Blk Jks and Shadowclub The Bohemian, Johannesburg (Published in Your LMG Magazine)

“Are they not letting any more people in?” was the first question I asked the door lady as I finally managed to get to the front of the line outside Joburg’s favourite crusty venue, The Bohemian. I’d arrived at that question with valid reason. Inside was way overcapacity and outside was home to an anxious bunch hovering around the pavement. Surprisingly, they were still letting people in and, when I got near the stage, Blk Jks surfaced above the sea of heads in front of me. These experimental rockers don’t play music, music plays them. They seem like agents through which a musical exorcism is taking place when they are on stage. They are brilliant musicians, but they tend to break into nonsensical improvisation a little too much, the kind of self-indulgence that can become a bit overbearing. It’s cool to be experimental but for me, this time they just seemed inaccessible.

The mighty Shadowclub were up next and proceeded to cause “The Boh” the bar to drop to its knees with their “king-of-cool” blues rock. “This is where we started and we will keep coming back until we die,” blurted Jacques Moolman, Shadowclub’s front-man. I never want to see them play there ever again. Not only because they filled the place to an unbearable level, but because it would be a massive disservice to humanity if they don’t chew and spit out every major festival around the globe and reach a level of stardom that will burn them out within ten years. They are the perfect blend of rock n’ roll integrity and commercial viability, which is particularly rare for a South African band. It’s also rare for a bar to run out of beer, which happened too. Best prepare for when these two bands are in your town.

JoziFest (Published in Your LMG Magazine and 340ml's Reverbnation page under 'press')

I made my way to JoziFest on the Saturday night to commit a few of the cardinal sins and watch some of my favourite bands in Newtown. Most of the chatter around me was about the line-up. It was grand. “It’s like Oppi in one day” I heard. Straight to the bar is customary, and with beer in hand I headed to the Monster Stage. I didn't leave. There was plenty of activity happening all over the place, but my focus was on the stage where my personal musical heroes lay waiting to entertain.

340ml began their set with atmospheric feed-back from Tiago’s guitar, which induced squeals of excitement. As they broke into ‘Regents Park’ the crowd chanted the chorus in unison which spread through the streets of Newtown. It was going to be an amazing set from the dub-reggae-fusion foursome. I could just tell. And with whiffs of anonymous joints, the songs rolled on and the crowd lapped them up with voracity. There was an enthusiasm from the band that I haven’t seen in a while. They seemed rejuvenated. The drummer, Paulo, makes drumming look effortless while playing his seemingly discordant grooves and simultaneously hyping up the crowd throughout songs. The guy standing behind me kept repeating: “This band is just so fucking good”. I wholeheartedly agree.

It was like a musical wet dream when Tidal Waves, in my opinion S.A’s tightest band, came to the stage directly after 340ml. The rock-reggae band from Pretoria is impossible not to love. The lead shredding machine, Jaco Mans, was absent from the show but the lead man, Jacob “Zakes” Wulana kept things together and pleasantly surprised me with his guitar solos. “Original music for original people!” is the band’s mantra and is consistently chanted by both the band and their adoring fans. Tidal Waves have amassed a true following of fans that have come to learn every song lyric regardless of its language. They have consolidated their fan base in a way that not many other S.A bands have, and at Jozi Fest they delivered what their fans have become accustomed to, song after song of pure magic.

And so it was the last ‘Dans’ for Joburg as Foto Na Dans played their last Joburg show ever. I am still having denial fuelled thoughts that it’s all just a publicity stunt. South Africa needs bands of that calibre and it is certainly a loss to the scene. I’ll be honest; being their last Joburg show I expected mayhem and madness from the crowd, maybe some sort of sentimental frenzy. All I saw was a bunch of inhibited, confused Jozi kids listening half-attentively, bar a few hardcore fans near the stage. I’m not sure of the band’s history of playing in Joburg and maybe the lack of connection between Joburg and Cape Town is more apparent than I thought. Perhaps their reach did not extend to the Northern Suburbs of Johannesburg.

Not much needs to be said about Lark, especially if you know them. If you don’t,  stop reading this and go look them up immediately. The wildly talented Inge Beckmann’s voice pierced right through the very existence of the crowd. She jumped and crouched and slithered across the stage, belting out one song after the next. A Lark show is always guaranteed to be special and even more so due to the rareness of them.

Taxi Violence is my favourite South African band and I am unforgiving about the oodles of bias to follow. If all of my favourite bands were to engage in a massive musical orgy, the product would be Taxi Violence. That being said, their show was exceptional. The rock n’ rollers from Cape Town blew the heads off of every single person watching. Inge from Lark joined Taxi on stage for ‘Devil n’ Pistol’ and it was explosive. Perhaps collaboration is on its way? It would definitely work and hopefully speed up Taxi’s album output. The rock world is starving for more.

