Pepsi Battle Of The Bands has been a wild ride, so far. We’ve seen some of the biggest talents from all over the country come together on one stage and give us some fiiire music! And as each episode progresses, it only gets tougher and better. As we saw in today’s episode, the judges are more critical than ever judging the minutest details with a magnifying glass and not holding back any critique.
We saw greats like Badnaam take the stage and light it up and take us to a whole new level with Shan-e-Qalandar, in spite of being unwell. We saw Roots pay tribute to Vital Signs with the evergreen Mera Dil Nahi Available. We heard Jasim and the Pindi Boys drive everyone crazy with their rendition of Dr Aur Billa’s Yes Love and Bunny’s Dil Mein Tum, turning our Sundays into the craziest of Throwback Thursdays.
But one band took a song, turned it around, and made us all look a little like this
Kashmir started their Pepsi Battle Of The Bands journey with Entity Paradigm, so it’s only befitting we get more covers
The boys, who then looked like ~baaaaabies~ during their first audition, which was also an eP cover, Hamesha, have truly come into their own and take over the stage every time they step on it. They immediately made space for themselves in everyone’s hearts, and now that they’re in the Top 3, they look like proper rock stars, clothes and all. And we’re not complaining.
This isn’t the first time they’ve taken a song and completely made it their own
And the smile on Usman’s face, while he grooves all over the stage, knowing they’re doing something right, because the music sounds greaaat.
In the first knockout round, they performed a rendition of the late Aamir Zaki’s Mera Pyaar, turning it into a slow, haunting song; blowing away the judges, in the process. They rearranged the entire song, played around with the tune and gave us the masterpiece that they did. This time around, they did the same with Entity Paradigm’s Waqt. Remember Waqt? The song with Xulfi on the wheelchair, Ahmed Ali Butt in a hoodie and 10 men in one room? That Waqt.
Waqt is a song we all grew up and old listening to
They stayed true to the song in its chorus, that, when we heard for the first time, we were forced to shriek with joy (swear I’m not exaggerating).
Vais ripped out the famous tune from Waqt during his insane guitar solo. We still don’t understand how this man can walk around, jump, run while playing the guitar. Hum se tau kharey ho ker sahi sey paani nahi piya jaata. Also, watching Ali Raza play the keyboard is an absolute treat – it almost feels like he becomes one with the keyboard, during performances.
The band did absolute justice to the song
And while there were mixed reviews from the judges, there is something about the song that takes you back to the time everyone would actively wait for an eP concert, or an audio from a live concert to come up on apniisp.com.
While we bid farewell to Jasim and the Pindi Boys (with a very very very heavy heart), we have our Top 3, and we’re getting closer to finding out who’s taking the trophy home
We have Badnaam, Roots and Kashmir battling it out in the Top 3, and things are only going to get tougher.
Dear Jasim and co: abhi na jao chhor ker ke dil abhi bharra nahi?
We can’t wait to see what other songs Kashmir and the rest of the Top 3 put forward in the coming episodes. What did you think of their version of Waqt?