ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The American rock band Burn the Ballroom has been in Islamabad, playing for students, headlining a concert and making new music with Pakistani artists, the US Embassy said on Monday.
The visit came under the US Arts and Music Envoy programme and was part of the embassy’s events marking America’s 250th anniversary. The band performed for students at Roots International and Iqra University, and headlined a Freedom 250 concert at the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan.
In the room with Pakistani musicians: in workshops and a collaboration lab, band members talked to young creatives about how to turn ideas into global careers, and made new music with Pakistani artists, the embassy said. Photographs it released show the Americans with guitars on a carpet alongside local musicians, one of them at a harmonium. A video of performance highlights is to follow.
Who they are: Burn the Ballroom is a rock project from the Washington area, now based between the American capital and Nashville. Its line-up is Adriel Genet on vocals and guitar, Jack Ivins on drums, Tuomas Easton on keytar and keys, and Josh Finks on bass. The band says it has more than 118 million streams, and describes itself as the first rock band to partner with the State Department’s American Music Abroad programme, which began with Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie.
The trip comes days after the Norwegian DJ Alan Walker’s visit to Lahore, part of a run of interest from foreign musicians in Pakistan’s music scene.
