Aag Alive 2009 Concert Review

By

Sara Khalid

Note: This review focuses primarily on performances and how they looked over television. It doesn’t cover the the venue mishaps and other events.

The show started with an Aag Alive lounge. The lounge started off with the Aagmentary which basically took a look at the history of Pakistani pop music from Ahmed Ruhshdi to Junoon, it was actually quite interesting for any Pakistani pop music fan. After the Aagmentary segment the VJs showed glimpses of the actual concert. They also showed the Behind the Scenes of Aag Alive, all of this was put together really well but after a while the Aag Alive lounge got extremely boring especially the clips in between the actual show…no one really cares about these actors etc. and their interviews, the people watching on TV or online are only interested in the PERFORMANCES not these lame interviews! They were HORRIBLE! Especially the last one with the old man Ali Muhammad Mir who passed very rude comments about Atif Aslam, Annie, and singers in general (he was suppose to be imitating Musharaf apparently)…

Now lets get to the actual performances.

First to perform was Roxen, they began the show to a small yet excited audience. Mustafa Zahid brought the rockstar out of him and gave a brilliant performance, he sang as good as always and really tried to get the crowd jumping with the rock sound of Roxen. When they began to play Bujh Hai Gaya the crowd went wild and that was probably his best performance of the night.

Nida Arab was the next to perform. Nida is a newcomer to the Pakistani music scene and this was her first big concert. She sang on tape and had some difficulties syncing her voice to the recording in the beginning and couldn’t get the response she wanted as she is was an unknown to most of the audience. But as a newcomer she did her best and I see a bright future for her.

Adeel Chauhdry had the same problem with singing with the recording as Nida but after his first song he really had the crowd excited with groovy dance numbers. Adeel is a performer and he knows the techniques to get the audience cheering and he used these techniques quite well.

Another newcomer Ayesha Omar sang quite well although there seemed to be a static throughout the performance. Many people underestimate her singing capabilities because she has an “irritating personality” but she is actually a decent singer and maybe if she polishes her singing a little, she can actually have a good future in this field.

Laal has really caused quite a stir in Pakistan with their socialist views and their album Umeed E Sehar. Being the first act to go and speak about peace and Pakistan they had the audience all up and excited. The audience loved the emotional music and inspirational words that Laal brought to the stage. There first performance was breathtaking. A comment was made that “Laal ne laga di AAG”

Nouman Javaid has two songs that have gone number one and they are awesome. But, he sang really off tune at this event. He ruined his power balled Mein Challa, by singing low and in a really really “besura” manner. I must admit I am a fan but seriously this was a horrible performance. Some people like Annie saved themselves with singing along side a tape and Nouman should have definitely gone that route…I can definitely say he had the worst performance of the night although his last song was kinda decent.

Amanat Ali started his performance with the song that made him a star “Tujse Naraz Nahin”. But the audience really didnt respond to the slower songs of the night and Amanat was a perfect example of this, as soon as he shifted gear from Mera Maula to his dance numbers and showed the inner Kohram boy the audience fell got excited.

Annie started the performance with “Oops I did it Again” Her vocals werent that bad with the help of the recording…but Annie still needs singing lessons and that was pretty evident throughout the show. I think the worst part of her performance was her vampire gown which looked really odd on the club like stage. Overall Annie didnt do as bad as I expected.

The Call band has had a great year ever since their cross to Bollywood but for this event they stuck to their heavy rocker roots; with minimizing the Bolly numbers. They started off slow but then progressed into what they are known for and that is their ROCK. Junaid was jumping around everywhere he was like a shaken up can of soda; it was an Awesome performance.

I have a personal bias against Fuzon ever since Shafqat left the band but the group didnt do that bad. The music and vocals were actually very good but the crowd wasnt able to grasp the music. Throughout the performance the audience seemed still. The crowd also looked less compared to the other performers of the night. But, as the show progressed the audience woke up and actually started dancing to to Fuzon.

Noori brought their A game regardless of the fact that one of the lead singers busted up his hand before the show. Overall the performance was everything we could expect out of Noori, it had all Noori fans going crazy. They had the crowd finishing their songs and everything looked great….although the performance seemed quite long.

Then to the stage came Hadiqa Kiani as the third to last performer, the audience had their hands up throughout her performance. She sang songs from her new album Aasmaan. Her last song of the night was with Pashto singer Irfan Khan they sang their no.1 song Janan; this song had the best response from the audience for Hadiqa that night. Hadiqa truly rocked her performance.

The second to last singer to take the stage was Ali Azmat with his rocking band(which includes Omran Shafique and Gumby). Ali Azmat sang songs from his 2008 album Klashinfolk. Ali also had the crowd rocking out to his new hit songs he even sang his Junoon hit “Pappo Yaar”. The crowd had its ups and downs but Ali gave it his all and he did a great job. He even whistled but after a while the performance got really long and a little boring.

And then FINALLY, to the performance that everyone was waiting for…Atif Aslam. Atif sang excellently the crowd was definitely on his side. He is the top rated pop singer in the Subcontinent and for all the right reasons. He is a true performer, from Tera Hone Laga Hun to Mahiya Ve…the crowd just loved him; as expected.

Overall the show was quite good, the commercial breaks were long but I guess AAG needed to get the sponsors money. The show was suppose to be the “Biggest Concert in Pakistani History” and it was more like a massive club jam. The Golf Club stage could not compare to the Wonderland stage neither could the audience. The audience was small and had good and bad moments both. One thing that really bothered me was the fake applause that Aag added to make the crowd sound like they were having fun when the actual audience was standing still. Other than that the show was surprisingly very good each artist put in a lot of effort into the show from Mustafa Zahid all the way down to Atif Aslam. The only bad performance of the show was unfortunately very very bad and that was by Nouman Javaid who struggled to stay on tune. On the other hand there were many great performances. The ones that really stood out to me were of Mustafa Zahid, Laal, Call, Noori, Ali Azmat, Hadiqa Kiani, and obviously Atif Aslam. Lets hope that 2010 will bring many more concerts like this one that can actually happen on time….All in all Aag really pissed us all off with the postponing and the canceling and then the postponing of this event but it ended up coming together quite well. The stage was cool for a last minute arrangement and even the Aag Lounge was very much first class. Lets see if this concert brings back the concert culture to Pakistan.