World Music Day: For the love of rock

World music day celebrated with gusto in the city.

LAHORE:

The city’s leading underground bands came together to perform City FM 89’s World Music Day summer concert at Base Cafe Rock near Hussain Chowk, on June 17.

The cafe was packed with audience members looking forward to the entertaining blend of live perormances, food and shisha. Khalid Malik, The Breakfast Show’s radio jockey and hype-man for the night, entertained the crowd between the performances by making them participate in embarrassing dance and musical games.

The event catered to a predominantly young crowd, who were entertained by covers of leading English and Pakistani musicians. The performers - which included The Others, Rappolutionary, Moen Jo Daro and Soch - showcased an interesting range of music from alternative rock to mainstream rap.

Mubashir Naeem Butt from Rappolutionary, who recently left his crew Freestylersco, started the show with his first live solo performance since the breakup. He displayed immaculate control of his rhymes as he performed powerful renditions of Pitbull’s “Hotel” and Far East movement’s “Like a G6” fused with original Punjabi rap. He also rapped his first original song as a solo artist, which was aptly titled “The intro”.

This was followed by the self-acclaimed ‘youngest band in Pakistan’ - The Others - which includes 10-year-old Ali Sultan, his sister, 16-year-old lead guitarist and vocalist Zoya Uzair and bassist Bilal Muneer.

Uzair’s lively and unique voice was versatile enough to sing both Urdu and English songs; she also displayed talent as a capable lead guitarist. Her brother, Sultan, was even more impressive with his drum solo at the beginning of their set and proved that age was, after all, just a number.

An excited Uzair told The Express Tribune that World Music Day was an important time because it allowed for a variety of music to be brought onto one platform. She said that her band’s sound was somewhere between rock and heavy metal. “Music for me is about expression, I want to promote these events as much as possible and I’m glad that the crowd was supportive tonight,” she said.

Next in line was the alternative rock band, Moen Jo Daro; they were performing for the first time after a six-month period. For a young band, they showed amazing range and technical skill. The band has received relative mainstream fame through their first underground single “Garmi on hai”, which has been making the rounds in Lahore.

They started with their single “Utho Beta”. However, it was when they covered classic songs that the crowd came to life.  They also performed “Aaj Kal Tere Meray Pyaar Kay Charchay” with a punk twist and Sajjad Ali’s “Babia”, with their ex-lead singer Sarmad Hassan . However they stole the show with their aggressive guitar riffs and drumming in their rendition of  Junoon’s “Mera Mahi”.

The band’s new singer Zeeshan Ahmed said that their group was focusing on making original and meaningful material. “It’s important that audiences are given something meaningful,” said Ahmed. “Junoon left an impact precisely because they were original and did something that the people really enjoyed.” In the last act, the duo played an overtly patriotic song and injected one last wave of energy in the audience, which had slowly started to disperse.

Soch, who are known for addressing social and political weaknesses facing the country, have been performing at large-scale events. They were most recently seen at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf rally and have also made repeated media appearances. During their set, they performed two of their songs, “Uth Jawana” and “Bandeya Jaan Le” — a faster Punjabi number dominated by the lead singer, Adnan Dhool. This was also followed by an acoustic cover of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Sanu Ek Pal Chain”.

At the end of the night, it was clear that the concert had been successful in leaving a lasting impression on the audience. However, the unanimous consensus was that one day could never be enough to celebrate something as significant as the World Music Day.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 20^th, 2011.