“lt’s a concert, not the Oscars!” Having said that, I shall go on to explain where the need to clear the confusion arises from. In the great dense city called Lahore, almost every event has conceptually merged into a glamour-oriented phenomenon. Perhaps the corporates are partially to blame, or the ever-present underestimation of the audience.
Whichever way the blame game might unfold, it is important that one understands that each artistic venture should not only have its own signature style, it should also compliment the art that it is showcasing. Red carpets, celebrity lists, media hounds, paparazzi-style press are not the trademarks of concerts. In the global market, even corporate honchos will respect each art and entertainment niche by not pushing or moulding it into one generic hybrid.
When the Minute Maid invite reached people, it discreetly mentioned the artistes performing, while containing the rest of the elements of a product launch. Most of the journalists invited were confused about the true nature of the event — was the music just a small part of the night; was the red carpet of a pre-event nature? All the queries boiled down to one main question: Was Catalyst, the sister concern of Catwalk owned and operated by Frieha Altaf, going to follow the predetermined fashion industry pattern of events, or was Zeb & Haniya going to be the main act of an actual concert, and not a celebrity gala?
True to the tradition of treating the music industry as a tributary of fashion, the launch was not the perfect venue for the female-fronted band. While the girls backed by the co-Ven boys and Fahad Khan took the stage with understated confidence that might soon be a trademark, the rest of the venue became frenetic with multiple distractions, including the stormy weather.
There was a red (read orange) carpet, where the camera crew for some channel had a celebrity hound (one of those flunkeys who have a distinct sense of smell to sniff out where relatively famous people might be hiding in mock modesty). This orange travesty was a cause of constant distraction as throughout the night people were being pulled, cajoled, coerced, etc, into standing against the unsteady orange backdrop on the orange carpet. And of course on the way to their ‘minute’ (pun intended) of fame, people would stop, convince more people to go pose against the tangerine backdrop.
This entire masquerade went on till well after the concert when finally the elements intervened and with their pragmatism blew away the orange carpet, camera crew and celebrity hound et al, a la Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
The orange cough syrup that the soft drink corporate giant will now use to further establish their market presence within another Third-world country (where a soft drink is more expensive than a labourer’s meal), was stacked in lovely vintage crates at the entrance, going beguilingly well with the wooden tables and the artfully orange flower arrangements.
So what kept it all from being visually cogent? The velvet upholstered semi-circular lounge arrangements in front of the stage! From the natural wood to the elegantly ornate, it did not work. Again, it must be mentioned, it was a launch crossed with a fashion event crossed with Zeb & Haniya. The guests, after rubbing shoulders with whoever knocked into them on the way to the orange carpet, would come, comfortably recline on the sofas and fall into the daze that background music and chilled stormy breeze tends to induce.
The music itself was far from subservient to the rather confused ambience. The musicians could not see much as the lights were strong and at close range, and the rest of the world was blinded out. As one of them noted later, not being able to see the audience worked out very well — it felt like they were in the comfortable confines of a jam session!
Zeb, Haniya, Hamza, Sameer and for that night, Fahad Khan gave a sample of what contemporary local music in Pakistan can encompass if each individual plays with an integrity to their skill, to their musical preferences and yet have compositions that are pleasing for a large cross-section of people.
The advantage Zeb and Haniya have over regular Pakistani pop is that musically they are not simplifying their work to fit a predetermined, mass-multiplied sound. Haniya on her acoustic with her ‘feel’ vocals distinctly stands apart on timbre, tone and stylistic inclinations from Zeb.
Add the co-Ven boys to this band and suddenly Zeb & Haniya are doubly a force to be reckoned with. When Hamza, Sameer and Sikandar had their first concert after many years of being in different countries, everyone knew who they were, though many did not remember how their music used to sound. The co-Ven firmly re-established their presence as boys who played for themselves before conforming to anything with their very funky covers (read ‘heard it through the grapevine’) and rather unusual originals. Now when they stand with Zeb & Haniya, they do not discard their co-Venness, in fact it is that very essence of a very tight knit band that gives Zeb & Haniya an oomph and a punch. And together, they all have a sound that means business.
Their trademark song Chup, along with Aitebaar and Paimana Bitte fell a little flat in the vocal section. Chup with its arrangements and its playfulness made up for where the vocals lacked, while the other numbers did not fare as well.
Towards the end of the show two things were ascertained: Zeb, who has a beautiful, very distinctive voice was not in full form. Even though there were moments when her vocals stood out brilliantly, she fell a little flat. The second thing would be that even though on stage, the co-Ven boys assume a muted physical presence; their music makes them stand out.
The girls, together with co-Ven, can create a stir if they do not fall into a rut that many musicians who are newly famous are prone to; diva attitudes, diminishing energy, redundancy and repetition. Right now what they do have are strong vocals, a good range of compositional elements, great arrangements, mass appeal and approachability — all the makings of a successful band.
Published in Images, Dawn on June 15 2008
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