Berry Picker

A few songs into the concert, the lights on the stage went out. It was only for a fleeting second but perhaps the anxiety level in the auditorium shot up. The five musicians on the stage looked at each other and smiled knowingly. This wouldn't be the first time that they have to stop a live concert because of a bombing.

They didn't have to stop Thursday night. For at least one hour, Arieb Azhar and his band of four asserted the power of music's universality, diversity and tolerance in a city that only four days before had once again felt the power of terror to subdue the human will to fight for what is true and beautiful in life.

In the middle was Arieb doing the vocals and guitar. To his left were the flutist and the tabla player. To his right were the electric and rubab/bass guitarists. Together, they brought to life folklore and poetry from Pakistan's own mystic and humanist traditions as well as from the Balkans where Arieb spent about thirteen years of his life learning that region's folk music. He even inserted a rendition of John Lennon's Imagine.

The music was at once meditational and upbeat. I'm no expert on music genres so I don't know how to describe and categorize Arieb's music. You can sample his music on YouTube, see for example Husn-e-Haqiqi. From there you also can access other Pakistani musicians brought together by Coke Studio , a collaborative musical platform sponsored by the Coca Cola company to showcase Pakistan's diverse music and performing artists.

At the start of most of the songs he sang, Arieb shared the poem or folk story they were based on. He introduced one song with the story of a man meeting a woman on the road one day. The woman was carrying two buckets. One was filled with water and the other with fire. Asked what those are for, the woman replied that the bucket of water is for putting out the fires of hell and the bucket of fire is for firing up the wells of heaven. Or close to that anyway.