Dhaka Rock Fest: A fitting end to a great year for live music
The past few months have been quite favourable for artists in Bangladesh, as live performances have re-established their full and constant splendour. Practically every prominent band, solo artist, and even instrumentalist play gigs almost every weekend.
With 2022 drawing to a close, Dhaka Rock Fest returned with a two-day rock bash featuring 32 bands, ranging from the classic rock tonalities of Nemesis to the growls from hell of Severe Dementia.
If day one of Dhaka Rock Fest 3.0 was anything to go by, it must be said that the concert was a fitting-end to what was a great year for live music in Dhaka city.
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The show started off pretty early, around 11 AM. It was an earlier kick-off time than the other usual rock shows because of the fact there were 16 bands playing on the day.
As the concert is taking place in the middle of the week on working days, the crowd was not very large at the start of the day, and this trend continued throughout the night. Although the crowd got larger as the 'bigger' bands started taking to the stage, in no way, shape or form, was it the biggest congregation of rock fans in the ICCB Expo Zone.
The likes of Bangu Bibi, Apekkhik and Arekta Rock Band took care of the first few acts of the day. It was a special occasion for vocalist Tashfee as Bangu Bibi was the first ever female-fronted rock band to perform at Dhaka Rock Fests.
It was a brilliant gesture from the organisers to include two new bands, Fantasy Realm and Shepherds, through a band hunt program.
As the sun started to set, the aura around ICCB Expo Zone got heavier as Powersurge got up and brought the roof down. The metalheads in the audience were pleasantly surprised when Powersurge covered Slayer's 'Angel of Death'.
However, it was just after that song that an incident took place that I do not know how to narrate, so I will leave it up for you to decide.
During every Powersurge performance, the fans desperately wait for one specific track, which is their most famous song, Mitther Agrashon. It was in the middle of the song, just after the first chorus and guitar solo, that the output sound on the speakers was cut off due to a namaz break (every event at ICCB has scheduled prayer timing breaks).
The audience hated it. Some said it was unprofessional and that the scheduling of the songs could have been handled better in accordance with the prayer timings, because no one wants a song cut off midway. However, Saimum Hasan Nahian had a very positive reaction to the incident.
"I don't think it was unprofessional. I am an extreme metalhead, but I am also extremely religious myself. We are not a satanic or blasphemous band which goes around disrespecting religion. What's rather coincidental is that the song had a five-second break at that particular time when the sound was cut off!" said the guitarist with a smile on his face.
Cryptic Fate took the stage later. Everyone sang along to their iconic Bhoboghure. Time and again, the Iron Maiden influence on guitarists Farhan and Sarfaraz were noticeable when they traded solos on different songs.
Nemesis sounded brilliant, as usual. Cryptic Fate's Farhan Samad was accompanying Ifaz Abrar Reza as the other guitarist for the night, because regular band member Sultan Rafsan Khan left the country recently. Nemesis played a softer version of Obocheton, where Zohad played the rhythm segments on the guitar as Ifaz did his thing on a soothing, overdrive tone.
Artcell headlined the event and the 45 minutes they performed for were pure 'heavy' musical bliss. Artcell had three guitar players on stage and boy did they put the dexterities of Lincoln, Faisal and Iqbal Asif Jewel to good use.
The crowd went wild when Artcell played their 'tribute' track, which included excerpts from historic songs such as Geroge Harrison's 'Bangladesh' (the one he performed at Madison Square Garden in 1971), Azam Khan's 'Bangladesh', and classics from Miles, L.R.B and Warfaze. Artcell ended the show in the best possible way as they performed the first ten minutes of Oniket Prantor and the emotions were visible on the faces and in the eyes of an ardent Artcell fanbase.