To end off a mini-festival with one of the most majestic line-ups I have ever seen, was Fokofpolisiekar. Thunderous performance: check. Frenzied crowd: check. Francois’ indelible rockstarness: Check. Enough Said.

Sure, in between the lines there were many beers consumed, giving way to deep and meaningless conversations, eardrums close to bursting, pushing and shoving, laughing and dancing. But that night was all about the line-up. It wasn’t like Oppi in one day; it was the best of Oppi in one night.

http://www.reverbnation.com/340ml/press/

Sowing the Seeds Music Festival (Published in Your LMG Magazine)

It lacked the milky glaze of its bigger sibling, Rocking the Daisies. But then again, Magaliesburg comes nowhere close to the serene beauty of the Cloof Wine Estate. Sowing the Seeds was an irresistible chance for the kids of Gauteng and the surrounding areas to get wasted and frolic about in the shrubs. (Perhaps rocking the Shrubs is a more apt title for the event?). I really do hope that the objective of the event was not to gauge the interest of us “Vaalies” for future music festivals in the area, because the mediocre turnout says differently to our thirst for quality event organisers to put on quality shows. Regardless, it got me interested, and I was excited to see what Seed Experiences was to conjure up in the North.

Sowing the Seeds was a charming little festival, filled with the all the right nuances. The handpicked line-up was a refreshing change from the one-dimensional crowd-pleasing strategy that we see at most of these mini festivals. The line-up on Saturday was like a ricocheting bullet, the direction unexpected and uninhibited, bouncing from oddball revolutionaries (The Brother Moves On), to heavy-white-Afrikaans-electro-rap (Bittereinder) and finally settling on the preppy goodness of Goldfish. Apparently P.H Fat made a surprise appearance as the last act for the night, but by that point I was lost somewhere in the musical wilderness.

With a crisp Gypsy hangover after Friday night, courtesy of Toby2shoes, the excitement surrounding Shortstraw’s set provided the momentum to get to the stage. Now there’s a band that is lacking the necessary attention from the festival circuit. They were given an early slot, but proved once again that they can handle a big stage with ease. Towards the end of their array of infectious tunes, the crowd was eagerly chanting their lyrics back at them. But their set was cut short due to some sort of mismanagement and miscommunication from what I understand came from festival’s side, which was highly disappointing.

During The Skabenga’s set I began to indulge in various hangover remedies provided in the bar-area. I found myself torn between the tunes from this highly talented fusion act, and fighting with the idea that not only was Black Label the only beer sold, but was also the most expensive of all the drinks provided. Now I am very well acquainted with the laws of supply and demand, but this was just ridiculous. Nevertheless it didn’t stop me from buying litres of the stuff throughout the day (The tent is so far, and imagine how warm the beers must be by now!).

Jeremy Loops composes songs from scratch using a Loop Station pedal. I have seen it done before, but he does it right. He beat boxes or taps the microphone for the beat, uses guitars to build up the rhythm and sings over the product of various layers of sound. When he started playing the novelty and theatrical nature of what he was doing started to draw the crowds in, out of curiosity if nothing else. The news must’ve spread quickly because within minutes he had the better part of the whole festival mesmerised. On the festival flyer the act was advertised as Jeremy Loops & Co. That “Co” was saxophonist Jamie Faull and rapper M.O.Lecko. Now I don’t know if the guest artists are permanent fixtures or perhaps guests for his bigger shows but I think that’s the act right there. That should be the band. Those three together is where the magic lies.

I decided to give Wrestlerish a miss in order to take a tour of the surrounds and soak up a bit more of the festival. I had a look at the VIP section (which was dubbed “Very Important Poo” by the festival goers who did not have the luxury of fancy toilet facilities) and leaving quite unimpressed I walked on and was fortunate enough to come across Deep Fried Man and his unidentified sidekick. It was hysterical. They insulted the audience and passers-by with the kind of relentless brutality that would make a person want to crawl into their tent for the rest of the festival. Hell, they even had a go at me! I was honoured.

The ‘heavyweight’ bands took the crowd into the night. Tidal waves bought their watertight reggae-rock grooves as they always do and it was good to see Desmond and the Tutus playing new tunes, which usually happens around election time. I like where they going with their sound and their live performance seemed more beefed up and professional than usual. Shadowclub once again proved that they deserve all of the attention that they are getting as they gave a flawless and powerful performance and left the crowd looking like blood-hungry maniacs.

From then onwards things steadily declined for me due to the fact that my birthday was the next day and 12 o’ clock was nearing. A few Jagers down and my next experience was waking up at daybreak and literally feeling the inane conversations around my tent. The kind that were probably so interesting and profound to me just hours before.