Venue: Pianos (NY)
Date: December, 2013
Review by Dawoud Kringle
One December night, people jammed into the main room of the Lower East Side’s music venues Pianos NYC. The Kominas, a Pakistani/American/Muslim Taqwacore Punk group who’d come to national attention after the publication of Michael Muhammad Knight’s groundbreaking novel The Taqwacores were playing as part of South Asian Film Festival.
A great deal of controversy was stirred up by the Kominas. This, for no reason other than that they are Pakistanis who play punk music. Page after page has been written about them, mostly by self-appointed “experts” on Islam whose opinions are ultimately worthless beyond showing the intolerance, and deplorable lack of imagination among the media opinion makers.
The only original member was Basim Usmani. The others were newer members; Sunny Ali, and The Kid.
A roar of feedback and a count off started their most well known tune; “Sharia Law in the USA.” They blasted through it with gleeful abandon. They followed with a set that skillfully mixed old school punk, ska, reggae (with the prerequisite hypnotic undertow that all reggae has; occasionally punctuated with left-right combination punches), and other favorites; such as when they threatened to play: “Ayeesha.” They made good on their threat.
Halfway through the set, when the smell of hashish started to fill the air and they asked the audience if the wanted to go to a yoga session, a mini mosh pit manifested. This was, indeed, an old school punk show.
The band approached many of their songs like a drunken barroom brawl among friends; the type where someone would start arguing and cursing, a few punches and body slams would be traded, and five minutes later they’d all be friends again.
The most controversial elements of the band; their nationality (Pakistani) and religion (Islam) didn’t get in the way of the band and the audience having a good time. Despite the lyrics, there was no heavy vibe here, no working out or battling over issues that blaze across media headlines. There was no political agenda being sold. It was just a bunch of young people out having a good time. While they’ve done well for themselves to use the Islam/Pakistani controversy to their advantage, the end result only throws the bigotry and stupidity of their detractors into raw relief. The underlying fact here is that the Kominas know who they are, know who their people are, refuse to accept anyone else’s labels or categories, and stand against that which would take from them the right to be who and what they are.
