Ready ! Seth ! Go !

All Seth to Rock’n’roll

Seth against the world

(etc.)

MAQ was at the Green Gig Night at Alhamra this week and reports that the underground music scene is alive and well.

Saturday, September 08, 2001. Alhamra Arts Theatre, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. ‘Green Gig’ Night. All bands other than Seth which performed on the Night must take out their cheque books and write cheques of exorbitant amounts in the same to Seth. For tonight Seth owned the stage; all the other bands performing merely borrowed it while they played.

A sweat-filled gig night in support of the environment and animal rights – organized by Qasim from Entity - comprising the cream of the Lahore Underground got kicked into gear by Shahzad Hameed formerly of Blue Buzz with guest guitarist Qasim.

If bands were ever rated to be great on the earnestness they demonstrate, Shahzad and his makeshift band would be the Bono and U2 of the Lahore Underground. Sadly, for Shahzad bands are not so rated; competence and all-round skills matter too and this is where their performance on the night fell short. But first the plusses: The band looks good and comfortable on stage with Shahzad being the center of attention now, looking very Jimmy Page like with pencil-thin frame and guitar slung low. Their set list additionally was a pleasant revelation: it comprised of well-chosen covers and demonstrated the rarest of good taste. The dramatic instrumental Carmina Burana by Karl Orff opened their set to good effect. A version of Come Together by the Beatles and a Muddy Waters number followed and Shahzad & Co’s set ended with a double shot of Led Zepplin: “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “Dazed and Confused” featuring fiery leads by Jamie on guest guitars.

While Blue Buzz’s performance was shot through with moments of brilliance, overall, the performance of the band always seemed often to be on the verge of falling apart. That made curiosly compelling viewing. Qasim took on lead vocals on the Muddy Waters number and would be well-advised to never do so again. Ever. To his credit even he realized this midsong and spent the later half of the song howling, rather than singing. Furthermore, to the untrained ear, Qasim’s showcase, ‘a Jazz piece’ sounded like it had a whole lot of wrong notes in it. To the trained ear too, it was still the same. Shahzad handled the vocals on other all songs and despite all his evident enthusiasm was barely passable. Shahzad and his motley crew onstage appeared what they sadly are at this moment, a potentially great band without a genuine vocalist.

To his credit, of all the persons present, only Shahzad seemed to be aware of the good cause the event was promoting and said anything about it. However, his speil about his disgust at donkeys and horses being killed and flogged on the road – despite the good intentions behind it – was unintentionally hilarious.

By the end of Shahzad’s set it was however quite obvious to all that the one band the audience wanted to hear more than anything was Seth. Shahzad had the misfortune of being heckled by the impatient headbangers to leave the stage to let Seth on.

And soon enough the Seth was onstage.

Seth, on most nights, is a monster live group; on this night they appeared to be the best live band in the country, bar none. That Sufi-pap group, the ever-so-gay Ali Haider, the populist Abrar, none of them can hold a candle up to Seth. If they did, Seth’s music would just blow it out.

Being someone who has never cared much for the death metal Seth purveys, I must still confess that Seth is irresistible live. The music is hits one like a sledgehammer. The rhythm section of Mohammad (Rhythm Guitars), Khurram (Bass) and Shuja (Drums) are the finely tuned engine that drives the band, tight, concentrated and not to be denied. Usman on lead guitars stokes the fire they burn. On top of it all, Eddie howled his gutteral howls with presence and muscular menace. Despite my best efforts, I could not understand a single word Eddie and guest vocalist Haroon bellowed. I could sort of make out that Slayer, Sepultura, Slip Knot covers and an original song were on offer, however it did not matter. The brutal rhythms and throat-shredding hit one in the gut like a rabbit punch and one could help not be moved.

Paradigm had the unenviable task of following Seth up and trying to match them. No band on the night could match the intensity of Seth, so Paradigm (for most part) did not even try. Instead they lowered the intensity and raised the passion with an achingly beautiful rendition of U2’s One, prompting the first and possibly only sing-along moment of the night. A cover of 3 Doors Down followed and the band ended with a Sister Death cover – trying to ape Seth perhaps - that seemed as out of place in their oeuvre as Bangladesh in the Asian Test Championship. The song just did not seem Paradigm’s style and their performance indicates that they had better stick to ballads and hard rock at most. “With Arms Wide Open” which they handled beautifully in a recent Gig Night was sorely missed on the night.

On most nights, live Entity can give Seth a run for their money. Sadly, though not on this night. Ahmad Ali Butt and his band seemed to be having an off night this once. Curiously, the sound mix for them seemed well-off and the songs did not sound as well as they normally do. A musician who shall remain nameless confided to me in hushed tones that he suspected that the bad mix was payback from someone concerned to Entity for the fact that on Ahmad Ali Butt’s gig nights, Entity always suspiciously seem to get better sound mixes than all other bands. Nevertheless, Entity on an off-day still is more powerful than most bands. Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit covers brought to an end the first half of Entity’s set. Ahmad Ali Butt existed stage left and Qasim, the Entity guitarist and the organizer for the night took center-stage and performed two killer instrumentals. Each was brilliantly performed and stunningly virtuosic. And that suddenly brought an end to the proceedings for the night. Mikaal Hassan was to perform on the night, but was unable to as outrageously the Alhamra administration who were initially responsible for the late start promptly started pulling out power leads right left and center declaring the concert closed.

Nonetheless, there was time for a nice touch at the end: the stage was opened up to some newcomers. A duo of Abbas Sajjad on vocals and Tariq Ali on guitar were assisted by Entity regulars in a cover of Papa Roach’s Last Resort and acquitted themselves quite competently. Both demonstrated great talent and if only Abbas were to losen up more on stage, they remain a duo to watch.

Overall, this gig nite was a modest success. The attendance was rather low, but the music was tight and more than made up for it. It was somewhat spoilt by the strange behaviour of the Alhamra administration. This was despite the fact that the crowd for once was well-behaved. No fights were on view and no suspicious herbal cigarettes were smelt being smoked. All in all this was a welcome change after the recent gig night where the curtains at stage right caught fire. In short, good clean fun was had at the Green gig night, and the news from here in the trenches is that Lahore Underground is alive and clicking.