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Five episodes in, Pepsi Battle of the Bands struggles to find an identity

By Maheen Sabeeh
Wed, 08, 18

With uneven performances, the third season has ups and downs and celebrates Independence Day in peculiar fashion.

Those of us who watched the first season of Pepsi Battle of the Bands remember artists like Mekaal Hasan Band, EP and Aaroh even today, long after at least one of them hung up their musical cape to pursue a rather successful film/TV career.

And yet, Aaroh’s cover of Vital Signs’ enduring hit, ‘Ajnabee’ on the debut season of Pepsi is entrenched in memory. EP rose on the same show on the basis of grit, which reflected on their one and only album, Irtiqa. And Mekaal Hasan has been around, albeit with a different line-up for a longer time than we care to credit him for. He is just as revered for his records (Saptak, Sampooran, Andholan) as he is for his production capabilities; Ali Azmat, Zeb and Haniya, Sounds of Kolachi, Jal to name just a few.

Therefore, as Rohail Hyatt once noted astutely about Coke Studio in its early days, competition is never with others but the past of the show itself. “How will you surpass the last season?” was a question he encountered once season two of Coke Studio blew up and many times afterwards.

That question is staring Pepsi Battle of the Bands in the face now.

Last year’s return and the shortcoming that followed were forgiven a great deal for it was a return after more than a decade and with a different team such as the judges, producers, audio team and so on. But season three seems to be a different ballgame altogether.

Ahmed Ali Butt and Ayesha Omar are not eloquent as hosts. Dull is the word that comes to mind when Ahmed is not making strange remarks. In episode four, the highlight was the appearance of Kashmir, who really did deserve winning the competition last year. And as they told Instep in an interview earlier this year, the group performed an original song called ‘Darbadar’ and also spoke of expectations fans have from them since winning. To their credit, the group, led by Bilal Ali delivered an atmospheric, darker tune that deserves a spot on your iPod.

In episode four, the top six had to present original songs and once again entered the knockout round. Of those, only four would survive the slot and Bayaan, Tamaasha, Xarb, and 21 The Band made the cut.

But in episode five, things took a turn for the worst because patriotism seems to be the ‘in’ thing in music shows these days and Independence Day was the theme of the night.

Pindi Boys were joined by Bayaan, Tamaasha, Xarb, and 21 The Band but sadly their performances were not a patch on the originals that was sung by Haroon, the late Junaid Jamshed and Strings.

As for the top four, the theme felt odd but even odder were the performances. Bayaan chose to sing ‘Yeh Watan Tumhara Hai’ by the late and forever great Mehdi Hassan and ruined it in one full swing. While the instrumentation was decent, the vocals didn’t come close to the original by Mehdi Hassan sahib. The judges, for some reason, found the rendition applause-worthy.

21 The Band, who Meesha calls ‘energetic,’ chose to sing ‘Hum Hain Pakistani’, another Junaid Jamshed number and layered it with their brand of punk-psychedelic sonic dreams but tanked it, something Bilal Maqsood, Fawad Khan and Faisal Kapadia pointed out.

The only band to salvage the episode was music group Xarb, who performed the moving ‘Watan Ki Matti’ (originally by Nayyara Noor) in a way it should’ve been presented and their decision to choose this song over others says a lot about the band. The judges, however, were not sold on this performance somehow. Tamaasha, a band through its stage presence rather than singing ability, has become a favourite of the judges; they performed ‘Iss Parcham Ke Saaye Tale Hum Aik Hain’, originally sung by Nayyara Noor, and tried to pull a Panic At the Disco on it and sullied the whole thing. Yes, they have stage presence but that’s not enough.

And so, for some reason the bands that have made the cut include Bayaan and Tamaasha while Xarb (who should have been on the top of the table) and 21 The Band found themselves in the danger zone. This was followed by Xarb performing Shahnaz Begum’s ‘Sohni Dharti’ and 21 The Band performing what can only be described as a vile version of ‘Jazba Junoon’. Not surprisingly, Xarb should’ve picked up the third spot but because of 14 August celebrations, even 21 The Band made the cut. Huh!

This means next episode will lead to double (bands) eliminations. We can hardly wait.