Archive for the 'Gig Reviews' Category

14
Aug
14

The Tiger Hits The Boileroom, Mayhem Ensues

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Events, Gig Reviews, Good Times, Radass Videos and Sick Tracks
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

WP_20140813_012 It takes a special kind of maniac to decide to strike out alone to a place he’s never been, drink with total strangers in the middle of the week and rock out to bands he only discovered a month ago.

Conventional wisdom would say rather stay at home, put the kettle on and watch Friends reruns but there’s only so much Earl Grey and David Schwimmer a man can take before he loses his fucking mind.

Bands In Town (www.bandsintown.com) mailed me to say DZ Deathray were playing at the Boileroom in Guildford, so I got on the nearest train and, like a creepy public masturbator, went to go lurk at the bar alone.

Thing is though, two beers down the line I’d already befriended the bar people and Will the Sound Guy and while I was chatting to them this legend of a man by the name of Chris straight up invited me to join him and his buddies at their table outside.

How fucking friendly is that?! In an instant I changed from “Lone Guy Who Could Be An Axe Murderer” to “Guy At A Bar With Some Mates… Who Could Be An Axe Murderer”.

The first band up were Bypolar, a three-piece from Surrey who delivered an impressive performance. Frontman and guitarist Ben Lopez took to their setlist like a loose propeller, tearing through a formidable catalogue of post-grunge / hardcore punk / metal tracks like it was nobody’s business.

 

 

The man has a great voice and belts out an impressive gravel-toned roar reminiscent of Shaun Morgan from Seether. Drummer Chris Pattison is no slouch either and, together with bassist Steve Pool, builds a rock-solid rhythm section on top of which Lopez delivers his sucker-punch hooks and face-melting solos.

Here’s a recent video the guys shot for the track “Due” to give you a taste of what Bypolar’s serving up:

 

 

They ended their set with an insane cover of “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” which simultaneously blew me away and reminded me of just how many powerchords bands in the 90s used to pack into their songs.

I caught up with Ben after the band played and talked shit with him for awhile. He’s a stand up guy, ended up buying me tequila and shooting the breeze about the band and the scene in London.

Word to the wise – keep your eyes peeled for this band. Support them when they gig, give them a listen here (http://www.reverbnation.com/bypolarofficial) and follow them on Facebook here.

After Bypolar finished up I grabbed another beer and talked so much shit with my newfound friends that I missed the second band completely, what a dick.

But there wasn’t a way in fuck I was going to miss DZ Deathray. You have to understand how insane these guys are. Take Death From Above 1979, throw in some Blood Red Shoes and add a heavy dose of sheer originality and explosive energy and you’ve got DZ Deathray.

Here, watch this video for their track “Less Out Of Sync”, I’ll let the music speak for itself:

 

 

Unfuckingbelievable right?!

To say that DZ Deathray came, saw, and annihilated EVERYTHING would be an understatement. By the second track (which happened to be “Less Out Of Sync” if I remember correctly), a mosh pit had already broken out and guys were losing their fucking minds.

 

 

On stage, guitarist and vocalist Shane Parsons wields his axe like a fifth limb, somehow managing to deliver a damn-near perfect performance despite the fact that he’s ricocheting around the stage like a piece of goddamn shrapnel.

Add drummer Simon Ridley’s shotgun-blast bass kicks and tight fills and it’s no wonder the guys in the pit were trying to murder one another.

The guys played an amazing set, building up to my personal favourite, “Gina Works At Hearts”.

 

 

Good luck getting that hook out. It felt good to lose my shit completely when the guys launched into that track. Dig those lyrics as well “I can’t buy her dead eyes and her wasted smile”.

There’s a real depth to DZ Deathray’s songwriting, they can do punch-your-teeth out thrash pop / post-punk just as well as they can do more introspective, shoe-gazing tracks like “Northern Lights”.

I caught up with both Simon and Shane over the course of the night and chatted a bit about their upcoming album launch for Black Rats, their second studio album following their 2012 debut Bloodstreams. Really cool guys, surprisingly chilled considering how manic they are onstage.

 

 

Simon’s sister Katie actually directed “Less Out Of Sync”, which I was mad impressed by. That is one talented family, no lies.

So yeah, what you need to do now is have a listen to Black Rats here, follow DZ Deathray here and get your ass to The Shackwell Arms on Monday night (18th Aug) for the official album launch because it’s going to be shit-your-pants mad.

All-in-all, I had the best night. Telling Schwimmer to get fucked and throwing the Earl Grey down the sink was the best move I could have made.

Shout out to Soundguy Will for giving me a ride back home. Next time I swing by the Boileroom, first round’s on me big guy!

Tiger out.

-ST

02
May
13

The Kooks #5Gum Gonzo Experiment Pays Off

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , ,

X457fTV_JmiRDfVt-lCFFRfH6iUUAwkzkcJ-nkYG9Ao,4qctKN-KXstYv0t6X1IU7jYSOBbDNRBBPehftsc1E20So as you guys know, week before last I gave away some tickets for The #5GumExperience Kooks show in Cape Town in the premise that whoever I gave them to would operate as a spy for SlickTiger Industries.

I was looking for a gonzo-approach to the gig, someone who could slip under my skin and BE the Tiger for the night so they could tell us all about it because tragically, I couldn’t make it.

The girl who won the competition, Leah, stepped up to the plate and wrote the following review of the gig for her Tiger pal and took a whole bunch of pics as well which I’ve taken the liberty to caption below.

So with no further ado, I present to you the Kooks gig write up by Leah:

 

 

PART 1: ARRIVING!

Everyone arrived at Maitland’s secondary school eager to know where the hell we were going. An incredible amount of buses were lined waiting to take everyone which happened to be just around the corner to an industrial area. I couldn’t sit still with anticipation!

