A sense of community (at last)

The best advertisement for LMC LIMS

Mekaal Hassan has a problem with it. Ahmad Ali Butt of Gulls/Entity/ Jutt & Bond has rebuked me often for my use of the term (coined by our very own NFP). It seems that most musicians of the Lahore Music Underground now have a problem with the word ‘Underground’ being used to describe the local non-commercial music scene. For most of these artists, aspiring or accomplished, underground seems to mean something smaller in scale and not attracting or not being worthy of attracting a large audience. Ever since the Mekaal Hassan Band (wanting to go global) and Entity (wanting to go commercial) have started thinking big they have insisted that the local groups of musicians have outgrown the term. Some have even object to its use as it conjures up an image of drugs and other vices that are generally underground.

Therefore, the “Lahore Music Community” is the tag that was suggested by Ahmad Ali Butt at the Gull’s Gig Night no. 6. Personally, I do not care what these kids are called. If an LMC label will make the bands of the Lahore scene perform as sublimely as they did on Gig Night 6, they can call themselves Sally for all I care. The plain fact is that for GN6 these kids rocked the city as never before. After so many bad gigs (Rafi Peer Youth Festival, Power Trip concert), Gig Night episode 6 was a night when everything fell into place for all bands and they all clicked.

While the bill offered a couple of unfamiliar bands (barring Entity and the recently formed Power Trip) these newcomers were soon revealed to be old hands (Barre Chords [pronounced Bare Chords]) or in the least, well-practiced hands (Soul Slide): Soul Slide from Islamabad played as well as any other band on show and Barre Chords in fact turned out to be a supergroup comprising the best of the local talent coming together for the best of causes: i.e to have fun.

After Ahmad Ali Butt’s introductions and directions to the audience to rock with control and tameez (is it possible?), a premiere of the new Entity/ Paradigm music video for the Jutt & Bond Soundtrack (excellent!) and a passable open-stage performance of Wonderwall by a walk-on singer, Soul Slide launched the night.

Hailing from the wasteland that is Islamabad/ Rawalpindi, one was quite apprehensive as to how good Soul Slide would be. After all, Islamabad had already inflicted Knumb on the Lahorites at a Gig Night past; so one had one’s fingers crossed. Those fingers were got uncrossed as soon as Shahryar, the lead singer pulled out the harmonica and practiced vibrato on it like a pro. One immediately knew this was to be a band of note.

And Soul Slide duly delivered. Lahore was finally treated to a band that sang blues and soul not as white boys (who with a few notable exceptions cannot [consider Ronan Keeting]), but as black men sing them i.e. with improvisation and passion and from the neck down and, when the spirit calls upon them, even from the waist down. Too often us Brown kids and men when we sing, we mimic, mime and copy white performers who were ripping off black artists in the first place. Soul Slide seemed to have gone to the source: learned soul from checking out Otis Redding, James Brown, et. al i.e. the real stuff rather than picking it up from watching the Committments. Shahryar, the lead singer particularly shone: he is the first singer out of the underground who really sings: improvises, conveys passion, screams, slurs, does falsetto, vocal swoops and in short does not reproduce recordings note for note. Backed by his crack band, the performance was remarkable. The choice of material was tasteful and with some pleasant surprises: Ain’t no sunshine was unexpected and well-received.

While they seemed to have picked up the good ideas from the masters, Soul Slide also seem to have picked up some lame ones too. When one of the guitarists persisted in pulling “I’ve got ants in my pants” faces, it all seemed a bit out of place: there are some bits of Hendrixian tricks one should imitate (his jaw-dropping skill and versatility) and others that should be lost to history (‘Watch out ! Here I come’ faces). Most performers could do well to keep an eye on Cecil Chaudhry who similarly playacts but does not go over the line.

Cecil in fact featured prominently on the night, once with his band Power Trip and once with the Barre Chords which came on next. With Barre Chords he did a fabulous version of Cocaine. There is a certain element of Harold Zeidler (from Moulin Rouge) about him: his introductions of soloing guitarists on Cocaine were as whooped-up as a Yippee Can-Can by Mister Ziedler. He can be a delightful MC when he wants.

