It’s a new year and new city for Control Alt Delete, the bi-annual “pay-what-you-fucking-want” gig series, which takes place in Bengaluru on January 16. For their ninth edition, the organizational trio of Himanshu Vaswani, Nikhil Udupa and Rishu Singh have lined up nine bands. That deliberate decision is not led by numerology or the aim to destroy a green room, but to probably showcase a wide range of genres at the city’s top venue, The Humming Tree.

This edition features Delhi’s Superfuzz, Chennai rock band Skrat, Delhi psychedelic/gypsy band Peter Cat Recording Co., multi-city post-rockers Aswekeepsearching among the first to catch our sight. But then, it gets even better – from Mumbai world/fusion act Achint, Chennai’s upcoming punk rock act The Broadway Addicts, Mumbai punk rockers Punk On Toast, Thrissur instrumental rock band Mushroom Lake and Bengaluru indie rock band RushLed. From the second list, what is immediately noticeable is that none of these bands, apart from Mushroom Lake, have ever played in Bengaluru. Hell, RushLed, who released their debut EP In Love and Out of Time, are about to play their first ever gig as a band.

There are no budgetary goals put up on Control Alt Delete’s contribution page, but the drill is the same as before – if they make a profit from the gig, each bands gets an equal share. They didn’t seem to have a problem with that when they said sayonara to Mumbai and drove to Pune for their electro edition in April 2015 at the High Spirits, so here’s hoping Bengaluru shows them an equal amount of love.

Contribute to Control Alt Delete 9.0 on their official website or at the gig on January 16, 3 pm onwards at the Humming Tree, Bengaluru.