The Coolest Bar Night in Bengaluru That You’ve Never Heard Of

Partying builds community.

“An angel came to me at night and whispered...,” quips Vivek Boray with a laugh muffled by a large, salt-and-pepper beard. Vivek is one of the musical minds behind GMO or GOOD MUSIC ONLY, a fortnightly bar night in the city. “He means, we kind of probably feel the same way about the music at Bengaluru bars not being very good,” interjects Hollis Coats, the other brain behind this musical intervention.

Music has deep roots

More than two years ago, Vivek – a lawyer, music festival curator and resident DJ on various radio platforms, who shuttles between the US and Bengaluru, started bumping into Hollis, a musician, DJ, and head brewer at Arbor Brewing Company across the city.

“Over more than a few beers, we ended up generally chatting about the dismal state of music at the city’s bars. We wanted to go out, listen to good music – random music that was curated; but not in an algorithmic kind of way. We wanted to hear music where some thought had been put into the selection, where it is packed with some personality,” Vivek says. “Most of the time when you’re at a bar, the music isn’t very good,” underscores Hollis. “The playlist is crammed with super obnoxious, overly produced and overly promoted tracks one after the other. There’s no just going to any bar on a regular night and having the music actually be good,” Hollis summarises.

Instead of being the usual denizens of our great metropolis, constantly complaining without any action, this duo decided to dig into their long association and experience with music to balance the scale. Vivek has “help run and curate” Slingshot, an artist-run festival at the nexus of music and electronic art. After ten editions in the United States, starting in Georgia, North Carolina, “we recently hosted our eleventh edition of Slingshot in Mumbai, just this year,” he adds. He’s also been a resident DJ at Boxout.fm, “but music has always been one of the central things in my life – kind of being its orbit. Along with writers, musicians have been the core of my group of friends – even when I chose to go to college, I went to Austin in Texas because I knew I could go to a lot of shows out there,” he explains. Even his professional decisions were fuelled by the desire to be in cities “around and surrounded by music and musicians.”

From the POV of these music goggles, Vivek’s budding friendship with Hollis makes perfect sense. Hollis has been playing with bands since his high-school days and presently, he also plays with HMT alongwith poet-writer Jeet Thayil and musician Sandeep Mahadevan. But Hollis is constantly building up his music library and fine-tuning his ear for good music, he admits to having a “nerdy hobby” of crate-digging for LPs at record stores and online. “It’s not about the sound quality or whatever,” he quickly adds. “It’s just about having a physical copy of something as opposed to just like a digital music file. I don’t know, it means something to me,” he sweetly admits. “Even with the whole universe of music at our fingertips with the internet, I’ve probably discovered way more music flipping through records, so to speak.”

You can shimmy with us

This dynamic duo have funnelled all of their love for good music into their fortnightly bar night. Two years ago, they began popping up weekly at the now-shuttered Record Room on Commissariat Road. Since last year, GMO has firmly planted their roots at  

Shambhala WoodFired Kitchen & Pub on MM Road and have begun occasionally travelling. “We did a show at the Kala Ghoda Cafe in Mumbai earlier this year,” Vivek informs us.

Meanwhile, these fellows are chronically allergic to being labelled. “We’re still trying out what is GMO? What it is and what it isn’t. Is it GMO every time that Vivek and I play together? I don’t know,” Hollis quizzically answers. “Was it GMO when we played at our friend Luis’ wedding reception?” “Yeah, it might have been,” Vivek chimes in. “Well, in some ways, it’s a shorthand,” he adds. Hollis continues, “The whole point is that we weren’t trying to start this IP property, brand, nickname for us or whatever.” “Yeah, there’s a healthy tension with it,” Vivek punctuates and laughs.

But don’t let these eccentrics hold you back, they’re still certain that “they just want you to come, hang out, and have a good time,” Hollis asserts. “Come with a healthy curiosity for the music but it’s cool if you don’t want to get overly involved,” he adds. “It’s most important that people have fun,” says Vivek before calling for another round of beers for the table, trying to wriggle out of the torture of talking about themselves.

The details: GMO or Good Music Only is happening on March 13 & 27 at Shambhala WoodFired Kitchen & Pub, 40, MM Road, near East Railway Station, Frazer Town. 8pm onwards.