Still, more than any other person the night celebrated Mekaal Hassan. He was the featured musician in the Barre Chords (playing Pantagruel off of his upcoming Square One album) and all other musicians seemed to be in awe and well-appreciative of the pony-tailed, soft-spoken one. Perhaps basking in all the appreciation or being freed out of the ultra-intelligent context of the Mekaal Hassan Band, Mekaal on the night just laid back and played. While his histrionics may sometimes sound out of place in MHB and might even distract from the song, his fiery playing fitted right into the rock-context, where over-playing fits right in. The more over the top he went, the more incendiary the songs got. And there seems to be no limit to his bag of tricks: two handed tapping, effect pedals, wah-wah sweeps, fingerpicking; the performance was sublime and Mekaal firmly retained his title of the best guitarist (as he was often announced as on the night) in Lahore.

In fact, he actually got a prize to that end too at the Gulls awards distribution ceremony the night after. Not only had Mekaal played up a storm, he had hectically juggled sound management duties (great job overall): so his award was merited and well-earned. He sheepishly accepted the same, despite having a few days earlier given me a speil as to how below the integrity of real musicians it is to be judged and be given prizes. Anyways, poking fun at him aside, Mekaal is a master of the guitar in Lahore.

Barre Chords shifted personnel throughout (Faraz, Sammy, Fahad Khan [even taking on vocals for Purple Haze]: all excellent) and they even let on Dr. Bhatti and Robin to play the latter two’s Allah, a promising Junoonesque number which featured excellent guitars Mekaal.

Next up were Entity, a band which for all intents and purposes had been written off as dead by this writer. Salman Albert, the drummer had defected to noori and Qasim, the chief guitarist, by all accounts and appearances had left Pakistan for good. And now both are back. And they played a set appropriately set to celebrate. Salman drummed up a fury and in light of the fire he played with, Entity seems to be his rightful home. The performance overall was hard-hitting and excellent on the heavier numbers. However, their attempts at the more commercial original numbers were relatively weak, too male AOR at times; however, even in these the band’s instrumental merit in the rave-up sections shone through.

Power Trip had a lot to prove after their below-par performance at St. Anthony’s; they made amends with aplomb and style. The power was there and the music was simply a joy. Both the vocalists (Tauseef and Zahid) performed well; they were loose and on top of their game. Cecil and Dr. Zeerak were great as ever. Their set was shorter than the St. Anthony’s set and was culled from its best moments: their performance on each was much improved too. They ended the night with their own number Loser which climaxed with all performers forming a chorus line singing subversive choruses of Loser. It was a We are the World moment minus all the fake sentiments and stomach turning pap and it was quite hilarious seeing Lahore’s finest each claiming to be a ‘Loser’ in tune.

The spontaneity (or was it all practiced?) on the night was remarkable. Entity did an unrehearsed Limp Bizkit number on request. Barre Chords jammed on Cocaine with three featuring guitarists, each one playing one solo each (Mekaal, Jamie and Shehzad Hameed dueling). The moment was as memorable as three Beatles soloing on The End off of Abbey Road or recently the guitars of Vai, Satriani and Johnson (on G3.) The moments kept coming on and on. The crowd sang a whole chorus of Happy Birthday to birthday boy Shahzad Hameed and then there was excellent high point of the Loser chorus wherin Dr. Bhatti particularly showed his strong pipes.

In short, this was the most awesome night of music Lahore has experienced for years. The fun was there in K’s; the audience interaction was great and the music was a joy. People often write in letters debunking the scene for one reason or another. The music on the night spoke for itself and was effectively the best advertisement the scene can have.

Clearly, by the night’s end one felt that in light of the sense of community that was demonstrated one ought not have a problem calling the scene a community now. However, one would be faced with the odd abbreviations LMC (Lahore Municipal Committee/ Corporation?) and the garbage-related connotations with that LMC aren’t all that pleasant. Mekaal has suggested Lahore Independent Music Scene instead. But more on LIMS next time.

Kindly direct flames, shoutouts and rants to maqsimillion@hotmail.com.