I happened to browse through a local Indian community website called EkNazar roughly over a month and a half ago and saw something that i never imagined would happen so soon. Strings (www.stringsonline.net), the very popular Pakistani pop/rock band, were scheduled to perform in Dallas in about 6 weeks...*B-I-G wide smile* ...emailed a few friends immediately and bought the tickets rightaway.
Now Strings is a band that I've been extremely fond of ever since I started playing the guitar (and started singing outside the 4 walls of my bathroom) sometime in 1999-2000. Their songs have easy chord progressions, comparatively easy lead guitars, and yet sound very catchy and are very addictive. And I also thought their songs suited my voice...so ever since i started strumming their "Sar kiye yeh pahar", there's been no looking back!
Anyways, coming back to the show, it sure was a long wait to get in....the scheduled start of 8pm looked unlikely as hordes of people gathered outside and there were no signs of the doors opening till much later. The show started finally at 9.15...and gotta admit, it did start with a bang. (There was an opening fashion show, which i feel doesn't deserve to be written about....looks like they took the word 'opening act' too literally, considering the dressing malfunctions that took place :)
Strings had a pretty good setup...kinda reminded me of our MASUM shows back in UTA. They had a drummer, a bass guitarist (who harmonized vocals also) and a lead guitarist who toured with them for this concert....and of course, Faisal Kapadia (lead vocals) and Bilal Maqsood (rhythm guitars and vocals). Surprising part was they didn't have keyboards (which...generally are liberally used in their songs)
Faisal got the crowd involved in a BIG way right from the start....he'd sing a line and get us to sing the next and so on....they started off with Chaaye-chaaye and then kept belting out their hits one by one....Anjaane, Sar ki, Duur et al. About half-way through the show, they switched to unplugged mode with very light drumming and guitaring...it sounded great...even better with a slow rendition of "Mera Bichra yaar" to start with...
One part we loved about them was the way they acknowledged the Indian community in the crowd and otherwise...they even had the Pakistanis and Indians sing for each other in one of the covers they sang....the feeling of unity was sweeet! They have blended in with the Indian music community very well in the past...they've recorded songs with popular indian musicians like Hariharan, Sagarika (they got together to record the song "Pal" for Channel[V] Jammin) and Euphoria....and not to forget their foray into the Bollywood music scene with the movie Zinda where they composed 2 songs ("Yeh hai meri kahani" and "Har Saans"). "Yeh hai meri" turned out to be a HUGE hit in india and abroad with a remix version to go along as well.
Anyways, humbly noticing my slight digression this (second) time around....they performed for more than 2 hours straight without a break...and had lots of improvisations to their songs, and also sang a few cover songs in form of a medley...including some popular hindi movie songs, a Nazia Hassan hit, some of their very first songs, etc...
it was a li'l surprising to see Bilal very quiet on stage....Faisal did most of the talking. Anyways, apart from singing some of his trademark songs like "Sar kiye..." and "mera bichra yaar", Bilal's harmonizing vocals made a big difference to all songs.
It was one very memorable evening....and the icing on the cake for us was the post-show wait to eventually be able to meet Faisal and Bilal in person and click photographs with them.... :)
Faisal and Bilal on-stage
(sad the lights were only on Faisal most of the time)
The whole band
For once we see Bilal !
...or do we???
that's me with face-all kapadia :)
(Thanks Rama for this one!)