An intense beginning if I ever read one. So far the story has it all – eagerness, anticipation, an incredible amount of busses, you name it. Which brings us to Part 2…

 

 

PART 2: FOOD!

There were quite a few food stalls with a bit for everyone, I definitely went for the pizza which was yummy! Reasonably easy to get drinks because of the super long bar! There was only one ATM though so quite a long queue, I was glad I brought enough cash.

Good to know the logistics seemed to be in order, ka-pow! Sounds like it was way better than 2Door Cinema Club where I watched a man murder another with the sharpened end of a plastic spoon for a slice of pizza.

 

 

PART 3: THE BEST PART!

The best part of the evening was being at the front (even though it was to the side) and being able to see the Kooks! It was fantastic to see how much energy they had! Got the crowd into the mood although they didn’t have to.  Loved their accent as well 🙂 Just took a long time between the bands, but they did have a dj to fill in between.

The side-front is actually a tactic I often employ to get as far forward as possible, BUT once you’re up there, then you gotta head for dead centre. It’s the classic concert move – no one really minds if you’re coming from the side, but try pushing from the back and they will give you looks that could weld steel.

 

 

PART 4: SAFFA BANDS!

Beach Party and December Streets who played before were also pretty awesome as well; I actually want to get my hands on their music now!

So do I! In fact, I’m hitting Pirate Bay as I write this…

 

 

PART 5: CONCLUSION!

Just an absolutely fantastic evening all around super stoked I got to experience it! Thank you once again!

Only a pleasure! Here at Tiger Industries we are all about The Love – finding it, sharing it and making it.

Leah, from your write-up it sounds like a truly epic night, sorry I couldn’t be there to party up a storm with you guys, especially considering the effort you both went to to look the part (that Tiger onsie is literally the coolest fucking thing I have ever seen).

So there you have it folks. The Kooks came, they saw, they rocked their sexy accents and they blew ous the fuck AWAY!

Big up to #5Gum for hooking a brother up with the tickets – as always you guys KLAPPED a killer event, nice one.

Until next time!

-ST

25
Apr
13

The Heroes Of The Day

By SlickTiger 5 Comments
Categories: Gig Reviews, Good Times and Killer Posts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Metallica1Last night in the frontlines at the Bellville Velodrome, I fought a war. Powerchords thundered like mortar fire as thousands of us chanted the battlecries we knew so well in unison.

It was a beautiful thing to be a part of and I was in the thick of it, barely three metres from the front guardrail, close enough to feel the heat from the flames and smell the sulphur of the gunpowder.

And all the while the undisputed Gods of metal raged on, ripping their fretboards apart, kicking holes through the drumkit and feeding off the energy we threw at them like sweet nectar only to amplify it a thousand-fold and blast it right back at us.

Was the Metallica concert at the Velodrome last night awesome? Was it mind-blowing? Was it life-changing? Did it affirm what a fucking incredible band Metallica are and what an impossible act they are to follow? In a phrase I know James Hetfield himself would approve of, all I can say is FUCK YEAH.

 

 

I go to watch live bands for everything you don’t get on the album. I go for the energy they create onstage, I go to feel their presence, hear their banter and most importantly I go to try to understand what they are actually like as people because that’s the closest I know I’ll ever get to them.

The problem with approaching concerts in this way is I become hyper-critical of everything the band does. I go with huge expectations and in some instances I’m let down and what was once a favourite band gets thrown onto the gigantic trash heap of bands I used to like.

From the minute they got onstage last night until the minute they left to a deafening roar of applause, James, Lars, Kirk and Rob tore through a monster two and a half hour set of old and new material that left us so broken by the end they should have had wheelchairs ready to take us back to our cars.

 

 

They played all the old classics I posted yesterday – “Sanitarium”, “Master Of Puppets” and “Seek And Destroy” (that was their last song and holy fucking shit did they do it justice, the mosh pit was so intense I’m surprised I got out alive) plus new material off Death Magnetic and they played it with a shitload of heart.

That’s the thing about last night’s performance, the entire band put everything into it. They sweated blood onstage, grinning from ear to ear throughout. Metallica are professionals and they love what they do and that’s what made last night for me.

If you think about it, they’ve probably played these songs a thousand times, a hundred thousand times, a thousand thousand times. I wouldn’t even want to hear a song as many times as they’ve played some of their songs and yet they had so much fun doing it, they put so much energy into the performance that all their stuff felt fresh, like it could have been written three months ago not thirty years ago.

 

 

And James’ onstage banter was awesome. He’s a showman, a true performer and for a guy in his fifties he’s in pretty amazing shape, they all are. Except maybe Lars… but when you see what that guy does behind a drumkit, it’s no wonder he looks a little haggard.

Normal drummers sit behind a kit, plying their trade, meat and potatoes stuff. Lars fucking climbs into his drum kit, he’s a fucking animal behind that thing, limbs flailing, tongue out, landing drum fills like machinegun fire. What a total fucking badass.

 

 

It was an incredible concert – everything from the staging to the lighting to the sound and even the logistics (parking was piss easy, there was no cue for Golden Circle, getting drinks was a matter of 15 mins at the most) were world class.

The only tragedy of the entire thing is that Metallica themselves will never read this post, as much as I wish they could, as much as I wish I could explain to them how much it meant to me, and everyone else at the Velodrome, that they put so much heart into their performance last night and cared enough about their fans all the way at the bottom of Africa to come down here and put on the show they did.

I might have had my doubts in the past, but after last night’s performance I can say with unwavering conviction that Metallica truly are the heroes of the day.

-ST

10
Oct
12

The Tiger Rocks The Daisies Chapter 3: The Saturday, The End

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IMG_2257Phew! What an epic festival review hey Party People? Christ, feels like all I’ve been posting for the last two weeks is Daisiesdaisiesdaisiesdaisies.

