STRINGS: Live in Concert, at PNCA Islamabad

I came to know through some of my acquaintances that there's a Strings concert coming up on Tuesday evening [6th April 2010]. I liked some selective songs of Strings but never watched them perform live. Since, I got this chance, I thought it's better to avail it. I, with my friends, went at the venue which was PNCA, i.e. Pakistan National Counsel of the Arts.

We were told that the time is around 6pm, but it would be better if we reach there at 7. Since we had to pick some friends around in hurry, we got somewhat late, and on our way, there were those Islamabad Police checking random cars. Hard Luck!!! There, they asked for our IDs, and then the papers of the car, which we forgot at home. And there that police started behaving in a typical way, discreetly asking for some "favor". We are in fact not in any mood to give some cash to them. "Hamaray liye phir Aap kia kar saktay hain?!"


Since we told them that we are going to a music concert and we already spent Rs.2500 on tickets, which we actually did, and that made them think that if these guys can spend this much on that event, they sure can do something for us. So they just started beating about the bush and wasted our time with very useless inquiries because we told them we're getting late. Their topics ranged from having a war with India, the importance of learning Kalma by heart, style of beard, nature of jobs of the father, people calling fake references when they're caught by police, etc. Anyways, they finally released us after around wasting our 30 minutes on the road. Then we rushed to the venue cursing those policemen, ran inside, and here's what we saw...

Hall was nicely decorated, sponsored by Warid Glow written in a large size on the backdrop, and there were that Bilal and Faisal, collectively known as Strings performing "Sar kiye ye pahaar". We joined the crowd and started enjoying the show. Then came Anjaane, then another song I wasn't familiar of but it sounded something like Alvida.

Since they were late in starting that event, and the hall management wanted then to finish at 9 pm, so it was really hard for them to perform even more songs. Faisal told us that management is pushing them to end this at 9, while we only had 5 minutes to 9 that time. Faisal said they'll perform 4 more songs, but they were able to sing only 2 after that.

Duur was beautifully performed. Crowd enjoyed and sang with them. Then the final song was "Hai koi hum jesa". It was indeed the best song of the show. Crowd enjoyed it like hell, and everyone sang that catching phrase "Ay O Ay O Ay O Aa... Aa Ri Aari Aari O...". It was a really beautiful performance.

Band members were looking quite cool. They are in fact such nice and decent chaps, and this is the first time I was seeing them. The crowd was an organized one, and most of the people seems like from NUST. This even was organized by some Marketing Group of NUST students known as Incognito Cognition. But since they had not offered me a free pass of this event, so I'm not writing more about them...

Overall, it was a beautiful performance, although we wanted to enjoy it for some more time.

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