ISLAMABAD, May 24: Time almost stood still for music lovers when Dhol players from Duska ripped through the stage with their blaring sounds.
A euphoric feeling descended on those present at the Rocking Dhol Night on Monday when Sain Tanveer Hussain and his student moved their listeners physically and mentally with their hypnotic blend of Punjabi rhythms, purifying the souls with their eminent sense of melody.
As the two Dhol players took the stage at the Rock Musicarium amid a small cosmos of multi-coloured lights, they literally sprung the crowd from their dreaminess-induced stupor with their harmony rich crackling drumbeats.
The young as well as the old select audience put them in a category outside any other group of local musicians.
“This concert is far above the usual musical offerings in the city,” said Omar Khan, as he felt the music was top notch.
Also in the crowd, Maria Khan described the Dhol night as an ‘artistic triumph’.
Seated around the open air stage, on the grassy steps of the Rock Musicarium, the crowd was a good mixture of all that represented the beautiful city of Islamabad.
The first half hour of non-stop playing left the crowd edging for more. Their slow muted beats were the most moving. In fact it’s just impossible to explain how fantastic those drums sounded - loud and rhythmical.
Harmonies were on the mark when the two returned to the stage after a short break to fuse with Allan Smith, also in prime condition on drums improvising along with Sain Tanveer with a flavour of some riffing on guitars gradually building into a jam.
The musicians moved up and down and across the stage while performing and engaged each other in instrumental battles.
It was almost psychedelic - a whole lot of love stirred and a little bit of spice to create music that was more than the sum of its parts.
“It’s almost amazing how well they can recreate the tonal nuance,” said another member in the audience, admiring how the instrumentalists refused to recognise boundaries of the Dhol and the drums.
A few who couldn’t resist the beat hit the opening in front of the stage to belt out some old school Bhangra moves. Such was the effect of the music (Dhol) that most of those killer moves did not probably qualify as dance that even they did not know they could perform. There were no reservations.
The show’s encore was also interesting - young musicians from underground bands taking the stage that was underpowered and probably laid back rather than energetic for some.
“That’s because we do not want Sain Tanveer to even take his short breaks and keep playing swirling on the stage with those drums wrapped around him,” said Atif Chaudhry.
His wish was granted like so many others when Sain Tanveer kept returning to stage for the rest of the night to perform and the audiences felt certain electricity in the air when known guitarist Zeejah Fazli’s six-string sounds and crackling drum and Dhol beats fuelled the night.
There was not a single person who left the Rock without a bounce in their step.