Time to wrap it all up with my Saturday post and then I promise you’ll not hear anything more about this festival until next year rolls around.

Like the day before it, Saturday morning was a hoot. Myself, Peggles, Barbarian and Spu spent it all chilling together while the girls hit the Daisy Den which took at least about two hours, just enough time for us to smash a couple beers and ease ourselves into the day.

From there everyone got all Tiger-striped up and we went to actually explore the festival and try to catch some bands.

 

 

We started by checking out the Hemporium stage where Little Kings were playing the most chilled out set you could ever imagine. I liked this band a lot, they just had this great vibe about them, very loose and easy breezy but great songwriters and performers, all of them.

This is what that looked like:

 

 

After that we met PURPLE MAN! Well, if by met PURPLE MAN I actually mean watch a man in a purple morph suit walk casually into the dam, then ya.

We met PURPLE MAN!

 

 

Once we’d finished laughing and taking pics of PURPLE MAN, I finally hit the media lounge for the first time at the festival where I had an ice cold Red Bull, ate some kind of cranberry / cereal snack thing and contemplated using one of the laptops there.

Next time. I swear I’m blogging from Daisies next time…

Next stop was the beach bar, which was PUMPING! On the way I ran into some proper BOYCHAYS and this happened:

 

 

I don’t remember how long we stayed there, but eventually we decided to hit the road when the people there started tweaking out and tried to fingerbang each other’s nostrils.

 

 

At the main stage we half-heartedly watched a band before deciding to wander over to the lemon tree theatre where we caught our good buddy Dylan Skew’s set which, again, had all of us literally in tears.

That guy is my favourite South African comedian, hands down. I swear, it’s like he’s read my mind, found the funniest, most random thoughts and made stand up out of it.

Hats off to that man. His material is seriously amazing.

Then we met these guys in lumo vests with camel packs who, judging from this picture, loved the shit out of me.

 

 

After that, we went back to the main stage to listen to some more bands I don’t remember and J-Rab met Bob, who she instantly fell in love with.

 

 

The temperature started plummeting pretty soon after that so we went back to The Mushroom and suited up for the evening. I had some jelly tots that a buddy had spare and wandered out into the night like some high-powered mutant.

God’s own prototype Winking smile

 

 

Among other things we checked out the New World Beat Barn and I instantly regretted the fact that I hadn’t discovered it sooner in the festival. It was like some kind of crazy carnival in there, good times as far as the eye could see.

We also posed for a pic with this skeleton who was in a bath tub:

 

 

Above us there was this long string of balloons and lights that must have been at least 300 meters long. It floated like this long, luminescent string of glowing blue dental floss against the night sky. Like a lot of things I saw that night, it inspired awe and child-like wander in me and I knew things were going to be ok.

Believe it or not we actually stayed for the end of Arno Carstens’ set so we’d have a good spot for Shadowclub when they came on and Jacques and the boys did NOT disappoint.

I made a mental note to watch them live more and actually support this band. Their set was super-slick without losing its badass bluesy-rock edginess.

 

 

Which left only one main stage act left. The reason a lot of people were there in the first place. The band that inspired a million million bands to pick up guitars and write dancey indie rock.

Bloc Party. And man-o-man did their first three songs suck.

The sound was shocking which was sad because it had nothing to do with the band, but all their levels sounded way out with the vocals drowning everything out completely and the bass being almost non-existent.

Things quickly improved though and the crowd started losing their minds to this awesome band.

 

 

At some stage in Bloc Party’s set they let the balloons go. Actually, it could have been before, I’m not too sure, but watching them drift away, I felt a profound sense of loss, like the very stitching that held the festival together was coming undone.

And the truth is, it was.

I loved Bloc Party’s set but festival fatigue was kicking in and when they launched a barrage of fractal-patterned fireworks after it was all done, I felt totally satisfied in every conceivable way and ready to call it a day.

It was a great Daisies, no doubt. One that will live on in our minds as long as this post lives on, rattling in this junkyard site that I call home.

 

 

Here’s to Daisies ‘13!

See you crazy fuckers there Winking smile

-ST

09
Oct
12

The Tiger Rocks The Daisies Chapter 2: Friday Super Mario

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

DSCF0455The first morning of a festival is the best by far.

All the troopers from the night before slowly start surfacing, giving one another silent nods of approval from across their respective campsites while the morning sun shines impossibly bright all around you.

First thing I did when I woke up was put my sunglasses on. Second thing I did was down a sachet of rehydrate followed by two liver pills and two Myprodols in rapid succession.

Lastly, I put the Tiger hat on and got ready to face the day though all the preparation in the world wouldn’t have got me ready for the insanity to follow.

First thing was first – the mushroom.

It had been decided that instead of sorting ourselves out with a gazebo, we would tie a series of sarongs together to make a canopy and tie this with string above all our tents to make shade for us to chill under at Camp Tiger.

Of course, this proved a lot more difficult in practise, so I fetched our beach umbrella from the car and next thing you know, The Mushroom happened:

 

 

After getting that right, J-Rab and I decided to take a long, slow, lazy breakfast while we lay on our backs and watched the clouds shift and swirl because The Mushroom was working; it was shady and there were no bands starting for a good couple of hours.

We passed our morning listening to music through some Shox speakers connected to my phone (a festival must-have for campsite chilling), eating fresh fruit salad and drinking Bloody Marys which, I’m pretty sure it’s scientifically proven, are the world’s best hangover cure.

A peaceful, easy feeling breezed through Camp Tiger and all was calm in the dappled tie-dyed light that fell, glowing on our skin.

 

 

It was a good, long time before we decided to head up to the main stage and explore the festival a bit, but when we did we hardly got far when Barbarian called to say he had just arrived and was at the main gate.

I remember sprinting down that orange / red sand road leading up to the main stage, my feet hardly touching the ground as I sailed effortlessly through crowds and crowds of people like a minnow over the surface of a glassy pond.

