ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE!
Music lovers, this is the ultimate television show you should be glued to your screens for.
The first episode started with an exciting intro talking about the history of Pepsi and Music in Pakistan. It featured the two program judges Fawad Khan and Meesha Shafi, and also saw the comeback of Farooq Ahmed from Aaroh as a guest judge for the Auditions Episodes.
The host of the show Ayesha Omar talked about the big prizes the band that wins the ‘Battle of the Bands’ will get that will establish them as a proper artist in the long run.
The Auditions Episode features 15-16 super exciting bands from different genres –
Naqsh – A band with an attitude and a strong female lead vocalist Mehak.
Positive – Farooq found himself in a trance while listening to them. Meesha called it a “beautiful” and “sublime” experience. Fawad said they have “soul” in it.
Jasim and the Pindi boys – Jasim started as a solo artist but after the “Pindi Boys” hit back in 2014, they formed their band. The boys proudly represent the flamboyant city of Pindi and its people. The band feels their sound is very unique.
Kashmir – The band name originates from a song “Rani e Kashmir” that they recorded as previously their band name was different. The band members have their own unique set of inspirations. The band feels their lead guitarist, Wes, is the crowd puller and popular among the female crowd. Kashmir sings EPs song Hamesha and Farooq is excited to hear them. Fawad was quick to call Wes a “Rockstar” and calls him the “Slash”.
Bari the Band – The vocalist who is a big fan of Farooq gets excited to perform Yaarah by Aaroh. Bari was a 2 member band.
Madlock – The Lahore band who seem to have their own unique style was quick to point out that Madlock, does in fact have no meaning, and they just loved how cool it sounded.
Mehroze takes his journey back to when he was 17 and had a problem called mutational falsetto which gave him a very tough time during his teen years.
Madlock feels that Pepsi battle of the bands is exciting because they get to play the music live. The band sung an original Aarzoo.
Shajr – Nimra, being the only girl in the band says that she loves jamming. Shajr wants to show their music prowess in Pepsi battle of the bands.
Soul Anesthetics performance made it clear that even if you are technically sound band, the judges are looking for bands that have their now unique sound.
Aura – Fawad loved their original and Meesha could see the coldplay influence but called it a good thing because they felt original and unique.
OB Positive – A band with a very positive vibe and did a cover of ‘Aitebaar’. Farooq recalled Amir Zaki’s statement where he told Farooq “less is more” and said that this is the perfect example of his words applied in the real world.
The judges concluded the episode by saying that they could see the talent and LOVED the variety these bands had to offer!
One thing was very clear: FAWAD LOVED ON STAGE PERFORMANCES AND ENJOYED THE BANDS WHO OWNNNNNED THE STAGE! (Hint: The MADNESS that was UNLOCKED)!
Meesha always stepped up and acknowledged strong vocals.
Farooq, being the naturally talented musician that he is, provided technical help to bands on how to improve more.