Music’s big night

“Hello, we are Undercover.  We are here to rock, and we’d like you to get up and dance. Let’s go!”

And with those words from vocalist Sheldon Emmanuel, the main event kicked off in style.  Undercover is what we call a supergroup as it includes three pillars of the Pakistani music industry; drummer extraordinaire Gumby, and guitar maestros Aamir Zaki and Omran Shafique.  The rock solid rhythm section of Gumby and bassist Anas Alam provides the foundation, the dueling lead guitars of powerhouses Amir Zaki and Omran Shafique provide the cut and thrust, and keyboardist Saad Hayat competently colours the empty spaces with his fills.  With a repertoire leaning heavily on old school blues rock and reggae, the band jammed for over two hours, only taking small breaks to enable guest musicians to come in and perform.

Live for the moment: Undercover can only be described as a supergroup given the fact that it includes drummer par excellence Gumby and musical wizards like Aamir Zaki and Omran Shafique.

But this night was much more than just Undercover.  Billed as an “All Star Gig,” the night featured about half a dozen acts in all, a rare treat for entertainment-starved music lovers in Karachi.

Upcoming band Mirage performed a few faithful covers with vocalist Rehan Nazim managing an impressive ability to hit high notes, particularly the difficult ones.  Following Mirage on stage were Hamza/Rubya, for me probably the surprise package of the night.

Hamza Jafri is no stranger to Pakistani rock fans.  He’s been the long-standing face and voice of co-VEN, one of the institutions of the Lahore rock scene over the last decade and more, and since his move to Karachi has been the leading light behind a string of successful music festivals in the city.  Rubya Chaudhry has been a familiar face on the fashion ramp, but their musical collaboration is still quite recent.  While Hamza’s music cred is solid, I have to admit to a feeling of trepidation when the duo took to the stage with Hamza armed only with an acoustic guitar, and Rubya looking visibly nervous.

What followed was something of a revelation as Rubya overcame her inhibitions to channel her inner torch singer in a short, understated set, drawing inspiration from the Nina Simone school of music.  Opening with a stripped down cover of Kylie Minogue’s ‘In Your Eyes’, they went on to perform two originals, ‘Aa Jaa’ and ‘Chilla Rahi Hai’, both of which were received well by the audience.  I understand that their recorded music has a strong electronic element but the chamber-music sound worked very well in the confined space of the PACC auditorium, and is something the band should continue to develop along with Rubya’s vocal dexterity.

Hamza/Rubya were followed on to stage by the very plugged-in Undercover who burst forth with a raucous cover of Lenny Kravitz’s ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way?’  It kept on going higher from there as Omran and Zaki kept on swapping leads throughout a set of unrelenting intensity.

As a venue, the PACC makes up in intimacy what it lacks in grandeur.  With the chairs removed, you have ample opportunity to get up real close and personal to the musicians and feel the vibrations of the bass drum in your body.  Sadly, Pakistani crowds are generally content to keep sitting, limiting their dancing to bobbing from side to side, unwilling to get up and dance for fear of looking ridiculous.  However, after repeated exhortations from the band and MC Ali Hayat, a few courageous souls managed to lose their self-consciousness and began to respond to the music.

Surprise, surprise: Ali Azmat, Pakistan’s inimitable rock star not only attended this all-star gig but also indulged the crowd with a two-song cameo on stage.

While the multi-artist format gives the audience a large variety of music in one evening, the potential pitfall is that the changeovers disrupt the building momentum and a weak performance can destroy it entirely.  That came close to happening with the next act Maha Kazmi, whose tremulous cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ led to a large-scale exodus as people took this opportunity to head for smoke and bathroom breaks.

Fortunately, Undercover were quickly back on stage to revive the night and the audience started tracking back in.  By this time the scattered dancers were seated again, and the crowd had gone back to its bobbing ways, and it seemed this is how the night would end when the real surprise guest of the show, Pakistan’s undoubted No.1 rock star, Ali Azmat, was called on the stage.  I say ‘real surprise’ because even Ali was only there to see his friends play and was on the phone backstage when Sheldon announced his name and the crowd erupted.

Even though Ali Azmat was caught by complete surprise, he is not one to disappoint his fans and his two-song cameo showed exactly why he is the country’s only true rock star.  Most of the musicians on stage have played and toured with him at some point and so the band hit the groove from the instant he swung the acoustic guitar over his head and strummed the opening chords to ‘Neend Aati Nahin’. The crowd was on its feet now, rushing the stage and refused to let him go after just one song so he launched into ‘Mera Mahi Aa Gaya’, with Omran Shafique providing the perfect foil on guitar.

Undercover came back with for another few songs and kept the intensity-meter at 11.  Ali Azmat had truly awoken the crowd and they were in no mood to sit down now, and the dancing continued unabated until Undercover closed with a kicking cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock n Roll.’

Cries of ‘one more’ were still continuing as the band wound down due to the PACC’s strict midnight curfew, but the audience left on a high, having seen some excellent covers of old favourites, some fantastic new talent, and perhaps most memorably, seeing Ali Azmat weave his magic in an intimate small space.

Special mention also of Aamir Zaki who’s on the comeback trail.  Other than playing with Undercover, he also played a powerful short set with Anas Alam on bass and Ahad Nayani providing some real fire on drums.  Make no mistake, we’ll be hearing more of this drummer in the future.