 

 

Barbarian, his brother Spu and his girlfriend Millie got settled in back at the campsite as the afternoon sun slowly faded and I think we stayed and had a few more drinks there  before deciding to head to the beer tent at the main stage.

There we briefly saw The Brother Moves On being all freaky on stage and pissed ourselves laughing at this guy:

 

 

From there we got seriously stuck into the main stage beer tent so much so that we basically missed every band that went up. Problem is this good friend of ours we hadn’t seen in ages, Molly, suddenly showed up out of the blue and we ended up jamming with her all night.

It was about then that I ran into my partner in crime Mr Dan Nash whose ear I decided to chew off for a good hour or so (hahaha! Sorry homes). Shortly after that (before that?) I barnacled myself to another long-time fellow writer and whisky-lover Sean Lloyd though God only knows what the hell we spoke about.

 

 

I also ran into Gabi (www.musicalmover.com) who is one of my all-time favourite people, SA bloggers and musical aficionados. 

From there the night melts into a bizarre collage of nameless faces, laughter, loads of beer in plastic cups, more laughter and a  vague feeling like time was passing and maybe it would be a good idea to watch some bands.

The good news is we did end up catching some of The Kongos’ set and they were AWESOME! Definite Desert Rock vibe going on there, it’s tragic I didn’t catch more and that the bits I did catch I don’t remember very well.

 

 

Oh, and we also caught Beast after that but the general vibe I got is that Inge (singer from Lark) needs to reign it in a bit, her vocals were tearing the songs apart like a wailing cat. The rest of the band was killing it, but most of the people we spoke to thought she was very difficult to listen to.

What happened after that is anyone’s guess, but I do vaguely remember J-Rab breaking into the Heartbreak Hotel compound with my buddy Peggles’ so we could get more booze from his tent.

I swear, I have no idea why anyone would want to camp there. Looks like flippin Auschwitz or something. I guess the clean facilities and free breakfasts are a huge plus, but still, I wasn’t sold and even Peggles himself said next time he’s definitely camping with us.

More hilarity ensued as the night wore on until we all eventually decided to hit the hay and try to get some rest before the big day on Saturday.

 

 

My last memory is of walking back to our campsite, happy, fuzzy and thinking I’d NAILED Friday in the best possible way when out of nowhere this random guy bolts past, grabs my Tiger head hat and sprints off in the other direction.

Instantly my happy, carefree state flicked off like a switch and I went straight into KILL mode.

Next thing this guy knew he had 90kgs of 6ft1 gym-hardened Tiger flying through the air like a guided missile into the small of his back. My arms clamped around him as I sent him plunging into the dirt to eat a mouthful of soggy, trodden-on turf – a perfectly-executed tackle for a guy who only played rugby for a grand total of 6 weeks in highschool.

Needless to say I got the Tiger head hat back and walked away feeling totally fine (my only injury the next day was a broken toenail for some reason), while my assailant limped off mumbling grumpily to no one.

Back at Camp Tiger, we crawled back into our tent of lurve, piled on the blankets and fell instantly asleep.

That night I dreamed about a calzone. It was the weirdest dream I’ve ever had and I couldn’t explain it if I tried, but somehow seemed like a fitting end to an awesome day.

 

 

Tune in tomorrow for my last piece on RTD12 where I actually watch some bands and have the best damn hoddog of my LIFE!

Good times I tell ya.

Good times Winking smile

-ST

08
Oct
12

The Tiger Rocks The Daisies Chapter 1: Thursday Rocket Fuel

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

altb61dcd58d1f012888162b07b13e525efThere were animals everywhere in furry onesies or in animal hats and I was one of them, rocking a tiger head hat rented from a costume shop for six-year old kids.

The baddest cat in the jungle, grinning like a maniac from ear to ear and laughing, just laughing my ass off the entire weekend.

Truth be told, from Thursday to Sunday, way too much awesomeness happened for one post.

The last thing I want to do is ram a 10 000 word piece down everyone’s throats that no one reads so instead I’m breaking this down day by day and hitting you guys with only the good stuff, that infectious craziness that makes festivals like Rocking The Daisies so awesome because that’s all anyone really cares about in the end.

Good times. Sunshine. Good people. We had it all. What a fucking amazing weekend…

Well, except for leaving on Thursday. J-Rab and I were both frazzled from the week we’d had and were keen to just head on through, get our shit sorted, crack open that first icy beer and start partying our asses off.

 

 

Obviously we took a wrong turn going there though and ended up taking the dirt road shortcut to the Darling Cellars turn-off. I was fuming by that point because I was trying to get through before sunset but by the time we actually arrived it was already 8.30pm.

Luckily our friends had taken our tent earlier and set up camp for us literally 5 meters from the main entrance. Chrissie, Pamela, Cat, you guys are fucking LEGENDS.

Thirty minutes later we were finally setup and smashing our first drink of the festival. We went the vodka / cranberry route which I mixed in almost equal proportions.

Yeah. It was basically rocket fuel.

Armed with that we moseyed on over to the Thursday night campsight stage and caught Future Primitives and Goodnight Wembley.

 

 

It was sad we missed the other Thursday night bands but lemme tell you, Future Primitives put on such a solid performance, I actually didn’t mind.

It was high-energy surf / stoner rock at its absolute best. The buzz in the small crowd gathered there was fucking electric. I felt all the tension from my shitty week come flowing out as my limbs loosened up and my mind unwound one gulp of rocket fuel at a time.

We went to sort out a refill before Goodnight Wembley got onstage and after that things got a little blurry.

I wasn’t in the best shape to review Goodnight Wembley in any way, but I just remember feeling that while they are a great and seriously talented group of musicians, their material is nothing we haven’t all heard before.

