As we inch closer to the Bacardi Nh7 Weekender in Pune, the folks at Lucknow were in for a treat on the 17th of November, when NH7 Express reached the Palms Golf club and resort in the city. The organizers did a brilliant job of bringing in some of the top acts from the indie music scene and the crowd were in for a treat.

Just as the crowd were beginning to come in , the evening started off with Samar Mehdis heart warming set , in which he enthralled the crowd with some of his songs like ‘Aazaad’ and ‘Parey’ , while his Finger-styling left the crowd longing for more. This was the perfect start to the evening, which warmed the crowd up for the more energy filled acts to follow.

Next on stage was Mali, who was a complete band, as she had the crowd longing for more with her soothing vocals accompanied by electronic beats. Her set, included all her popular songs like ‘Rush’ and ‘Dreaming’. Mali also succeeded in making the Lucknow crowd, sing along to a couple of her songs.

Following Mali, was crowd favourite ‘ Ankur and the Ghalat Family’. The crowd swarmed towards the stage at the sight of Ankur Tiwari on stage, and weren’t let down by the bands powerpacked performance. The crowd sang along throughout the bands chartbusters like ‘Dil Haare’ and ‘Yaaron’. Ankur, even catered to the crowds perpetual request, by playing ‘Dil Beparwah’ , which left all of us a happy bunch and crooning through the set. The band had the other musicians of the evening, dancing to their tunes as well in the crowd.

Just as the crowd were getting pumped up for the final setdown, with their energies high, on stage came AsWeKeepSearching. The lighting pyrotechnics took over with this high energy banned, as they had the crowd jumping and dancing to some of their famous tunes like ‘In Circles’ and ‘Ativa’. The crowd, including all of us covering the event, were left wanting for more, especially of the bass heavy instrumentals that the band pulled off with aplomb.

Last but not the least, on stage came Parvaaz, who are one of the most exciting bands in the country at the moment. The Bengaluru based band, who’ve been a part of the scene for over 4 years now, played some of their most famous songs while even giving the audience a sneak peek into a few numbers from their upcoming EP. The band, whose songs have lyrics from Hindi, Urdu and Kashmiri, laced with deep vowen lyrics which can be taken as poetry when stripped of their tunes. Though the songs weren’t known by most in the crowd, they took back a large part of it back home with them.

Though the concert didn’t have as big a turnout as would have been expected, it made for an inclusive cozy evening in a serene environment, and the musicians didn’t disappoint them one bit. The crowd that attended the festival, sure went back a happy bunch, with an urge to attend the event on a larger scale.