EP concert: Humsafar’s heartthrob rocks the town

An offbeat end to an otherwise exhilarating evening.

ISLAMABAD:

More famously known as Asher from the drama serial Hamsafar, Fawad Khan, the lead vocalist of Entity Paradigm (EP), rocked live before an electrified crowd at 3rd Base on Friday.

With an uncanny majority of young girls and boys taking the back seat for a change, the event kicked off with performances by a local band Stoned. The band warmed up the crowd with considerable head banging and racy tempo up till the much-awaited performance.

After what seemed like an eternity (especially for the girls), EP took the stage with Khan on the lead and band members Ahmed Butt and Salman Albert on guitar, and Waqar on drums.

As the girls screamed their throats hoarse, the band kick-started their performance with their songs “Lamha” and “Bolo Bolo”, moving on to some renowned tracks from their first album such as “Waqt” and “Hamesha”. The girls head banged and hooted throughout the performance as Khan, from time to time, bent down to shake hands with the crowd, almost toppling once as the young girls struggled to take hold of him.

Butt was not to be outdone and gave memorable solo performances of party tracks such as “I’m sexy and I know it” and “Sexy Chick”.

Realising that a substantial number of Humsafar fans were among the crowd, Khan said, “Asher has a big house, wife and a child, but Fawad has one thing he doesn’t. Fawad has his fans.” The crowd responded with wild cheers, which lasted till the end of the hour-and-a-half-long performance.

The event’s conclusion, however, was slight off beat as a technical glitch led Khan to throw his mike down and walk offstage upset, even refusing to interact with his fans backstage for autographs and pictures. Even though the audience were more than satisfied with the performance of the band, Khan’s reaction left many fans disheartened.

“He should have stayed back,” said a young girl, cheerless; “we had all come for him”.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2012.