KARACHI, June 30: Life in Karachi can at best be described as unpredictable. Owing to unrest in the city, a World Music Day concert organised by City FM89 and Alliance Française de Karachi (AFK), that was supposed to be held simultaneously in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad last weekend, couldn’t take place in Karachi. Featuring underground bands Sikandar ka Mandar, Capa, Dynoman, Nuts ‘n’ Bolts and Shajie, the event took place on Saturday night at the AFK premises.

The opening act was by a band that probably had the youngest performers seen at a Pakistani concert yet. The band Capa seemed entirely composed of tweens. The line-up of musicians changed slightly with each song.

Some of the songs they presented included a cover of ‘Anjane’ by Strings that they dedicated to the lead singer of Strings, Faisal Kapadia, as it was his birthday. Kapadia was present in the audience and came onstage later to thank the band. They also performed ‘Somebody I used to know’ by Belgian-Australian artist, Gotye.

CAPA performs a cover of "Anjane" by Strings. — Photo Salman Haqqi/DAWN.COM

Underground soft-rock band, Shahjie performed next. Their line-up of songs mostly included originals by the band. They included ‘Dosti Kay Haath’, ‘Hum Say Dost’ and ‘Sarey’. The latter was a song about an old-age home in Swat.

The following act, Nuts ‘n’ Bolts, came on the stage after an extended break. They started off with a cover of the Strings song, ‘Sar kiye yeh pahar’, Elvis Presley’s ‘Twist and Shout’, Bruno Mars’ ‘Just the way you are’, Europe’s ‘Final Countdown’, Their own take of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s ‘Halka Halka Suroor’.

Sikandar Ka Mandar took to the sage next and performed and merged three of their original songs together, making them come across as one extended composition. They followed that up with songs called ‘Badshah’, ‘Mein Idhar Khara Hun’, ‘Hamesha’ and ‘Baymisaal.’

The last act of the day, Dynoman, played live remixes as a continuous set. He merged a lot of local ethnic percussion sounds into the music he was attempting to remix. The sound was experimental, it was novel and seemed the perfect conclusion to a night of truly wonderful and diverse music exhibited by the upcoming generation of artists in the music industry.

World Music Day concert celebrated the youthfulness of music.

At a time when the mainstream Pakistani music industry has reached a point where it is just struggling to survive with new, fresh content rarely making its way to the masses, its underground acts like these that give a glimmer of hope.

They promise new beginnings, a fresh new take on music and the promise of a whole new sound.