LAHORE: The Mekaal Hasan Band played their first concert for more than a year on Sunday. It was worth the wait.

The show was a preview of their debut album Sampooran, a true fusion of jazz, rock and eastern classical music out in September, but it also indicated a change of direction, with a new singer and three new songs. The concert was organised by Tamaasha Productions and sponsored by Nestle, Chaudhry Dairies and Hang Ten.

After the crowds had negotiated the entrance, which involved crossing a row of bricks arranged as stepping stones across ankle-high water leading up to the cultural complex, there was a bit of standing around while everyone turned up.

The show kicked off around 8.10pm to a packed Alhamra Hall 1, the band launching into Ya Ali, which opened with an aggressive guitar riff doubled by Sameer Ahmed (whose name was screamed at the end of each song by a group of young girls at the back) on bass, Farhan Albert on keyboards, and Javed Bashir on vocals. Javed had big shoes to fill, those of Riaz Ali Khan, but he carried it off with aplomb. He had excellent control of his deep raspy voice and fitted in better with the rest of the band than the last singer.

The second song was Sanwal, the video for which has been running on television for a while. The band seemed a bit nervous for this one, but all butterflies were blown away after an electric rendition of Raba, which ended on a fiery solo of soulful shredding by Mekaal on lead guitar.

Surprisingly, a number of people in the crowd had heard the songs before, but they hadn’t heard Jhok Panjan, a track Mekaal wrote recently with Javed. The song was instantly likable, and more accessible than the older tunes. The same was true of the melancholy Kinarey and upbeat Chalee, played in the second half of the show, and indicate perhaps that the band is looking to reach out to a wider audience.

The last song before the intermission was Dreamscape, an instrumental from Mekaal’s solo album. Salman Albert, who was excellent on drums throughout, showed his versatility by switching to rhythm guitar, while his seat was taken by Fahd Khan. A rock-based tune full of guitar harmonies, it showed the range of Mekaal’s compositions and ensured the crowd would be back after the break.

The second half of the show began with Late Moon, a haunting mix of guitar melodies and the flute of maestro Mohammad Ahsan, better known as Pappu. Then came Sajjan, which saw the return of Javed and Jamie Mustafa on rhythm guitar. One of the best songs on the album, it perhaps most successfully achieves a seamless fusion of western jazz and rock music and Eastern classical singing.

The penultimate song was the title track, Sampooran, and went down best with the crowd. Named after the time signature it’s played in, the song featured blistering solos from Javed, Mekaal and Pappu, each of them appreciated with hoots from the crowd. The band clearly enjoyed playing it as well.

Chalee was the final song, after which it was back across the treacherous stepping-stones, and a half-hour wait for those whose cars had been boxed in by others. “Hopefully next time the Alhamra people will do a better job of organising parking and clearing away the water,” one departing audience member said. On the evidence of this performance, the Mekaal Hasan Band should be playing there again soon.