J-Day at the Assembly

Sat 19 March 2011

Jack Parow was supposed to play at K-Day, but because there were complaints from the ooms and tannies that his zefness would spoil the wholesome family fun of the event, he was dropped from the roster…so he held his own event: ‘J-Day’ at the Assembly, featuring Bittereinder and Sedge Warbler as well as the premiere of his latest video, Byellville.

The night promised to be ‘gevaarlik’ – and it turned out it really was. Up first were Sedge Warbler: Dank and Disco as ‘Expensive Drinks’ and ‘DJ Caviar’. I’d never seen them before and was pretty keen to check them out. The crowd was modestly sized but dangerously into it – the guys next to me were thrashing and bouncing and howling like they were possessed – I couldn’t blame them too much though, the music demanded movement. Dark, addictive beats and lyrics that oscillate between being hilarious and uncomfortably dirty, delivered with a weird kinda laid-back intensity…I thought they were pretty cool.

Up next were Bittereinder – the real drawing card of the evening for me. I’m glad they played The Assembly while in CT but the vibe was pretty wrong for them…the crowd was really rof, unsure of the out-of-towners and probably more than a little confused by the depth (and lack of sexual references) in their music.

The punters hadn’t come to think, they’d come to dance, which is fair enough, just a bit unfortunate for Bittereinder…Still, they put on a good show, and the people in the crowd who weren’t screaming ‘Paaaaaarrrrrooowww!’ and spilling their booze every three minutes enjoyed it and seemed to cheer with genuine appreciation.

It started filling up steadily as Parow’s timeslot loomed; people started streaming in from the bar and, judging by the influx of weird costumes, the carnival happening as part of the Cape Town Festival too. As the accordion intro of Byellville started, we hurried to join the crowd watching the new video up on the screen. It’s a winner, totally hilarious, nice one Team Parow.

I’d already decided the moshpit was suicide, so retreated to watch the set from the safer side of the stage. Just as well – a few minutes later he was out on stage, greeted by deafening screams. Last time I saw him (apart from at Kirstenbosch) was May last year and he’s ironed out a few kinks since then; adding a drummer and bassist for the rockier numbers was a nice touch and hurling some of his ‘Parowphernalia’ into the crowd went down great too (I caught a badge – awesome!).

Sure, he’s not everyone’s cup of brandewyn, but there’s no denying that watching Jack Parow is always entertaining.