 

 

They do it flawlessly, but I don’t remember hearing any tracks that got me as pumped as Future Primitives did.

Also, at that stage some young 16 year old guy was trying his luck with our friend who had been sippin on the rocket fuel so I had to step in there and tell him on no uncertain terms that he needed to back off or the next time he touched her, he’d draw back a bloody stump.

After Goodnight Wembley all I got is flashes of lucidity. J-Rab went to the toilets and came back to find me orchestrating an entire group of people that I’d managed to convince there was a trip-wire between these two wooden posts in the main pathway.

Hilariously we got people either jumping over the imaginary trip-wire or doing the limbo between the posts. I tried to take some pics of it but man-o-man they came out badly.

 

 

The last part of the evening was spent back at Chrissie’s tent at Camp Tiger where we jammed some sick choons and carried on smashing the voddies, just laughing and having a killer time.

It was basically the best end to the first night I could have hoped for. Check it:

 

 

Obviously I have no recollection of actually going to sleep after that, but I imagine when I did, it was with a huge-ass smile on my face because I was here, I’d arrived, it had been a fucking amazing night and my Daisies experience was only just beginning.

The perfect start to what was going to be an epic weekend.

Stay tuned for my Friday round-up tomorrow Winking smile

-ST

06
Mar
12

Slicky-T Hits Up The 5Gum Experience, Has Face Melted Off

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Being Slick, Events and Gig Reviews
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

5GumThere are going to be a couple of these 5Gum posts sprouting up all over the interwebs and rightly so because the 5Gum Experience on Saturday was a textbook example of how to throw a KILLER party.

I only got back from Thailand last week and have a lot of shit occupying my soupy Tiger-brain at the moment, so I’d all but forgotten about the gig until Saturday morning.

I love surprises. Always have, always will. So I was totally fine with the venue for the gig being a big secret but holy shit, NOTHING could have prepared me for what the legends at 5Gum had organised for us.

But let’s start from the top shall we? Rewind to the Wednesday before I left for Thailand and my main man Mike SharMAEN comes ambling into our offices with a whole bunch of BELTER dancers who start doing the exact routine the dancers in the Two Door Cinema Club do in the “What You Know” video.

 

 

After that, he drops off a pair of SICK Skullcandy headphones along with every imaginable flavour of 5Gum (which is a great substitute for actual toothpaste if say you’re stuck on a long-haul flight to Bangkok and you packed your toiletries in your hold luggage like a douche) and tickets to watch Two Door Cinema Club play at a secret venue.

Fast forward to Saturday night and J-Rab and I are boarding a bus at the overflow parking next to Cape Town International and heading directly into the heart of what I’m pretty sure is Nyanga.

I pack a hip flask with scotch for occasions like these on the off chance that instead of the big surprise blowing my mind with atomic force, it makes a sound like a turtle farting and bashfully shuffles off in shame while I drink the place interesting.

No need for that though. Shit was about to melt faces.

We pull up to what looks like a derelict prison / abandoned textile factory in an area where I’m pretty sure people get stabbed with rusty screwdrivers for their shoes and everyone in the bus is saying the same thing: “No wonder they kept it a secret. No one would come otherwise.”

 

 

But deep down we were all intrigued and the minute we’d all stepped out the bus and were able to take our surroundings in properly, we quickly realised that the venue was like NOTHING we’d ever seen before.

I was lucky enough to attend the press conference before the show and the band straight up said they don’t think they’ll EVER play a venue like this again, which I thought was a nice thing to say, but probably total bullshit.

 

 

I now know that it was the honest-to-God truth.

I’ll be VERY surprised if they play a venue this sick again and I don’t mean that to sound like a slight to the band at all – it’s a compliment to the event organisers who deserve some kind of fucking trophy or something for finding that venue.

We arrived just before sunset, grabbed a couple of beers and headed to the stage where we were totally blown away by both the setup and the sound, which rang out clear as a bell in the awesome natural acoustics of what looked like an old warehouse.

 

 

The Plastics were the first band to take to the stage, a band I’ve only seen play live once before (that I can remember) but even that one time, I remember being seriously impressed by their performance.

Their set on Saturday was nothing short of brilliant. They’re like a re-imagined version of early Arctic Monkeys meets The Kooks with enough of their own flavour to keep things interesting.

I dig the way they switch tempos effortlessly mid-song, rocking the indie / stoner rock vibes like a buncha pros.

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for them in future, I’m fucking ashamed I haven’t latched onto them sooner. Christ what an asshole.

After that I hit up the VIP tent with The MAEN, slammed some tequila and avoided security at all costs because The MAEN snuck me in there and they were eyeing me like they were measuring me for a coffin.

 

 

After that we hit a bit of a low-point, the only one of the entire evening.

J-Rab started feeling hungry. So we found the only place selling food, a tiny pizza caravan, and joined the back of the queue.

Two minutes passed and we didn’t move an inch, which was about all the patience I had at that point. I took a sneaky stroll right to the front of the queue, conveniently ran into a friend of mine waiting there and slipped in.

Before the people who were waiting in that queue go hating on me because I did what all of you wanted to, I’d like to point out that even though I did that, I still missed pretty much an hour of the show and didn’t see Ashtray Electric at all.

So I suffered too, ok? Although the rumours going around were that some people waited for 3 hours in that same queue.

What the fuck guys. Never wait for that long in a queue for ANYTHING. You’re better than that. Just brave the dirty looks and make a bee-line for the front. We aren’t cattle fer chrissake!

We ate our pizza just in time to get back to the main stage for Two Door Cinema Club’s set and all I can say is wow. I honestly never thought it was possible for a band to breathe that much life and fucking energy into a live performance.

 

 

Their album is good (Tourist History), it’s got some great hooks and is solid, dancey indie that has just enough substance to stay fresh a good couple of listens down the line.

