Peter Cat Recording Co. at the Vogue Theatre

Review and Photos – Peter Cat Recording Co. at the Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, May 15 2025

After years of postponed plans and visa setbacks, Peter Cat Recording Co. finally made their long-awaited Vancouver debut—and for the fans who had waited patiently, it was more than worth it.

Frontman Suryakant Sawhney stepped onto the stage, silently taking his place at a harmonium (a small hand-pumped reed organ which became popular in India). He began slowly pumping the instrument’s bellows, crafting an atmospheric buildup that caused the audience to listen ever so closely to “Flowers R Blooming,” the haunting opener from their latest album BETA. When his smooth, unmistakable baritone voice filled the room with the line, “Maybe I’m a fool…,” the theatre exploded with elated cheers.

Founded in 2009 in New Delhi, India, and gaining worldwide popularity with their widespread release of Portrait of a Time: 2010-2016 in 2018, the band consists of five members: vocalist/guitarist Suryakant Sawhney, drummer Karan Singh, bassist Dhruv Bhola, keyboard/trumpet player Rohit Gupta, and multi-instrumentalist Kartik Sundareshan (keyboards, guitar, electronics and trumpet).

Their sound is a heady mix of jazz, cabaret, and effortlessly cool crooner vocals, that transport listeners back in time to a style of old with a modern take on songwriting and electronic influences. They played many of their hits that made them famous in the indie scene, like “Where the Money Flows”, “Memory Box”, and “Floating By” off their album, Bismillah. Sprinkled in with some recent tracks off BETA, an album which Sawhney described as “a collection of stories about the future told 50 years in the past, to make sense of the present, on our only home, planet Earth.”

There was no encore despite the roaring crowd demanding one; instead, Cher’s iconic track “Believe” played over the venue’s speakers, and the ensuing dance party helped mitigate the disappointment that the band would not return. The show was just that good; no one wanted it to end, but the fans got what they came for: a fantastic performance by Peter Cat Recording Co.

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