‘Pepsi Battle of the Bands’ announces top two finalists

The final episode will see Xarb, Bayaan fight it out for the winner’s title

KARACHI: Episode six of Pepsi Battle of the Bands (BoB) finally saw the moment fans had been waiting for: the announcement of the top two finalists. We began the episode with Meesha Shafi and her band performing Noor Jahan’s Koi Sarda Aye Te Sare. That introduced the episode’s theme of Pakistani filmy music.

The four bands – Tamaasha, Bayaan, Xarb and 21 The Band – fought for the two top spots, each giving their all. First, Bayaan performed Tha Yaqeen by Naheed Akhtar. The band’s vocalist Asfar Hussain showed another one of his talents when he played the rubab while singing. The judges enjoyed the performance.

Faisal Kapadia complemented Hussain’s opening of the song and how he channeled the great Muhammad Rafi in his vocals, but thought the band sounded under-rehearsed. Bilal Maqsood liked the fact that Bayaan is improving in terms of arrangement and performance.

PHOTO: PUBLICITY

Next up was Xarb, one of the most polished bands BoB has ever had. They performed Noor Jahan’s Jhanjhar Di Pawan Chankar. Qamar, the front man and vocalist, said he always wanted to sing Noor Jahan’s songs because he liked her voice and that he enjoyed performing it. To his credit, the jury also enjoyed the performance. Shafi said she liked how the song translated from a female vocalist’s range and fit to Qamar’s voice. Fawad Khan kept it simple, claiming that even if someone hasn’t heard the original song, they’d fall in love with Xarb’s rendition of it.

It’s not easy performing well enough for the jury to becomes your fans though. But this is what Tamaasha has accomplished ever since the audition rounds. With a hat trick of standing ovations, the band outperforms itself every week. Their latest performance was a rendition of Tumhain Kese Bata Doon by Ahmed Rushdi.

Khan said they checked all the boxes and gave an entertaining performance. However, he felt bored by the composition at some points and that Tamaasha has set such a high standard for itself that he wanted them to do even better this time around and that didn’t happen. Kapadia said he believed whatever vocalist Bilal sang sounds great. But he was proven wrong this time too. He said he enjoyed the performance but the singing and the song choice hadn’t done much for him.

PHOTO: PUBLICITY

21 The Band took Mehdi Hassan’s Kabhi Main Sochta Hoon from the 1977 film Aaina and turned it into an energetic punk rock number. The jury collectively felt the band should have pushed itself more, adding that this was too weak a performance for this stage of the competition.

When it came to the results, Xarb was the first band to be announced as one of the two finalists, while 21 was the first to be eliminated. Bayaan and Tamaasha battled it out in the danger zone for the last spot. In what was perhaps the toughest and the strongest round of the season, Bayaan performed Azadi by Junoon.

It doesn’t happen very often that the fight for survival makes the contestant unexpectedly deliver their best performance ever. That’s what happened with Bayaan, who ended up receiving their first standing ovation of the show from Maqsood and Shafi.

Tamaasha then followed it up with a rendition of Sajjad Ali’s Chief Saab. Although it was a banger of a performance, it wasn’t enough to put carry them through to the final. The ultimate battle will see Xarb and Bayaan battle it out for the winner’s title.

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