But when that band takes that material to the stage all of a sudden the album starts to come alive in ways you could never imagine.

The chorous of “Come Back Home Home” hit like a haymaker, the crowd swelled and surged like an ocean during “Undercover Martyn” as we all screamed “To the basement people! To the basement!” and when they unleashed “I Can Talk” during the encore, the raw energy all around us reverberated through the busted concrete factory with the kind of intensity that would have brought the walls down if they were still standing.

 

 

What was also so great was how humble the band was throughout. Frontman Alex Trimble seemed genuinely happy to be there and was loving every second of the gig which I think was a refreshing change from other international acts that have played in front of SA audiences looking bored to tears.

When it was all over, I staggered outta that ruined factory feeling pretty ruined myself. I was totally spent, my muscles aching from how crazy I went during the show, my veins pumping cheap whisky and burned out adrenaline and my mind retreating into a warm, contented fog, satisfied that the evening couldn’t possibly have ended any better.

 

 

To Mike SharMAEN and the gang at 5Gum, I salute you. It’s gonna take one helluva event to top that show and I will personally chew my way through 100 miles of your gum for another experience like that.

Group hug.

-ST

28
Nov
11

Synergy 2011 FUll Event Review

By SlickTiger 20 Comments
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews, Good Times and Killer Posts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Synergy CrowdWhat can I possibly write that could ever do justice to the fucking awesome time I had at Synergy this past weekend?

After building it up in my head to be this epic event that was going to change my life forever, I was pretty sure the actual experience would never live up to that, but after a bit of a rocky start, everything came together in the best possible way and we had a truly epic weekend.

The Good…

I actually started writing a full, blow-by-blow account of the entire weekend, but after I got to 2000 words I realised I need to keep this punchy.

So instead, here are some bullet points on what was awesome about the festival:

  • Boschendal is STUNNING! Surrounded by majestic mountain peaks and flanked on the one side by a river perfect for dipping your toes in or, further down, jumping in for a swim, the whole area is really beautiful and perfect for a festival

 

  • The organisation is pretty damned sick. At festivals you expect to spend a fair amount of time queuing for food and booze and holding your breath as you walk into porta-loos that look like hell, but Synergy was really well organised that way. Every toilet I went into was actually spotless, even right at the end and the food stalls were plenty and not too expensive either

 

  • TAXI VIOLENCE! These guys put on the best fucking show I’ve seen them play EVER! It was fucking electrifying, the crowd was loving every second of it and George and the guys were giving it their all. Great job, you blew everyone the fuck away!

 

 

 

  • LMG STAGE – a great place to discover new talent. These are the bands that will one day be tearing it up on the mainstage, no doubt. We caught snatches of bands playing here, but to be honest were too busy missioning around to remember who any of them were. DEFINITELY should have spent more time there, big fail on my part

 

  • The rides! We never went on them, but DAMN they looked like fun!

 

 

  • The river! On Saturday morning we went down to the river and spent a long time sitting or rocks slowly getting drunker, talking shit and splashing around in the river. This is what festivals are about, getting away from it all and doing something as simple as sitting with your feet in a river, not giving a shit about anything

 

  • The sun cream girls! Spraying everyone that needed sun cream with sun cream. VERY cool idea, a nice touch to make sure people didn’t get fried in their own natural juices

 

 

  • Our gazebo. This, more than anything, is a festival essential if you’re going with a big group of people. The gazebo united us. It provided much needed shade when the day started getting baking hot and it was the perfect thing to lie under and drink cold Bloody Marys all afternoon

 

 

  • Playing the messiest game of Kings ever! You know it’s a good one when the cards end up all over the camp site once the game has disintegrated into random shouting, laughter and drunken chants of “Down it!” All thanks to the genius “every time someone pulls a black card, everyone drinks” rule. That’s a recipe for awesome right there…

 

  • THE COMEDY TENT! Who goes to a music festival to listen to comedy, right? What a total waste of time, right? WRONG MUTHUFUKKAHS! On Saturday night we wandered randomly into the comedy tent and caught Dylan Skews’ set (who also happens to be a friend of ours) and basically spent the next hour crying with laughter. I’ve known Dylan for a couple of years through friends of ours, but never heard his stuff – it was the funniest comedy I’ve seen in YEARS. Great job man, J-Rab and I love your work

 

  • JAX PANIK! Possibly the biggest crowd I saw at the main stage all weekend – not really the kind of music I go for, but they were fucking AMAZING! The crowd went crazy for them and they delivered the goods. Definitely watch out for this band, they put on a great live show, one of those moments that makes you proud to be South African

 

 

  • ISOCHRONOUS! Ok, anyone who was at the festival is probably starting to pick up a general trend here – yes, we basically missed all the bands on the opening night except Taxi Violence (a lot of tequila happened. I blame you Ebz, I blame you… Joking! We had a badass time, sorry we missed you the rest of the festival!). But we caught Isochronous, who have a strong Muse-flavour to their material, and are face-meltingly awesome to watch live

 

  • Morning bacon and egg rolls for R15! That’s all we need to say about that one

 

  • VIP bracelets – thank you to the festival organisers for hooking J-Rab and I up with these, we put them to good use on Saturday night when, on a random mission to arrange a photo pass, we headed backstage to the production office and ended up…

 

  • MEETING BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB! Well, actually we didn’t really meet them so much as round a corner and find them sitting literally five feet from us being interviewed by MK89. For this BRMC-obsessed fan, it was fucking surreal to see the band so close, but we were asked to please leave by the band’s manager, not in a shitty way, in fact they even listened to me gush for 15 minutes about how amazing I think they are even though they’ve probably heard it a million times before. It was a perfect moment seeing them so close in this quiet, random corner of the festival and one I won’t soon forget

The Bad…

Of course, it can’t be all sunshine and lollypops, there are a few bad points about the festival that I feel I need to mention, namely:

 

  • The fact that I had to wait for over 2 HOURS for those aforementioned VIP passes! Thank God I managed to win a ticket to the festival through Bangers & Nash or I never would have gotten inside to find the festival organisers in the first place. It was a kak way to start the festival, but things were chaotic for the organisers so I understand, but still, 2 HOURS waiting alone under the Synergy arch?! That was painful

 

  • The nights. They were FREEZING cold! Friday especially – you could see your fucking breath it was so bad. J-Rab was practically crying she was so cold. Next year we’re taking backup blankets, that’s for DAMN SURE!

