It has been a few days since the Pink Floyd tribute concert by Stone Free was held at HatirJheel Amphitheatre in Dhaka, but oh what a concert it was! What a show it was to welcome the new year in Dhaka! The magnitude of the performance was so awe-inspiring, the spectacle so spectacular on January 20, I am sure it will remain permanently etched in the memories of the Pink Floyd lovers of Dhaka.
Stone Free, a classic rock and Pink Floyd cover band of Bangladesh, is already well known for their tribute shows to Pink Floyd. The first time Stone Free's founders performed live was at an unplugged show at The Buzz in 1996, with Chotu Khan on vocals and guitar, Fahim Huq on lead guitar and vocals, and their friend Vaskar on guitar. Chotu and Fahim were later joined by Abu Safa Mishu on bass, Nadeer Ahmed on percussion, and Emrul Hassan Emon on drums.
In 2007 Stone Free gave their first tribute to Pink Floyd at Le Saigon, and the show was meant to accommodate 80 people. However, 150 people showed up, and a wall had to be knocked down to accommodate everyone.
Most of the band members have been to actual Pink Floyd and Roger Waters concerts and shows, and are very familiar with the kind of lasers, light shows, and overhead visuals that everyone comes to expect with Pink Floyd's live music. Therefore the visual extravaganza of psychedelic imageries on big screens, lasers and lights in every color imaginable, and multiple stage props are a signature of Stone Free tribute shows. In their own words, they want to “make the experience as close as possible to being in an actual Pink Floyd concert given the resources available locally.” And boy, do they live up to those words!
I first watched a tribute show to Pink Floyd by Stone Free at a soon-to-be-demolished house almost four years ago on March 22, 2019. Back then the location was kept super secret to add to the allure of the show, and after their performance, 350 Pink Floyd lovers of Dhaka were left mesmerized and begging for more. I have been one of the beggars, and have been begging and egging Chotu bhai through texting, asking for another show like that one.
Almost four years later, as soon as I saw the post about “Buy Here Now presents Comfortably Numb: The Pink Floyd Story” on December 19, 2022, I knew immediately that Stone Free was at it again. Sure enough, the post said it was to be performed by Stone Free and friends. My prayers have been answered. I will hear Pink Floyd's music played live in Dhaka again. Of course, they are not the actual Pink Floyd, but a cover band. However, here is the thing - Pink Floyd does not do live shows anymore after the death of Rick Wright. And even if they did, I will never earn enough in life to afford a Pink Floyd concert ticket. Therefore, I am grateful to Stone Free for making such an experience accessible to me. Thank you Stone Free!
The Pink Floyd tribute at Hatirjheel was first scheduled on January 13, and I already informed my boss that my phone will be unreachable for the entirety of that evening, citing Pink Floyd's music performed by Stone Free as the reason. Unfortunately or fortunately, January 13 was a Friday, so I started fearing all the superstitions associated with Friday the 13th. Two days before the show a dear ex-colleague of mine Esha Aurora apu said that the show was postponed to the 20th. I was instantly crestfallen. Despite the superstitions, my heart was already set on enjoying the show on that day. Now another week's wait when I have already been waiting for four years. How bad will it be waiting another week? Boy, oh boy! The wait was worth it!
If the readers are still with me now, then please forgive the long preamble. I have waited a long time for the experience, and my anticipation reached a fever pitch. I just could not help pouring my heart out about the show.
On Friday, January 20, I spent the entire day just listening to Pink Floyd, texting people about the concert, and whether there is any chance of seeing them there. Then another long-suffering Pink Floyd-loving friend came to pick me up, and we traveled to the venue together. The show was scheduled to start at 7pm, but we reached the venue at 6:30pm.
The grounds outside the venue were decorated with Pink Floyd album cover art pieces blown up on large posters. There were cutouts of David Gilmour and Roger Waters. There were caricature artists sketching people on spot on Pink Floyd album art pieces on their canvas. One of the artists was a peer of mine from the YES Program, Adib Reza Rongon. There were food stalls and a large tent for the performers on the side. The amphitheater was already filled with people, and the smell of strong incense (dhoop) to keep away the mosquitoes and mosquito repellant was strong in the air.
My friend and I took seats at the center gallery facing the stage, intending to have the best seats in the venue. We found that the view was slightly adjacent to the center. So, we changed seats and sat next to a senior of mine from the YES Program, Mukit Anis bhai, who is an adjunct faculty at Brac University, and his wife Nameera Ahmed apu, who works for Chevron. Now the view was centered perfectly, and we were finally settled down.
I was expecting the show to start late as one comes to expect in Bangladeshi concerts, so I kept myself occupied by bringing and eating food, talking to familiar people around me, or being on the phone uploading captions such as “waiting for magic.”
