowds are receptive of this when a middle-aged couple opened up their porch for us to play during a downpour,” says Sachin Rajeev, vocalist of The Manchild Project. With the word having spread on social media, musicians are even coming from neighbouring towns like Thrissur. “We plan to take selective good musicians from our gatherings to bigger stages through the endeavour,” Sachin trails off.
Details: facebook.com/showtimekochi