For those like me who missed Ramfest earlier this month (or for those who were there and wanted to catch one of the headliners again), Vuvuvultures did an SA tour playing one of the last shows on their roster at Mercury last Friday along with BEAST and The Dollfins.

I don’t often go monochrome but it was a high contrast b/w kinda night…

[Mildly NSFW due to VVV frontwoman Harmony Boucher’s transparent dress…]

The Dollfins kicked things off in their customary fast and sweaty way. If you haven’t yet, you can download their album Do what you want me to from their Facebook page.

Psyche Night and Hello Beautiful were billed as the DJs for the night

Werner Von Waltsleben filled in for BEAST’s Sasha Righini

Though I’ve seen BEAST before, this was the first time not in a festival setting and the smaller, indoor venue definitely worked great for them. A lot of bands can lose their impact on a big festival stage, and if I’d ever thought that of BEAST, their performance on Friday showed they pack plenty of punch.

Gritty and with loads of energy, I enjoyed their set a lot.

I found out about Vuvuvultures via Facebook – last year the page kept popping up in my newsfeed so I wondered why so many of my fb friends were liking them. I quickly saw the South African connection – Paul Rez of Lark and Humanizer, now based in London, is one quarter of the British band. I enjoyed their VVV EP and heard they were cool at Ramfest so was keen to see them. And ‘cool’ is exactly the word for them – a stylish and sexy band with a retro-modern sound and great live presence.

It was almost impossible to look away from frontwoman Harmony Boucher, and not just because her dress was really transparent. She seemed to me somewhere between hardcore rocker and adorable pixie – at one point she asked if it was midnight and when the crowd confirmed that it was after she delightedly declared ‘then it’s my birthday!’ and later brought out some champagne when they came back for their encore.

Always nice to see an international act especially when they play in intimate venues.

= = =

Vuvuvultures  |  BEAST  | The Dollflins

Photos on Facebook over here and LMG over here