Suddenly there was the noise of an airplane flying coming from the sound monitors, and then a small but larger than a human replica of an airplane flew over the heads of the crowds and landed at the side of the stage, drawing everyone's attention there. Pyrotechnics and fireworks ensued, with one firecracker soaring into the sky. Lo and behold! The band members have taken their spots on the stage, with their instruments along with the choir. Only the vocalist was missing.
The show started with Stone Free's lead vocalist Chotu Khan coming to the stage and looking silently at the audience seated in each gallery section of the amphitheater through his dark shades. Then the band started playing Pink Floyd's In the Flesh 2. How appropriate as the lyrics of In the Flesh 2 begins with “I've got some bad news for you, sunshine. Pink isn't well, he stayed back at the hotel. And they sent us along as a surrogate band. We're going to find out where you fans really stand.”
Aside from all the five band members of Stone Free on stage - Chotu Khan, Fahim Huq, Abu Safa Mishu, Nadeer Ahmed, and Emrul Hassan Emon - there were two other very important musicians on stage, Wahidul Mamun Apu (Obscure and The Trap) and Saad Chowdhury (Shonar Bangla Circus). I have seen these two guest musicians perform with Stone Free four years ago as well at that house to be demolished. There was a four-member choir featuring Dhrubo, Momo, Saba, and Yusha. Michael Shirsho Das (Moon Flower Project) also took the stage to play guitar with Stone Free.
Just to help you all imagine how their first performance began, you must close your eyes and imagine Chotu Khan pointing a green laser pointer at various parts of the crowd, seated at three galleries of the amphitheater, during the performance of the following lines: “Are there any weirdos in the theater tonight? … Now, there's one in the spotlight… He don't look right to me…”
In the first set, In the Flesh 2 was followed by The Thin Ice, Another Brick in the Wall I, Happiest Days of Our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall II, and Another Brick in the Wall III. Stone Free's friend Farhan Quddus, came on stage attired in the outfit of a schoolmaster of England, you know, like the ones you see in Pink Floyd's music video from the song Another Brick in the Wall II. Mr Farhan pretended to be a strict schoolmaster with gusto.
After the performance of Learning to Fly, we saw the stage crew leaving a large basket in the middle of the stage. Then Chotu Bhai and Elita Karim took the stage as the band started playing the intro of Echoes. The two vocalists circled each other around the basket during the beginning of Echoes, and later dancers took the stage and began dancing. In the middle of the song, the dancers huddled near the basket and brought out long ribbons and danced to the ending of Echoes while circling the long flowing colorful ribbons in hand.
Then there were performances of One of the Few, The Hero's Return, Empty Spaces, Young Lust, and Southampton Dock.
Then Jamshed Chowdhury of PowerSurge took the stage with Stone Free to sing The Final Cut with his power-surged voice. Cryptic Fate's Shakib Chowdhury joined Jamshed and Stone Free to sing Wish You Were Here.
One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that aside from the innumerable lights and lasers we were seeing from the stage and all around it, three long and wide screens behind the performers were displaying psychedelic imagery and visuals to accompany the music. The mix of the visuals with music was very well done, and sometimes the visuals took us to space and across the universe, and sometimes to images familiar on earth, such as swimming pools, green farmed lands, and farmers looking at airplanes flying over them. Even if boats were passing on the water of HatirJheel behind the stage throughout the evening, I do not recall seeing any during the show, as I was so glued to the spectacle on the screens and the stage. Some of the band members of Stone Free were seen in small clips amidst these visuals, such as Mishu bhai was seen from the cockpit of an airplane, and when Chotu bhai was seen adjusting the channel dial of the radio at the beginning of the song Wish You Were Here. A lot of hard work, and preparation for months, went into realizing this show to life.
After these two performances, we saw Stone Free's friend Nazia Tariq take the stage in a bright red gown. Four years ago Nazia performed for Stone Free for One of My Turns. She did it again this time as well with a sultry voice, just as seductive as last time, which made the crowd respond to her exclamations and remarks with “ooooh”s and “aaaahhhh”s and “hell… YEAH”, when she asked “Look at this tub… Wanna take a baaaaaath?”
Four years ago Chotu bhai broke a guitar from atop a balcony for his performance of One of my turns at the show held at the soon-to-be-demolished house.
This time, Chotu bhai was raised on a construction lift on the right corner of the stage near the water. By the end of his performance for One of my turns from atop the lift, he throws an old CRT Television off the lift, then breaks an acoustic guitar on his platform's railing, and throws it out as well, to pay homage to the scenes we see on the film The Wall.
