Lahore’s rocking night

Concert at ISC features talent of Soch, Call, Bilal Khan, Ismaeel Qureshi, amateur rock stars.

LAHORE: After a long time, a concert was held in Lahore at The International School of Choueifat (ISC) on Saturday night.

The event was organised by the ISC Alumni Society and featured the talent of Soch, Call, Bilal Khan, Ismaeel Qureshi and amateur rock stars from ISC. The concert was organised in an open-air value but the energy of the rock stars and a bonfire helped counter the cold.

While all the performers were good and appreciated by the audience, the highlight of the evening were Bilal Khan and Call. Khan sang two songs, “Taqdeer” and “Bachana” from his upcoming album which was applauded by the audience.

Khan, who made his appearance in Lahore’s music scene two years ago, said his album was set to be released some time in 2011 and would have eight to 10 tracks. “The majority of the work has been completed and I am positive that it will release pretty soon,” Khan said.

Call sang seven tracks including “We Will Rock You”, “Sub Bhula Ke”, “Laree Choote”, “Dhadke Jiya”, “Pukaar”, “Shayad” and “Ho Jane De” from their new album Dhoom. “This is the first time that we have sung a song at a concert from our newly released album. The evening has been wonderful,” said Junaid Khan, lead vocalist of the band.

Call’s lead guitarist, Zulfiqar Khan, aka Xulfi, enthralled the audience with his mastery over the guitar.

Upcoming rock band Soch played a few songs and received a good round of applause for “Bundeya”. The band has only two members; vocalist Adnan Dhoolm and guitarist Rabi Niaz, both were excited to perform live for an audience. “There are a lot of underground bands that keep performing at cafes and private venues however a band cannot come onto the scene unless they performs at concerts. So concerts are really important and there should be plenty of them to promote good music,” said Dhoolm.

Areeb Anjum, an audience member said, “There are several music performances on weekends at different places in Lahore but you cannot call them a concert. Mostly underground bands arrange these performances without tickets and only close friends attend. Performing at a concert is the real thing and that’s where you can judge talent of a singer or musician. Different institutions organise their monthly concerts and invite some new bands. Both the amateur artists and new bands will get a chance to show their talent this way.”

“The concert has been amazing and broke the silence that we have been having here for quite some time now. The rock music scene has almost come to a halt in Lahore and such concerts are really needed to keep the musical scene vibrant,” said audience member Ahmad Hasnain.

“There is a lot of talent in Pakistan but there aren’t many concerts where youngsters could show their talent off,” he added.

ICS Alumni Society members and organisers of the concert Masroor Mian and Mohsin Shah said, “Our fellows have also performed and the show went very well. In fact such concerts help amateur artists to learn from the established stars and improve their own skills.”

“Students at many education institutions focus on academic learning and study tough courses. We here at ISC encourage students to develop other skills like music so that they could excel and show their talent as well,” Student Life and Student Management Consultant Roger Soweid said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th,  2011.