How the Red Bull Sound Clash was the concert Karachi needed

I don't remember the last time a large-scale concert was held in Karachi.

Instead, we have musical 'events'. We have qawwali nights, open mic nights, jam sessions and the nearest thing to a concert is usually found at some festival or the other, a complement to food or literature.

Whatever happened to attending a concert purely for the sake of witnessing a band you love perform?

This pet peeve meant that I wasn't super excited about last weekend's Sound Clash, a musical event featuring Ali Azmat and Umair Jaswal. When I asked organisers about the event, I was strictly told, "Lookie here young missy, this ain't no concert, it's a clash and you best be learnin' yourself that!" Okay, not in those words but the tone was the same. Needless to say, I was confused about how far people would go to distance themselves from the idea of a 'concert.'