For the past few years, hardly any new artists have popped into the Pakistani music scene, whereas the established musicians are just minting money from their old albums.
For the past few years, hardly any new artists have popped into the Pakistani music scene, whereas the established musicians are just minting money from their old albums. So, you can imagine what a surprise it was when we found out that Noori was launching a new album. It’s true, a band that ruled our hearts for over a decade has finally made a comeback.
Noori is one of the pioneers of the Pakistani rock music scene. The rock band from Lahore was formed in 1996, and since then Noori has produced many hit songs whose melodies still haunt the memories of our teenage years.
The band revealed their come-back video ‘Aik Tha Badshah’ from their third album at the Unplugged event that recently took place in Karachi. The event was hosted by Hasan Rizvi of Body Beat. The event was something we were all excited about because the thought of watching Noori perform up close was just so fascinating. This was evidently the thought of many other attendees too as the venue was seen to be bustling with guests and many couldn’t find a place to sit. Unfortunately, the waiting period went from minutes to a few hours as the band decided to show up unfashionably late and many guests left the venue with a look of disappointment on their faces.
Things, however, changed once the new video was showcased and everyone seemed to be stunned by the creative video by director Mandana Zaidi. The band has self produced its first theme/story based video, moving away from their usual standard performance videos. To top it off, the song was a good one and had the typical ‘Noori touch’ in it. The sound has also evolved a bit with more electronic elements; lesser crunch on the guitars, and greater emphasis on drums and bass, the band has updated firmware with current music trends.
The video launch was then followed by a live performance by the band. As soon as Noori stepped on stage, the attendees forgot their waiting woes and began to cheer for the band. They brought so much energy to the crowd that everyone was seen cheering, clapping, screaming at the top of their lungs and singing along. The band performed old songs as well as new and gave the audience a taste of the rock music they had been missing out on.
Coming back to the event, the people in attendance included members of the media and press as well as several celebrities such as Komal Rizvi, Nadia Hussain, Zahalay Sarhadi, Ayesha Omer, Tapu Javeri, Wardah Saleem, Sanam Agha, Sana Ansari, Abbas Jaffey and many others.
