::: Star Campus :::

Spotlight

The Wireless Sessions :
Bringing out the Future Stars

With the stock of music industry of Bangladesh rising constantly and reaching a new height, music shows have earned an impressive popularity resurgence. Concerts, Live shows, Gigs, Jamming, Unplugged music name it and the youthful crowd will rush to the venue with high enthusiasm and love for music. With sassy strums, mesmeric pleximetry, synced lighting Wireless Sessions have marked their brand aura. To be more precise, Wireless Sessions are unplugged events that are organized every Thursday nights for a whole month at Decagon cafe trying to promote the unplugged scenario. It is targeted not towards professional music, but towards giving improvised artists a primary platform to host their musical talent sparks. With growing popularity, The Wireless Sessions are now sessions marked by extremely popular performances by popular music artists like Arnob,Bassbaba Sumon, Nemesis, Yaatri, Dolchut, Shironaamhin and more. Catering its crowd with soulful flavors of wide array of music, the propensity to showcase the talents through Wireless Sessions is hereby reaching its peak.

The anchoring force behind The Wireless Sessions is the CEO of Live2 Event Management, Nafis Tahsin Ahmed Shubho. Wireless Sessions are partnered and supported by amadergaan.com, Radio Foorti 88.0FM, Incursion Music, Decagon Café and Sound Machine Ltd, and organized by Live-Square Event Management. Until now, Wireless Sessions have successfully completed three seasons. The shows first started in July and were a major hit from day one. There have been 13 shows over the three seasons held in July 07, November 07 and finally the third season ended this March.

[Fun Facts @ Wireless Sessions :
Wireless Sessions has never had a single band that could actually pull off with a complete acoustic setup! It was NEVER a complete unplugged show!

Over 55 bands/artists have participated in the 13 sessions, sometimes performing more than once!

ALL the organizers / volunteers paid to get in to watch/work for the event!

The brand Wireless Sessions has set the trend of café shows all throughout the city.

Many performers and partners were actually part of organising and promoting these events

The sessions 1.3 and 3.2 were jam-packed! There was a crowd 3 to 4 times more than expected!

After the first wireless having illustrious performances, the sessions became a massive hit and there was no turning back. Until now, the featured artistes who have performed at the wireless sessions include - Arnob, Bassbaba Sumon, Bappa of Dolchut, Shironaamhin, Nemesis, Yaatri, Arbovirus, Ajob, dNA, Reborn, Kral, Powersurge, Radioactive, Eclipse, Mechanix, Scarecrow, Severe Dementia, Stentorian and more. There were also some uprising bands who have played in the sessions - Shunno, Overture, Germantown, Alter Messiah, Synopsis, Decipher, Alternation, Xoroastrian, Soothsayer, '71, Jasper & Shanto, Cynix-X, Infinity, Waterways etc.

The first season saw memorable performances from Nemesis with their own English numbers Gone & New day followed by Obocheton. Reborn performed three of their most popular numbers Baatighor, shobkichu and Khino manush. Kral performing Oasis's 'Wonderwall', 'Don't cry', 'knocking on heaven's door', 'patience'; their own numbers Chayashorir Ondhokar, Opekkhya and Ghune Dhora Shohor got tremendous applause. Powersurge was another attraction- an out of the box performance for them where they performed unplugged versions of Metallica's sanitarium & nothing else matters and their own number mitther agrason. The wireless sessions also featured Arnob as a special guest for the first time and the one-man-show stunned the young crowd with his voice and renditions of his own numbers such as Shey je boshe ache, hariye giyechi, tomar jonno, tor jonno, koshtogulo. There were also great performances from Ajob, Stentorian, Arbovirus and many young promising bands.

With popular demand, the season two was held in 5 sessions from 2.1 to 2.5 in November. Season two was marked with some spectacular performances like : Suhnno covering Maroon 5's 'She will be loved'; Mechanix covering “Angel” by Judas Priest. They also covered Sultans of Swing. Eclipse covered 3 tracks including Dream theater's hollow years and Circus Maximus's 'silence from angels above'. Scarecrow's rendition of breaking the rules by Pink Floyd and Megadeath's Tout le Monde were well received by the audience. Severe dementia covered songs by Manowar (Master of the Wind), Iced Earth (When The Eagle Cries), followed by the much demanded Death Whispered A Lullaby and Harvest by Opeth. The notable performance of the second season was by Sumon (Bassbaba from Aurthohin) starting Amar Proticchobi. He continued with Guti, and an unreleased track, Aushomapto. After this he performed Adbhut Shei Cheleti, and couldn't leave before performing four more songs for encores. Tumi Bhorecho E Mon, Chaite Paro, Nirbodh and Tumi Ashle Abar followed in succession. Yaatri completed the sessions with their songs Ekta Gopon Kotha, Nupur, Ami Ek Bhanga Ghorer Bhanga Janala, thus drawing an end to the second season of the Wireless Sessions.

