If you’ve ever been to more than one gig in Pune, you’ve probably wound up at the High Spirits Café. The venue, which started out in 2005, has been a mainstay for bands in the city and the country, making Pune an important stop on tour calendars.

Beyond hosting the regular gigs through the week, High Spirits will now host Bandcubator, its first ever band competition starting February 7. Held weekly across a span of six weeks with 20 bands competing, Bandcubator has enlisted emerging and experienced bands from Mumbai and Pune, including hard rock band Silver, prog fusion band Raagalogik, instrumental rock band Celestial Teapot, alt rockers Unohu, post-rock band A Mutual Question and many more.

After four weeks of preliminary rounds, there’ll be two more knockout stages, with the winner taking home more than just a giant-sized cheque on March 13. In addition to the prize money of Rs 1.4 lakhs, there’s an EP recording deal with Mumbai’s Cottonpress Studios, a four-city tour courtesy of booking agency Mixtape, a chance to air your music video on MTV Indies and more prizes from Furtados.

Sure, there’s no dearth of bands battling it out for prize money at colleges in Pune or across the country, but this time, with the venue playing host and organiser, Bandcubator seems like it won’t have any politics or personal biases of a chosen few come into play. After all, they’ve got 11 judges – ranging from Mumbai-based bluesman Warren Mendonsa from Blackstratblues, vocalist Siddharth Basrur, singer-songwriter Nikhil D’Souza, Mixtape founder Naveen Deshpande and local judges and rock veterans like former Agnee guitarist Michael Pereira.

For more details on Bandcubator, head to their website.

Week 1 – Feb 7
Unohu - MILK - The Big Nasty - The Pickled Octopii - Raagalogik

Week 2 – Feb 14
USP - A Mutual Question - The June Tom Influence -
Left Hand Drive - Twisted Paradox

Week 3 – Feb 21
Silver - Moonstruck Project - Celestial Teapot -
The Gravy Philosophy - Mannfarid

Week 4 – Feb 28
Manefus - Doctor Zebra - Eden - Vitamin M - Skylight Vision

Week 5 – March 6

Semi-finals featuring four winning bands.

Week 6 – March 13

Finals – two bands selected from the semi-finals compete