 

 

  • The drunken douchebags camping near us. Who, at 6 in the morning, think it’s cool to shout “Show us your pussy!” to the girls walking past their camp site. Don’t be a “show us your pussy” kind of guy, no one likes guys like that, especially not at 6 in the morning

 

  • The Redbull Stage. Not that the music was bad, the music was pretty sick for the most part, but the people listening to it, phwoar! Ease up on the MDMA guys, you look like a bunch of Gummi Bears bouncing here and there and everywhere, high adventures beyond compare…

 

  • The trek from the parking to the campsite. I guess this is to be expected at festivals, but you had to lug your shit for a good 20 mins before you hit the campsite and then at least another 10 before you found a spot to camp

 

  • This is a bit of a sad one, but after all that hype, after building it up for so long, it pains me to say that one of the bad things for the festival for me was Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. We fought our way right up to the stage, about 5 metres from the band and stayed there, basically in the mosh pit for the next hour before finally leaving before the band had even finished playing.

 

I mean, they NAILED some of the songs – “Conscience Killer” was INTENSE! They banged it out full of sound and fury, “Ain’t No Easy Way” was also fucking brilliant, as was “Six Barrel Shotgun”, but to be perfectly frank, for the most part the band looked a bit bored.

Leah (the drummer) came alive for one song maybe, the rest of the time she stared ahead with the same blank expression on her face, Peter (singer, guitarist) played like a fucking MACHINE, tearing his fretboard to pieces and banging out some seriously badass bluesy rock, but was also expressionless throughout.

Robert (singer, bassist) was the most animated of the three – he has this cool way of playing his base guitar like he’s aiming a rifle and MAN can he play that bass. He also swapped it out for a normal six string a couple of times, he’s a fucking talented musician.

 

 

In fact, they all are. You cannot fault them on that point and I will always, always love BRMC, but I just feel like their performance was missing something. I’m stoked I got to see them live and like I said, I loved a lot of songs they played, but they fluffed a few tracks too, which was a bit sad.

 

The Ugly…

And then there are the moments you kinda wish you hadn’t ever seen, like when…

  • It was 5pm on the OPENING DAY OF THE FESTIVAL, and I watched a girl falling all over the place, drunk as a mineworker and splashing white wine everywhere while her buddy tried to walk her back to her tent

 

  • One of the drunken douches camping next to us passed out at 6pm on Saturday night with his head out his tent so he could have a nice, hearty chunder while J-Rab and I were eating our sammiches not 10 feet away from him. Yummy.

 

  • On Saturday night, a guy ran straight into a car. It was actually hilarious. There was one solitary white polo parked off to the side the main stage, you couldn’t miss it, but this genius ran right into it, BANG! Hahahaha!

 

The Amazing…

I don’t want to end this on a shitty note, so let me sum up by first thanking everyone who made our festival experience possible, Tchavdar and the crew at Synergy Live, New Sound Artist Management and of course Mr Dan Nash.

Our plan came together in the best possible way and we had a fucking amazing time!

 

 

Sure, I didn’t catch half the bands I wanted to see, but there will always be time to watch them play in and get the interviews I want to sometime in the future.

The bands were amazing, the organisation was top notch, the good times kept rolling and the shower and nap we had after we got back home yesterday was fucking glorious!

You bet your ass we’ll be at Synergy 2012 and so will you guys because it’s a brilliant festival.

Here’s to an amazing weekend of sick bands, sunshine and good times Winking smile

-ST

27
Oct
11

Kings Of Leon Melt Faces In Cape Town

By SlickTiger 3 Comments
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

26102011430“If it bleeds, it leads,” is generally accepted as the first rule of journalism, which is why I should have been sceptical right from the outset when I heard that Kings Of Leon were cocky, arrogant arseholes who were known to give the middle finger to crowds who don’t hang onto every note the band plays.

Their performance last night in Cape Town was anything but cocky and arrogant, which proves that either the rumours were a load of utter shite, or the band were suitably impressed by their reception last night when they took to the stage and melted our faces off.

I was lucky enough to have been given VIP passes by the kind folks at Nokia, but even better than that was the fact that I also bagged one of 20 VIP parking tickets that were randomly put into the 200 media packs they handed out.

It’s the only way to go, seriously. J-Rab and I drove right INTO THE STADIUM after passing through security checks that were so intense, at one of them they unleashed a sniffer dog on us to make sure we weren’t packing any bombs to blow the place up (luckily I’m saving the bomb for when Maroon 5 come to play so I was safe).

Once inside we hopped in the lift, shot up to the fifth floor and sauntered into the Nokia suite where, like a typical blogger, I immediately started abusing the free drinks and taking pictures of the food.

 

 

We managed to catch the end of Shadowclub’s set which I was really impressed with. It’s a bit sad the stadium was basically empty at that stage because the guys put on a great show and played some killer blues/rock in the Strokes / Wolfmother / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club vein that would have gotten the crowd pretty pumped if there was one.

What quickly became apparent though was that while the Nokia lounge was seriously p1mping, it was pretty far away from the stage, and even with my camera on full zoom, this is what everything looked like:

 

 

A plan would have to be made… but not before another few rounds of drinks / bowls of biltong.