Then there was a break for thirty minutes, during which I tentatively walked into the VIP tent to meet the stars. I met Shakib Bhai of Cryptic Fate for the first time in my life and took a selfie with him. Told him all about how Shesh Train was my favorite Cryptic Fate song while growing up. I met Elita Apu who asked me about my Arizona State University sweatshirt, as she recently finished her Herbert Humphrey Fellowship in Arizona. I met Moktadir Dewan Shanto of Beatmosphere and Blunderware, and I met my actor friend Sarah Alam, whom I last saw acting for the Hoichoi series Bodh. I also met my ex-boss Zafar Sobhan, the editor of the Dhaka Tribune, who came to enjoy the show with his wife. There was also Saadul Islam and Aparajita from Coke Studio Bangla. I also took a selfie with Sadaf Saaz, the Dhaka Lit Fest director. Thank you Stone Free for these merry meetings.
Stone Free began the second set with Breathe. In many of the smaller shows I have seen of Stone Free, I saw them begin playing with Breathe. So, it was perfect to see them begin the second set as per their usual style. Then they played Shine on you crazy Diamond and Time.
During the performance of the Shine On, a huge diamond prop was floating above the crowd in the center gallery, carried on a crane. Then Stone Free performed Welcome to the Machine with Shakib bhai, who also stayed on stage to sing Run Like Hell.
Arshad Amin and Imran Hussain of Rock Strata took the stage to perform Pigs on Wing 1 and 2. During this performance, a huge inflated pig was floating above the crowd at HatirJheel, just like you see on the YouTube videos of Pink Floyd concerts. My friend stood up and touched it, like many in the crowd, but I was just too overawed to move. I cannot overstate how grateful I was to be present at such an event with such perfectly detailed stage props as part of the music.
Then Arshad Amin, Imran Hussein, and Stone Free were suddenly joined by Ibrahim Ahmed Kamal of Warfaze, and they performed the instrumental One of these Days.
Then Saad Chowdhury of Shonar Bangla Circus sang Coming Back to Life, just like he did four years ago in that house to be demolished, and made the crowd sing along with his beautiful voice.
Then Chotu Bhai announced that they will do a song about mothers, and they performed Pink Floyd's Mother with the nation's powerhouse vocalist Tashfee. Tashfee also performs with the band Bangu Bibi. On this occasion, during the starting bits of Mother, we see her in the middle of a stage kneeling on a picnic mat, taking books and small props out of a picnic basket like a mother does when she goes out on a picnic with her kids.
Tashfee begins singing from the lines “Hush now baby baby, don't you cry.” Tashfee also performed the songs Brain Damage and Eclipse.
After Tashfee left the stage, Stone Free gave a cover of Vera, with the crowd singing along, and without any announcement, any indication, any signal, they seamlessly moved on to playing Comfortably Numb. I knew instantly, with a tinge of heartache, that the show was coming to an end. Everyone present began singing in unison to Comfortably Numb.
Fahim Huq Bhai's tribute to Gilmour's second solo of Comfortably Numb was so long, and so perfect, that everyone melted in ecstasy, and kept screaming “oooooooooohhhh.” I say perfect because, due to some unfortunate reason there was this one sound monitor throughout the show giving feedback noise, which sometimes ruined the mood. And sometimes the buzzing of a camera drone also interrupted our train of thought while listening to some of the calmer music during the show. However, Fahim Bhai's solo was so perfect, that I am sure it erased all these small grievances that some in the crowd were griping about. That solo was redemption, and just like four years ago, I was left in a state begging for more. Begging for more Pink Floyd covers from Stone Free!
The crowd gave a standing ovation and applause after the solo.
Stone Free as a band, their performers, and their fans, were always very open, friendly, and welcoming to the crowd of new listeners who come to their show. They welcomed me with open arms four years ago to join them for dinner with the band. Same as last time, I saw that right after the performance ended many in the crowd, including me, flocked to the stage to congratulate them and take selfies with them. Each band member and performer humbly accepted all the praise and took selfies with all very patiently as if everyone was one big family. I am sure most of the crowd knew each other, and it was almost the same crowd I saw four years ago, only larger.
The light and laser show with the music was amazing. One of the stage props was two eyeballs, set on top of each other, just as we see in Pink Floyd's Pulse concert cover. The eyeballs were made by a 14-year-old boy named Aarad. There were also some live artists whose artwork was being auctioned at the show. The proceeds were to be given to some charity.
In my humble opinion, the warmth of the band, their family members, and the organizers should be emulated by every concert organizer in Bangladesh. These people not only set a new standard for music shows and concerts in Bangladesh, but they also set a benchmark in hospitality. They did it four years ago at the house that was demolished, and this time they surpassed that experience on a waterside venue, the HatirJheel Amphitheater.
Ohh! Did I mention, there were goodie bags? There was a goodie bag for each member of the audience, carrying among other things, an armband showing two hammers as a tribute to a scene in the film The Wall, where Pink wears the armband. There was also a hat with the two hammers emblazoned on it, a small brochure thanking the artists featured and the people who helped put the show together, and a mosquito repellent. Stone Free thinks of everything!