Strings draw in the crowd

Indus Valley hosts another concert that leaves the crowd asking for more.

KARACHI: The Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture (IVSAA)organised a musical night this Saturday which featured performances by up and coming bands leading up to a two-hour show of Strings.

While new bands like Seiene used this platform to make their debut with songs like Europhia’s “Maeeri” and Ben E King’s “Stand by Me”, another new band, SYMT, took the plunge with “Pyar Ki Ganderi.” The crowd was thoroughly entertained during their wait for the much awaited performance by Strings.

The crowd maintained a level of relative calm until the duo set foot on stage, but the moment Faisal Kapadia and Bilal Maqsood were spotted, the audience leapt to their feet and welcome in the two with a standing ovation. Kapadia and Maqsood are old hands at getting the mood going and soon the audience was singing along with well known tracks from the bands older albums.

Prior to their first act, Kapadia greeted the students of the arts college, “IVSAA is one of those special places where we love to perform, not only because Bilal has studied here but the crowd too is a strong element. This, I believe, is our third performance so far at the school.”

The duo kick started their performance with “Koi Aanay Wala Hai,” followed by “Na Jaanay Kyun,” a moving track from the second sequel of Spider Man. The band then picked up pace with “Dhaani,” moving to “Zinda Hoon” from the soundtrack of Bollywood movie Zinda.

With Strings well thought play list, the crowd went wild with loud cheers for “Durr” and “Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar”.

Maqsood said that the climax of the event “was when we played the James Bond theme and people went crazy, that was surprising! So was releasing the balloons in the air as we played the song ‘Titliyan’.”

Strings performed 17 songs in the two-hour show including other memorable songs such as “Anjanay”, “Bichara Yaar”, “Hai Kohi Hum Jaisa”, “Kahani Mohabbat Ki”, and “Ab Khud Kuch Kerna Parayga”, which were all met with cheers and applause from the crowd.

The pair also took this opportunity to pay tribute to Allan Faqir and sung “Ho Allah.”

“We had a wonderful time, [there was] great energy in the crowd,” said Kapadia.

Maqsood later thanked the crowd, “It was very energising to perform with such a responsive crowd but a special thanks to our young drummer, Aahad Nayani, because of whom our live sound has become really good. Nayani is probably considered one of the top most drummers in Pakistan.”

The event was specifically organised to help collect funds for the dilapidated Nussarwanjee Building that remains a vital asset to the school and is in desperate need of repair and maintenance.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2010.