The essence of the third season of the wireless sessions was a big surprise! Arnab turned up and did twelve of his best songs, including two folk renditions, and two songs 'lukiye' and 'Chai' which were released later in his latest album. The crowd went frenzied with his numbers that outnumbered rest of the performances. Other than that were the performances of Shironaamhin, with great renditions of their own numbers iccheghuri, cafeteria, hashimukh etc. Radioactive performed songs by Scorpions, Gun 'n' Roses and their own track Shopnpkotha - The audience couldn't get enough of them. Ajob's cover of their own numbers Bhobotaane, Ochin Pakhi, Khachar Bhetor Royiacho Kothay and Tomar Shure were also a treat for the people.

Dolchut, a popular senior band appeared as guests and covered Brishti Pore, Din Baari Jay, Baaji, Jochonabihaar, and Pori. Arbovirus performed their own numbers Ja icche tai, Uttaradhikaar, Omanush and Summer of 69 of Bryan Adams.

The Wireless Sessions are now no unknown musical show, rather they are one of the most awaited shows among the young generation. Regarding the success story and initiative of the sessions, Nafis Tahsin Ahmed Shubho , the CEO of Live2 management said, “Wireless sessions started with the underlying purpose of promoting young bands, but a lot of big names have come along to make it a bigger success. This draws huge crowds who are tempted to check out who the special guest could be, and in most cases they are not only satisfied but overwhelmed. If the bands were good, they set up auditions at Incursion Music and if they were good at playing unplugged music, they got to play at the wireless sessions. Many new faces did seem promising in that context, I'd say. It all started with the aim of promoting an unplugged sort of genre into the underground scene, as in the youth crowd.”

When asked , how much of it was actually “wireless”, Nafis replied that although it was an attempt to inaugurate and popularise the unplugged scenario, still most bands couldn't use 'wireless' instruments and so played as closely as possible to bring an acoustic feel to their performance. Claiming Thursday nights branded as Wireless Nights, Nafis added, “ Thursday being the end of the week, is the day when people tends to spend their leisure, a touch of entertainment with good food and friends thus became a hit. Also, availability of artistes are easier on Thursdays. And so I chose Thursdays to be wireless!”

In the concluding part, Nafis expressed his gratitude towards the people and organisations who made smooth and successful execution of the event possible. Says Nafis, “Decagon Café and Live2 united to promote young bands. Decagon Café has been very supportive all throughout the sessions. The artistes, popular and uprising ones have all been co-operative throughout the three seasons. And the crowd was undoubtedly the best part! It's an enthralling feeling to bring so many people together and making them satisfied, bringing them back each time. It is also to be noted that none of the shows were financially sponsored but there were many partners who promoted and supported the events. I'm obliged to mention Decagon Café, amadergaan.com, Incursion Music, Sound Machine Ltd. Tunesbd.com, The Daily Star units RS , Star Campus & ALL THE BANDS!

Infact, I should mention some names who were there all throughout and without them the sessions would have been impossible to carry out: Noor-a-Zannat Huri Badhon (Decagon Café), Faysal Islam (amadergaan.com), Saadi Rahman (Incursion), Thein Han Muang Titi (Sound machine). I'd also like to thank Sufi bhai, Saadi bhai ,Tanim Bhai, and Rafa for their constant moral support. I'd like to add that all the senior musicians and bands involved in the Wireless sessions performed here as special guests to promote unplugged music and show the right way to do it. I would also like to thank Star Campus for covering the Wireless Sessions. I must also take this opportunity to mention ALL the people who worked - organizers and volunteers to help make the wireless sessions a success.”

So, what's next?
Future Tense : Wireless Sessions
The wireless sessions plans to be on a break for a while as Live2 plans to pull off some other plans for the year. There is very slight chance of wireless taking place this year. Live2 plans to host two to three major events this year, maybe sister concerns of the widely popular 'wireless sessions'.]

For those of you who have not yet witnessed any of the Wireless Sessions and are probably regretting, keep yourself updated to tune in the next sessions!!