First ever open Mic Night at FCC

Lahore, Forman Christian College, Formanite Music Society organized its first ever Open Mic Night on 7 December 2012 at E-025, which was attended by baccalaureate students and some faculty members.

It was a musical evening where musicians from all over the university, who specialized in various music sorts came together as the Formanite ‘House Band’ to create innovative deliveries of popular songs. The event was made possible through the hardworking work of the society’s management. Ali Abbas (Society President), Shahrukh Sherwani (General Secretary/Director) and Hamza Butt (Event Manager/Directors) advertised for auditions to recruit a diverse selection of musicians to constitute the House Band.

The vocalists specialized in both eastern and western styles; instrumentals covered a wide repertoire including acoustic/bass guitars, keyboards, harmonium, violin, tabla, and Turkish drum (Djembe). The management organized various practice sessions where songs were chosen as to reflect different tastes prevalent within Pakistani society, namely eastern folk/classical, qawali, Western and Eastern contemporary pop. Innovative song structures were created by fusing together the aforementioned styles.

RJ Rizwan Qureshi, who is also a Formanite, hosted the evening. The show started with an original instrumental composed by Shahrukh Sherwani/Zaryab Abbas on nylon guitars and Hamza Butt on violin; the crowd responded well by providing percussion through their applause. The show proceeded and was marked with songs with alternating styles such as a Hindi-English “Tune Mere Jaana – Emptiness”, a jazzy version of Nazia Hassan classic “Boom Boom”, qawali “Kun Faya Kun”, James Bond theme “Skyfall”, a couple of Maroon 5 song medleys and finally an extended “Dum must kalander” that kept playing whilst RJ Rizwan introduced the band members.

Muhammad Ali stole the show with his powerful voice and cover of “Yar Dadhi” by Ustad Jhumman, which received a standing ovation and an encore.

The Formanite Music Society’s House Band includes  vocalists Adam Kureshi, Rija Irfan Bokhari, Moosa Eleazar, Nasir Ahmed Butt, Muhammad Ali, Mehboob, Anook Kureshi, Naveed Sattar, Naima Farooq on vocals, Azam Gill (Tabla and Djembe) Hassan Cheema (keyboards) Mohsin Ali (guitars) Amir Muneer, Rushan (harmonium) and Adam Kureshi (guitars). The music director includes Muhammad Ali Abbas (bass guitar) Shahrukh Sherwani (lead guitars) & Hamza Butt (Violins/Keyboards).