Suitcase

Guitar duo CH2 and cellists from "The Paz Consort", combined to give a great concert melding classical and contemporary music together. It was really a dark, stormy night - maybe a factor in a half full venue at University of Johannesburg's Arts Centre; and it certainly deserved a full house. The guitar work of CH2 is amazing, especially in the virtuoso pieces - but the melding of genres was very impressive. It was certainly worth braving the downpour!

Parklife Festival - Nov 2013

Planned to celebrate summer, Parklife Festival is set to be a bi-annual concert series; the first one taking place in March this year. While there was a great lineup of bands; SA super band Seether was the real attraction. The organization at Marks Park was excellent, and although the rain threatened throughout (including a few drops), it stayed away.

I had originally thought to go fr Desmond and the Tutus, but M and I went to lunch at 44 Stanley instead; but did make it for Taxi Violence. It has been a long time since I last saw them, and didn't really enjoy them today; so we didn't stay too long. So instead we headed off to the main stage to start staking our places.

One man band, with a few mates, Jeremy Loops was the act before Seether on the main stage. He is certainly a great musician, combining loops of harmonica, vocals, guitar and beat-boxing (all recorded live) - it is quite impressive to see it all come together. The lyrics are fairly simple (and not much to speak of); but he is an interesting act to see live.

There was no point to go see The Dirty Skirts; and rather we decided to et a really good place to see Seether. The Seether set was largely acoustic, and devoid of the stand and deliver approach of the previous shows. It was rather sedate in their standards (after all, in Opikopi last year, Shaun Morgan finished by smashing his guitar) - but it was more interactive, more engaging - and overall a perfect performance for a Sunday afternoon.

 

Starting the show with the Saron Gas standard - Gasoline, it was really hit after hit. There was a strange lul when they played a cover of a Neil Young song, but every Seether song was sung with gusto by the crowd.

The encore was interesting, as one of the roadies, Brian, joined in for the performance Remedy. It was another great performance by Seether and hopefully the Parklife Festival brings in more great bands in the future.