Burning down the house
They come together with a common love: music. Performances by the Munchkins are eagerly awaited by those who know them and this is probably the only gig to which people actually come on time. The Munchkins are a four person band consisting of drummer-extraordinaire Gumby, popular bassist Ali Jafri, lead guitar player Murtaza Jafar aka K.V. whose claim-to-fame is playing on Ali Azmat’s album Social Circus and lastly Aamir Alavie, the vocalist of the band, whose incredibly versatile voice and powerhouse performance leaves the listener wanting for more.

The Munchkins have been doing gigs for roughly around four years. With Gumby and Ali Jafri being the only ones living in the same city, they perform whenever all the band-members get together, making the date of their performances unpredictable. With no posters put-up in popular shopping malls or ads given in newspapers, news of a Munchkins gig travels by word-of-mouth only, all of which adds up to the excitement that Munchkins fans get when informed of a gig taking place in the near future.

Back in 2002, Aamir Alavie, Murteza, Gumby, Ali Mufti and Asif were part of a band they called Euphoria. The departure of Asif and Ali Mufti from the band saw Ali Jafri’s arrival into it. Their first performance was at a popular donut place owned by a friend of the band-members. At a last-minute suggestion made Ali Jafri, they started calling themselves The Munchkins. According to Gumby, “The idea was to have fun and play the kind of music that we like. The fan following that we have generated has only been through word-of-mouth and we’d like to keep it that way” killing any questions of them going commercial.

The Munchkins recently performed at the same donut place and despite the gig being held on the third day of Eid, quite a few people showed up including those who have been faithfully attending every single Munchkins gig since the first. Ali Jafri wore his signature yellow shirt (how many does he have anyway?) and with the ‘eat shit’ written on Gumby’s drum-kit having visibly faded. They performed covers of songs by Maroon 5, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Led Zepplin, The Police and had the crowd singing along to most of the songs including the Kenny Loggins classic Danger Zone and Where the streets have no name by U2.

They performed over twenty songs and each band-member gave it his all with Aamir Alavie getting comfy with the mic-stand and Jafri bobbing his head while playing bass. Gumby who’s always a treat to “watch” during a performance as much as he is to listen didn’t disappoint either and banged his drum-set and swish-swooshed his hair in perfect-rhythm. One felt sorry for those whose view of the band was obstructed by the very large pillars set in the middle of the venue.

With the donut-place completely full with those who had wisely decided to arrive early, what was amusing to note was that not only did those who came late stay, but they stood outside the venue for the entire duration of the gig, having been forced to experience The Munchkins by peeking through the glass walls of the cafe. Followers of The Munchkins seem to be growing in number with every performance and the band should start considering performing in a venue that can accomodate, if not all, most of them.

The band members rocked the way they always do: with heart, soul and a whole lot of fun. However, one sorely missed a performance of Seal's Crazy, a song in which the limelight truly shines on Gumby and Crash by the Dave Mathews Band. Other then that, one cannot wait for the next time someone passes a message along about a potential Munchkins gig taking place in the near future.

Credits: Photos by Fayyaz Ahmed.

First Published:
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November 5th, 2006