ln good company

They have been around for a little more than a decade, and yet Co-VEN made their presence felt only a couple of months ago. Previously underground, they are now featured quite regularly on the airwaves with two of their videos, Sailing Fast and Third World Celebrity, both being the products of the Rola production house headed by Uns Mufti and Ali Jafri.

Co-VEN which stands for Company of Vicious Earth Navigators, recently launched their album through a gig held in the confines of a mall in Karachi, cleverly timed to coincide with the opening of the flagship store of Levi’s, also their main sponsor. The line-up comprises Sikandar Mufti on drums, Omran Shafique (of the band Mauj) on lead guitar, Sameer Ahmed (of Mekaal Hasan Band) on bass guitar and Hamza Jafri on rhythm guitar and vocals.

The event itself started roughly two hours late and was attended by quite a few celebrities from the entertainment industry, namely the Josh duo Qurram and Rupinder along with Umar Anwar, Tapu Javeri, Faizan Haq, Adnan Malik, Anoushey Ashraf, Ayesha Toor, Abubakr from Nabila’s, Qasim Raza, Nini and more. There were also a number of those who found Co-VEN’s music a little too loud for their tastes, lounging outside or browsing through the store.

Where Sameer Ahmed’s bass line throughout the performance was impeccable, he had a tendency of quietly working wonders with the guitar, losing himself in the performance albeit not in an outrageous manner. At times, he seemed oblivious to the audience. Hamza Jafri had amazing vocal strength as he belted out heartfelt lyrics. However, one must say there were moments when one could not comprehend his words, even as he sounded good musically.

Perhaps the only shortfall to the evening, other than the late start, was that the sound system did not do justice to the performance. Even fans of Co-VEN’s unplugged performances felt like cringing during certain moments where the guitars, vocals and drums appeared to be going in completely different directions.

In the launch gig, the boys performed some of their more popular hits, Third World Celebrity, Sailing Fast and Boundaries Broken among others from their album, which is a double edition containing two CDs. And although Co-VEN claims that the band’s title has nothing to do with the literal meaning of the word ‘coven’ (a gathering of witches), their album art work displays a faceless woman with a star in the centre of her chest, a crescent encircling her as she holds a large butcher’s knife in her hand.

Photos:
photo1 – Hamza Jafri,
photo2 – Sameer Ahmed on bass, Omran Shafique on lead, Sikandar Mufti on the drums

Photo credits: photography by Fayyaz Ahmed

First Published:
Images
April 1st, 2007