Feature

NSR IV rocks Chittagong

Mahjabeen

WITH the music industry of Bangladesh growing persistently and reaching new altitudes a lot of music shows seem to be happening these days. Concerts, live shows, gigs, jamming, unplugged music; just name it and the youthful throng will rush to the venue with passion for music in high gusto. And Chittagong is not far behind in the race! Though the people are unable to witness concerts every month like the ones in Dhaka, there have been quite a few concerts over the last 6 months. Hence June 28 was a dream day for many, as the people got to go to the incredible underground concert named New School Rock (NSR) IV-Redemption, the fourth consecutive session NSR, which was held in the Chittagong Grammar School's (CGS) upper school auditorium. The event was sponsored by CGS Alumni Association and Sanmar Properties Limited while Radio partner was Radio Foorti.

The star band was Powersurge, the winner of the D-Rockstar 2. Other big bands from Dhaka were Shunno and Bohemian. The main attractions of Chittagong were Act of Defiance (AOD), Abseil, Hemorrhage, My 31st Demerit (MTD), and Effigy. The other bands were Whiplash, Rock in Progress (RIP), and Rites of Winter.

As for the songs performed, it cannot be described into words. Most of the bands performed their own numbers, which was really excellent. MTD covered Bullet for My Valentine and other Metallica hits. They also performed Before I Forget (Slipknot cover) which is the first Slipknot cover in Chittagong. They did it two scales up but still pulled it off in great style! Abseil covered Pull Harder on The Strings of Your Martyr by Trivium and their very own track Narokio Shukh. Bohemian and Shunno both did many of their own hit tracks such as Layra (Bohemian) and Notun Srot (Shunno). As for AOD, the crowd went totally wild when they performed their own number Ghrinno Jibon with a killer guitar performance by Salman and Tanshi. They also covered their own number Bidroher Ahoban besides performing Blackened and Master of Puppets of Metallica. Drummer Wadud literally stole the show as he performed for four different bands. And last but not the least, Powersurge, with their powerful performance simply blew the stage away! They performed their own hit tracks from their recently released album such as Cancer and Powersurge and a couple of Metallica covers, which was actually amazing! Overall the response of the crowd was truly incredible.

With the sudden demise of the King of Pop Michael Jackson, the whole music world was at a loss and so were these young bands. To pay a tribute to the legendary icon, the performers performed his hit songs Beat It and a number of tracks from his best selling albums.

NSR have been effectively arranging shows in Chittagong for the last couple of years. It hopes to set a whole new standard for underground shows in Chittagong, as well as increase the communication between the bands from Dhaka and Chittagong; opening a whole new doorway of opportunities for many new, as well as old, musical talents.

(The writer is a first year student of H.S.C. at Radiant School and College, Chittagong.)