Fundraiser at Khaldunia: Upcoming music bands wheeled-in at the last minute save the day

Entity Paradigm, scheduled to perform, pulled out at the last minute.

ISLAMABAD: Despite facing the setbacks of the sponsor backing out and Entity Paradigm (EP) cancelling as the headlining band, Khaldunia High School still managed to put together a successful fundraiser for the Sindh flood victims on Saturday night. 

Khaldunia’s 11th graders, headed by Aischa Aimon, together with sponsors and media partners such as Creative Anger, Sina 121 and FM 89, were able to wheel in upcoming music bands and artists at the last minute to perform at “Rock for a Cause”.

The opening band Resurrection was a nice prelude to Qayaas’s death metal sound with Raakez following with a rap set. Interestingly the night was a bit of a family affair as the solo music artist Uzair Jaswal and Qayaas’s front man, Umair Jaswal, are brothers. However their sets and sound could not be further apart.

Uzair serenaded the crowd with softer pop vocals with his songs “Tere Bin” and “Yaheen” and crowd pleaser covers such as Brian Adam’s “Summer of 69”. Inversely, Qayaas had much heavier death metal beats with Umair’s gritty growls in the songs from their album “Us Paar”.

Uzair and Umair had high praise for the Khaldunia school crowd, commending their youthful exuberance and energy.

“The crowd was smaller than usual but it was great because they were on their feet and so energetic. Their energy was rubbing off on me on stage and making the performance all that more fun,” said Umair. “Even though there were some technical difficulties it didn’t matter because the crowd was so alive,” he added.

The students of Khaldunia showed that unrelenting focus and positive thinking can make any event versatile and entertaining while serve a higher purpose. Aischa said, “All the students are very excited to forward all proceeds towards the relief of the flood victims and hope that their donations will help some people.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2011.