ISLAMABAD, June 23: Young underground musicians gathered to celebrate the World Music Day celebrated annually on June 21, in Islamabad.
Starting over an hour late, the show kicked off with a guest performance with young musicians mostly students taking over the night later.
The bands, five of them invited by the FM89 Radio Channel to make the best of the June summer night, ‘sounded good,’ according to the young audience members. They, however, felt that the sound systems were ‘horrible’.
“The vocals are barely audible,” said a girl in the audience. Her friend complained of too much bass and echo from the walls of the Islamabad Club auditorium.
Nonetheless, rock music, distorted heavy metal sounds from effect processors and wah wah paddles made guitar solos stand out creating hype in the crowd.
Young musicians in Bob Marley and Iron Maiden t-shirts, long hair, spiked hair, military boots, and vintage sneakers with expensive rhythm and bass guitars slung over their shoulders moved through bright flickering lights and mist on the stage from smoke machines.
Digitals cameras and phone cameras went up in the audiences to capture some moments of the bands entertaining them.
Kharaj, Husnain Aur Zeeshan, Uzair Jaswal, Sonority and Black Hour, five to six members’ bands took to the stage and rolled out four to five compositions, both originals and cover tracks.
Most young musicians were inspired by western rock and soft rock musicians. Few took inspirations from local Pakistani artists such as Fuzon and Strings to mention some.
Kharaj, the five member band played ‘It’s my life’ a Bon Jovi cover and ‘dam mast kalander’, which was probably one of the best compositions performed last night.
Sonority with Amna Nizami, a student, on the vocals and the only female performer last night sang ‘Imaginary’ a cover song of Evanescence and ‘dil jalay’ also a cover song of Malang Party.
Her soft voice cuddled into the symphonies of music crawling into spaces between notes and strumming from keyboards and the guitars.
“We need something like this to express ourselves. It has been a great night with some good friends and very supporting audiences,” Amna Nizami said sharing her experience.
Black Hour, also made up of young friends with passion for play music rolled out an original titled ‘winds of change’ and ‘battle cry’. The group was mostly inspired by western heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.
One of the up coming singers, Uzair Jaswal and his accompanying talented musicians took to the stage and shared his creations with those who loved music.
Applause and screaming greeted them on stage and followed throughout their performances.
According to one of the organizers, the event was held to celebrate a universal language and above all to encourage young musicians and that the music they created was also heard.
