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The dope show
Tell these kids not to smoke up openly around here, our supervisor might be on his patrol,” the gatekeeper whispered to me, trying to keep things quiet. “Welcome to the dope show,” I thought to myself, “but, are we all stars now?”
The Arts Council witnessed a not-so-exclusive gathering on Sunday, February 9, facilitated by three-fifths in coalition with Outcry, for the “raw” music talent of Pakistan.
There was a time when the underground arena was truly at work, producing good musicians and transferring them to the spotlight. A very obvious example is Noori, half of which formerly functioned as an underground band known as Coven. Other good bands of underground origin include the infamous Ganda Banda, Euphoria and Greenhouse. Sadly so, this arena for musicians in now infested with wannabes, with their slick walks and fake tattoos, and a complete lack of understanding of music. Bands seem to have forgotten that performing music is not merely playing chords on a six-string (not that they’ve mastered that either), but also the ability to understand the spirit in which any particular type of music is composed. That comes with time and effort.
With a crowd of around 350, the Zakfest, as the concert was named, was a sincere contribution to noise pollution. A total of 19 bands doing a combination of originals and covers within a 20-minute slot each, were supposed to play in order of ascending seniority. However, only “three-fifths” (pun intended) of the bands could play, since no one turned up for the sound check, resulting in wasted time before every performance.
Gravity kicked off (hardly) with two Urdu originals, followed by Durt (aptly named), Iztarab and Hollow Bodies led by Leon who likes to call himself “Lerock.” Leon had quite a presence on and off stage (though this was not in any remote way to do with music), and provided comic relief to those who could bring themselves to enjoy his distasteful remarks. Then came Ash — the first real crowd pleasers. Led by Junaid Kamran on guitar and vocals, they threw in a number of Nirvana singles thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd. Next up was Disvoz, a youngster who rapped to some Eminem and Snoop Dogg beats. This, along with Strange Brew’s refreshing jazz/funk rock and Qarar’s soft Urdu number, provided solace from the previous heavy distortion.
Chosen Rejects (who performed some decent but horribly monotonous originals) marked the beginning of the so-called “good bands.” Preceded by Paranoid, Epoch did covers of Breakdown and Machinehead’s rendition of Message in a bottle (a cover of a cover), as well as a metal version of Chris Isaak’s Wicked game. While this was appreciated by a few, for fans of the original it was pure massacre of the spirit in which the song was initially composed.
Soon after, Wreckage, Nocturnal Rust and Autopsy Gothic appeared on stage to do some head banging metal, before stars of yesteryear, Jazba, wrapped up the night’s proceedings with Jaago and a cover of What if by Creed. Disappointingly, Jazba played to only a handful of listeners, since the rest had ENT physician appointments in the morning. Northern Alliance (led by Ganda Banda’s former bassist Babar Shaikh), was among the better bands on the bill that night. However, they never appeared on stage, having walked out on the show. Their story: The management didn’t give them an earlier time-slot in the lineup.
It was strikingly obvious that the performers’ musical inspirations were largely governed by the purveyors of death metal and cult bands like Iron Maiden, Sepultura and Korn. While it would be biased to classify such bands under any banner, it should be pointed out that the philosophies they signify are objectionable to most. What they are breeding in the minds of prospective musicians is a matter of growing concern for followers of music. Not to mention the 16-year-olds emitting absurd growls — a trademark of death metal music. One particular band even performed a blasphemous original containing Satanic lyrics. Even the annual RockFest is a death metal fest more than anything else, and its attendance is thinning with every passing year..
In a nutshell, the Zakfest mostly witnessed amateur bands doing a bad job of covering (and composing) technically unsatisfactory music, while a handful of fans banged their heads to it, putting up a freak show for the rest. Failing in its purpose as a platform for young musicians, Zakfest turned out to be a typical “smoke up” spot, also hosting two juvenile disputes. With the exception of some less disturbing performances like Ash, Disvoz, Strange Brew (the most technically sound in the lot), Qarar and Chosen Rejects, the Zakfest was an evening of immense physical torture that left many ears pounding with noise.
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