Desmond & The Tutus, The Plastics & She Man Lion at the Assembly

Sat 26 March 2011

Their performance at Ramfest made me super keen to see Desmond & The Tutus again; lucky for me they were playing at the Assembly. I found out a little late along the line that they would be supported by the Plastics…this was almost a deal-breaker for me – I’d last seen them once some years ago and wasn’t a fan, but I decided to give them another chance…

Desmond & the tutus at Ramfest 2011

I like pretty much any kind of music (except bigband/swing – Frank Sinatra makes me want to stab people) but have a particular love for the post-punk/post-punk revival sound of bands like Interpol, Editors, Wire and, of course, gloom gods Joy Division. There aren’t really many post-punk-type bands in SA and it’s for this reason I really wanted to like She Man Lion.

I think they probably have awesome taste in music but unfortunately, watching them, it didn’t translate into anything particularly interesting…There were some nice tracks but overall they’re just a bit too derivative for my liking. I don’t want to discourage them though because I feel like they could be really cool, and we should have more bands making that kind of music…

Up next were The Plastics…thoughts of waiting out their set in the bar flashed temptingly across my mind but I resisted; a long time had past since I last saw them, their new music video is pretty cool and I had committed to giving them the benefit of the doubt.

First song starts and they’re a lot better than I remembered, and further redeemed by the amusing Monty Pythonesque animations up on the screens around them…But three songs in and I was ready for them to leave and take their (now verging on annoying) animations with them, something I felt really bad about given the impossibly genuine smile on the face of the drummer.

I think I’d probably be able to handle them in single-song doses, but the full set was just too much…

Desmond & The Tutus come out and they’re awesome, better than at Ramfest and in a league of their own compared to their opening acts. They’re really coherent and don’t just look like a band, but really feel like one. Too cool.

The crowd were going insane – pushing, shouting, threatening to break down the stage barrier – and the Assembly was the most packed I’ve ever seen it. At one stage, one chick even managed to run up on stage. Vocalist Shane threw her an accusatory glance and said ‘this is the emotional breakdown in the song…’ She just stood there stupidly before being joined, seconds later, by her friend, as the resounding cry of ‘AWWWWWKWWWARRRD!’ rang out from the crowd (followed by a few cheers as they were escorted off by a bouncer).

Stage invasions aside it was an awesome show, they really killed it!