In a particularly emblematic sequence of events for this year’s Lahore Music Meet, at the food court, Akon’s ‘Sexy Bit*h’ blared on the speaker. A man, sheltered from the Lahori cold of January under the outdoor heaters remarked to his peer, upon the sight of fashionable Lahoris bobbing their heads: “aithay bara English mahol eh”.
instepreport
In its fourth year, the festival’s bet on young and independent artists remains a smart one.
Lahore: In a particularly emblematic sequence of events for this year’s Lahore Music Meet, at the food court, Akon’s ‘Sexy Bit*h’ blared on the speaker. A man, sheltered from the Lahori cold of January under the outdoor heaters remarked to his peer, upon the sight of fashionable Lahoris bobbing their heads: “aithay bara English mahol eh”.
This year’s Lahore Music Meet, now a mainstay of Lahore’s festival scene, was a success — it not only brought people of varying backgrounds together (and by extension gave them reason to stay), but also proved that the festival’s bet on young and independent artists was a smart one.
Organized by Natasha Noorani and Zahra Paracha, two musicians and friends, the Lahore Music Meet has, in the past four years, brought together musicians for performances and Lahore Literary Festival inspired panels and talks. This year, the latter represented folk and nostalgia with greats Saeen Zahoor, Attaullah Esakhelvi and Tahira Syed making appearances.
Abid Brohi and Lyari Underground — despite some trouble with sound — put on all their energy on display. Dancing and chanting, the young stars originally featured as part of Patari Tabeer enjoyed themselves to the fullest as their fans sang the lyrics back at them, dancing at their seats.
The duo of Zeeshan Parwez and Fasi Zaka were billed to relive their cherished music show ‘On The Fringe’ but it was a pity that the schedule had to be changed at the last minute. While the panels featuring stars such as Saeen Zahoor pulled crowds, interest in story-telling remained lukewarm.
The “Showcase” stage, on the other hand was anything but. Strong individual performances by Sunny Khan Durrani — his track ‘Woo’ enthralled the few people who had gathered — and Roots of Pepsi Battle of the Bands added much needed energy to the showcase area having suffered throughout the day from minimal attendance. Acts on the second day, Bayaan’s classy Urdu fused with alternative rock and Pepsi Battle of the Bands winners Kashmir continued this tradition.
Day one’s showcase ended with Omran Shafique and his band Mauj jamming tracks from their first (and only) album Now in Technicolor. As the attendees sang along to Mauj’s iconic ‘Khushfehmi’ and ‘Mona’, Omran extended guitar solos to keep the crowd entertained. Mauj closed by promising fans that the band would play new originals at their next gig, sparking conversations about a possible return.
Alhamra Hall 1 is one of Lahore’s biggest public auditoriums and on both days, at least for the first of two acts of the respective nights, the auditorium was packed to its 1000-person capacity. For both bands playing, Lahore’s progressive instrumental band Takatak and Sikandar ka Mandar from Karachi who play indie-rock, this was their biggest gig ever.
Particularly at the second day, the audience pacing to hear an instrumental band playing a genre of music not everyone finds digestible was a surprising facet. Kudos to the two artists on both days in that they were able to engage the audience; panning around from one of its upper rows, one would lose count of people head-banging to Takatak in the hall.
Sikandar ka Mandar played songs off their new album, 36 and a rendition of Badshah left die-hard fans in awe. Such was the draw of the indie band that by the time folk artist Akhtar Chanal took the stage as the final act of day one, the audience had thinned considerably.
Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad, on the other hand definitely succeeded in retaining some of the Takatak audience as they played some of their most iconic kalaam.
On day two, as people queued to enter Hall 1, they heard the sound of the sitar coming from the Jambro setup which somehow merged into the sound of Indian rapper Badshah’s Kala Chashma from the food court. This confluence of sound mimicked the festival’s ability to bring people together to celebrate music amid a Basant inspired design aesthetic and made LMM 2018 a major hit.
