The Cheapmunks go live!

KARACHI: The Cheapmunks are an excellent example of successful viral marketing on the internet. Mehak Taherani and Suhana Baloch were just a couple of girls who began to gain popularity for their mash up of covers of Urdu and English songs and went on to produce east-meets-west fusion songs. These songs were featured on sites such as YouTube and Facebook and this approach garnered the girls enough fans for them to hold a live event at the Base Rock Cafe in Karachi on Monday.

Both Taherani and Baloch have great vocals and possess the natural ability to be very innovative with their songs. Some of the songs that covered were Sajjad Ali’s “Babia”, Imran Khan’s “Bewafa” and EP’s “Hamesha” which were mixed with Usher’s “Oh My Gosh”, Eminem and Rihanna’s “The Way You Lie” and Akon’s “Nosy Neighbour” respectively. These are all songs that one wouldn’t expect to mesh together as well as the band managed to do. The vocalists were joined by guitarists Hamza and Daniyal and a tabla player, who provided the needed music support.

The popularity of the event could be gauged from the fact that it was completely sold out and many fans were not able to attend as they could not get tickets.

However, the audience was approximately one hundred people strong but this could very well be due to the low capacity of the venue, which was packed during the concert.

The crowd’s response was unanimous in their appreciation for the band. Although since it was the bands first event, it seemed as if most of the audience comprised friends and family of the Cheapmunks. However, this does not mean that the cheers and loud applause were for this reason and the band was able to give a brilliant performance in their debut show. While the band need to work on their stage performance, this was their first live event and that too, amidst familiar faces, so the casual atmosphere was to be expected.

Interestingly enough, the t-shirts that the band was sporting got them quite a bit of attention.

The t-shirts were printed with a large ‘M’ which was sensitive to sound and which would light up when a certain decibel was hit. If nothing else, the t-shirts were eye-catching and quite amusing.

The concert was organised by Saba Qadri and Aiza Khawaja, who highlighted that the proceeds of the event were going towards the Karachi Relief Trust.

The relief trust has organised multiple recreational events in the recent past in an attempt to raise funds for the flood victims.

They also informed the audience that due to the great response, the Cheapmunks will be holding another concert soon, the details of which will be posted on their Facebook fan page.

One should stay tuned to what the Cheapmunks produce next - after all, original and fresh-sounding bands are hard to come by in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2010.