War Rock: Musicians battle for glory

The War Rock battle of the bands enthralled audiences.

LAHORE:

For underground bands that are aspiring to be professional musicians, success is certainly difficult to achieve. High school and university students, who make up Lahore’s burgeoning underground rock scene, usually find it difficult to find an avenue to perform live.

But on June 10 at White Lounge, a café located on MM Alam road, amateur musicians were given a platform to showcase their talent. Nearly 20 bands and 15 solo artists from diverse musical backgrounds came to the venue to compete in the War Rock battle of the bands competition hosted by Dark Stage productions. The event presented a plethora of talented artists, whose performances were judged by veteran Lahore-based musicians including Farhad Humayun from Overload, Haroon Shahid of SYMT, DreamLed’s Bilal Muneer, and rock band Moen Jo Daro.

Since any band or performer could enter the competition without any restrictions of age or music genre, many amateur performers seized this opportunity to play to a crowd. Many bands, which had already established a rapport on the internet or radio, debuted at the event.

This year’s battle of the bands’ winner was Chicken Roast. The band showed great star power in their impressive routine featuring drums and hard bass guitars. The group has already won four out of six previously held battles of the band competitions.

The other two finalists SAYA and Dervish, also performed really well; the former had great vocals while the latter presented an instrumentalist fusion of jazz and rock juxtaposed with the sound of rubab, an Afghani instrument.

The winning band’s lead guitarist, Samad Raheem, explained that his group was initially into progressive rock but due to commercial constraints switched to popular music with a softer, melodious sound.

“The metal scene in Lahore is very underdeveloped,” Raheem remarked in dismay.

Even solo artists won accolades from the effervescent crowd. Amir Ahsan and Ahsan Naseem, excelled in their vocals. Ahsan who has been an underground singer for the last three years, wowed the audience with his charming rendition of Mohammed Rafi’s song. But Ahsan Naseem’s amazing acoustic cover of Nustrat Fateh Ali Khan “Naina de Akhan” made him the solo star of the night.

Muneer, a judge at the event and a prominent rock guitarist, highlighted the significance of live acts at smaller venues for promoting underground bands.

“Normally deserving bands rarely ever get the stage in such formats,” said Muneer, referring to nepotism involved in organization of gigs and live concerts.

He optimistically added, “If bands and artists do well on a smaller platform like this one, even if they are not obscure musicians without any contacts in the music industry, people will still notice them playing their music.”

However, lead guitarist for Moen Jo Daro, Usman Bin Sohail, had a divergent viewpoint. He emphasised that even though battle of the band tournaments on smaller platforms showcase the country’s vast musical talent, bigger concerts were the only way the music industry can hope to move forward. “Such events are too small and bands need large avenues for jamming because otherwise they will miss exposure,” explained Sohail.

Overall, the contest turned out to be a memorable night of stellar performances, which left audience enthralled and entertained.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2011.