The Black Hotels followed Shadowclub and played a decent set, but sadly we missed quite a big chunk of it thanks to the varied distractions of the VIP lounge (whisky).

Unfortunately when it came to the SA bands, they were given such limited stage time that it felt like they were over before they’d really begun. On the plus side, their sound was surprisingly good and for once it didn’t sound like they were playing through rusty tin cans.

By the time Die Heuwels Fantasties took to the stage, the place was starting to really fill out and energy levels in the crowd were rising fast. Die Heuwels played like seasoned stadium veterans, but it wasn’t until Jack Parow joined them onstage for “Die Vraagstuk” that the crowd really started going batshit crazy.

From there on in, the night belonged to Kings Of Leon and I for one was truly blown away by their performance which, coming from a cynical basterd like myself, is saying a lot.

 

 

I started following KOL when Because Of The Times dropped and within weeks of getting my filthy mitts on that album, picked up Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak. 

For me, the material in those three albums is some of the band’s best to date, which was why I fucking loved their set last night.

Sure, they played the four tracks that make up the entire catalogue most South Africans know (ie. “Sex On Fire”, “Use Somebody”, “Radioactive” and “Pyro”), but they also played at least 7 or 8 tracks from Because Of The Times and some classics like “Molly’s Chambers” and “Taper Jeans Girl” from their first two albums.

It was a nod to their die-hard fans to remind us that before they exploded into the mainstream with Only By The Night KOL was our band, not 5FM’s, and the music they wrote was the soundtrack to our lives that we heard at random house parties and played on epic road trips.

 

 

I know I sound like a typical music snob saying it, but there’s a very close connection you feel to a band before they get picked up by the mainstream that is never quite the same after their material gets blasted on high rotation on every radio and TV station known to man.

And don’t even get me started on remixes. I’ve heard “Sex On Fire” remixed so many times I start twitching involuntarily whenever I hear that song butchered on another “doef doef” beat.

In a sentence, I loved KOL’s performance last night because it made me remember why I used to love this band and judging from how fucking nuts the crowd went, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people there last night go out and buy their first three albums.

 

 

Also, Nathan Followill is a fucking SICK drummer. If you’re going to watch them in Joburg, keep an eye on that man, he’s truly amazing to watch live – he pounds the living shit out of his skins, it’s beautiful.

Joburg, prepare yourselves for a concert you won’t soon forget, but take my advice and go out there and get their first three albums because listening to those songs live is nothing short of breath-taking.

Big up to Nokia for hooking a brother up. I love your work guys, after the concert we partied at the VIP lounge until they turned the lights on and then J-Rab asked if she could have the flowers and kind folks at Nokia were like “Sure, go wild.”

 

 

But most importantly – Kings Of Leon, thank you for an amazing show, you made a believer out of this cynical music snob and for the two hours you were onstage, became our band again Winking smile

-ST

12
May
11

Album Launch: Taxi Violence – Long Way From Home

By SlickTiger Leave a Comment
Categories: Being Slick, Events, Gig Reviews and Good Times
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Awhile back I bitched and moaned about how South African bands are a bunch of limp dick unclefuckers who need to man the fuck up and play some dirty, sexy rock music already.

Well, I’m happy to say I can add one band to the list of SA bands I actually like and that band is Taxi Violence.

I saw them live at Mercury a month or two back when they did a seriously killer cover of “Riders On The Storm” with We Set Sail. I was well impressed not only with the cover, but also Taxi Violence themselves who, much like Queens Of The Stone Age, have breathed life back into old school 60s / 70s rock and made it unapologetically badass.

 

 

Then, about two weeks back, I ran into George (frontman and vocalist) at Mercury and did this thing I do when I’m drunk when I shoot the breeze with people in bands like I’m catching up with an old highschool buddy.

It’s a test because some people in bands think they’re God’s fucking gift to the planet so I talk to them like they’re normal humans and they either act like I’m a weirdo and run away or they shoot the breeze back and we end up having epic discussions about music and the South African scene.

George definitely proved to be a stand up guy and even invited me to check out the launch of their acoustic album Long Way From Home.

So J-Rab and I headed on down to the Plane-arium for an intimate showcase of what the Taxi lads have been up to and I was pretty blown away.

 

 

Old favourites like “The Mess”, “Devil ‘n Pistol” and “The Turn” sound like they’ve been taken apart and rebuilt from scratch, a refreshing change from most bands who just swap electric guitars for acoustic ones and serve up warmed up leftovers thinly disguised as an album actually worth listening to.

Their acoustic rendition of “Heads and Tails” is particularly noteworthy both on the album and when they played it live. It was pretty hilarious us all reclining on our seats in the Plane-arium with the stars wizzing overhead because whenever Taxi got the crowd bopping your seatback would start moving in time to the music as other people sitting in the same row literally “rocked” out. “Heads And Tails” produced that effect immediately.

They’ve also shot a new video for the song, which they opened their set with which sadly they haven’t uploaded to their YouTube channel yet, but look out for it when they do, it’s a very cool take on the Groundhog Day premise and, in keeping with the song, asks the question if you knew the dice were rigged, how would you play the game?

 

 

One of my songs they played was their new track “Long Way From Home”, about a country boy hitting the big city, a dreamer who “Followed the buzz until he hit the hive”. It’s got an upbeat, bluesy / rock flavour played with bright, jangling guitars and tambourines that reminded me of some of the earlier Supergrass albums.

I’d highly recommend checking out Taxi’s FB page for their upcoming gigs so you can get a chance to hear their acoustic set and, if you’re lucky enough, getting a picture with the square-headed mascott that adorns the new album cover.

 

 

So big up to George for the invite and the guys from Taxi Violence for a killer gig and for hooking me up with a copy of the new album. It doesn’t look like it in the picture below, but I was really stoked to get the actual, physical album. I think that’s the first CD I’ve been given in about 5 years.

 

 

-ST

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