The Concert!

Saturday, we all hit up the IHYA Light Rhythms Concert in Toronto! Was quite the day... from getting there to getting back home... was definitely an adventure.

So in morn, me and Ammi made puri and stuff... Mmmmmm... was soo good! Then I had to literally twist my bro's arm to drive me to Anika's... damn guy wouldn't drive me to Toronto (mean Ahmer!)... but anyways, so we all went down together. Bad idea: wearing heels... I'm still feelin' it today! So we got there about 7ish.. early for a change.. and I ran into my friend Iram (I lovvvveee her!) :) and her hubby (he's not so bad.. except he blacklisted me from their house!). It was a pure Mac (McMaster.... not what ur thinkin'!) event... but ran into a few of the GTA people. It was a pretty good turnout.. the floor seats were pretty packed. We ended up having balcony seats... Mfest all over again! The seats were still arite though... right in front of the stage. Here's a shot of some of the girls

So the show started off with some drummers... who were pretty good mash'Allah! The sound system there was a little off... but s'all good. Then there were some local performers, who sounded really good considering they were amateurs and singing live! I think my Dad woulda enjoyed the show... there were so many old school qawwalis and naaths... and he loves them! So the first performance was by Aa'shiq ul-Rasul... lol ... seeing as we're not really familiar with them we thought they were Shaam and we're like hey they sound a lil different from their records... only to later find out that they weren't Shaam and the world made sense again. The one nasheed I know by them (Asmaa ul-Husna) they didn't perform :( but thats okay...

Next came, 786... they came out in black kurtas! So i knew it was Qawwali time!..bc of them, we're all getting into qawwalis... tee hee. They put on a good show, considering half of em were sick :( They're always really interactive with the audience which is tres cool. Started off with the Qawwali from the 1st album, Tajdar e Haram, I dunno bout the rest of em but me and Roohi were singing along. [Roo, I think Tajdar means someone wearing a crown so like a king.. but NOT a king, but like ya know] Then they sang Heaven's Key, Ya Allah (one of my fave) and another qawwali from the new album, Haazir Hain Hum. Pics came out soo bad... it was too dark i guess.

Then came Shaam... i like their urdu stuff! But they performed mostly in Arabic.. still they were pretty good! They came out dressed in white thobes and kufis... it was quite the sight.. i got punked by the security girl tho.. she told me to turn my phone off.. thanks alot goaty. So then i put it on vibrate...

Then me and Roo left a bit before Intermission to meet up with Maddy and Sara... who came a lil late.. to give em tix for the show. Walked by the 786 booth where they were getting mobbed (LOL... they don't think they get mobbed!) for autographs... too bad their new album wasn't ready :(

After intermission, we had a friend get us into the floor level seats... tee hee... don't worry, we left right after 786 were done. :-) But as fate would have it, we ended up sitting behind this Arab Uncle guy who kept giving us dirty looks for talking and laughing... mean Arab Uncle guy! Just tryin to get our money's worth yo! They saved the Nasheed Medley for last... :).. stop laughin Roohi!

Then we jet upstairs to catch the rest of the show... Shaam ... the gora guy in Shaam knows urdu.. haha... it was so funny! AAR - were the finale... played some interesting nasheeds. The Grand Finale had all 3 groups on stage... it was pretty cool. Was a really longggg concert, almost 4 hours! The tix were a bit overpriced tho...

Ohhh ohhh got my programme autographed :) Overall, think we all had a pretty decent time... getting home was another mission and half tho...

Well first of all it was pretty late... but to make things worse, the doors to the building where we parked were locked!! Eventually we made our way in... we had to buzz the guard. Then, we made our way out of the parking lot... to find the flippin' 401 ramp closed! So we drove down to Bayview... CLOSED! What the hell man?! I don't even know where we ended up before realizing we had made one huge circle and were back on Yonge.. in the meantime we made a pitstop to Timmies.. Sara was hungryy! An hour after leaving the Hall.. we finally hit the 404... to be met with psycho traffic on the 401! Got us 3 a chance to catch up on each others' lives... and gave Sara a chance to tell us bout the book she was reading.. "Men are..." what?! Oh.. no, that was her own saying... lol... Sara, Maddy -- you girls are a riot, even that late at night! Alhumdalillah we made it home... i swear at times it didn't look like we would. Next time, lets jus call someone at the first sign of trouble... but then again, what fun is that?!