Laura's pics & ramblings | things I see and do…

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

Posted on: April 13, 2011

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.

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Posted in Gigs/Live Music
Tagged cape town, desmond & the tutus, favourites, gigs & festivals, jumping musicians, music, photography, pop, rock, she man lion, the assembly, the plastics, weekends

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J-Day at the Assembly

Posted on: April 6, 2011

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.

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Posted in Gigs/Live Music
Tagged afrikaans, bittereinder, byellville, cape town, favourites, J-Day, jack parow, jumping musicians, music, photography, sedge warbler, the assembly, video launch, weekends

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Cape Town Festival – Jax Panik, Nomfusi & The Lucky Charms

Posted on: April 5, 2011

Sat 19 March 2011

To coincide with Human Rights Day, The Cape Town Festival consisted of three days worth of of free concerts and entertainment at the Company Gardens. I missed the Rio-style carnival on Long Street unfortunately, but braved the heat to go check out Jax Panik on Saturday evening.

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Posted in Gigs/Live Music
Tagged cape town, company gardens, favourites, free, gigs & festivals, human rights day, jax panik, jazz band, jumping musicians, local, nomfusi & the lucky charms, photography, public holiday, south african

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Isochronous, like knives & Saintfearless at Mercury

Posted on: April 2, 2011

Sat 18 March 2011

Isochronous were great at Ramfest so I was excited to see them again while they were in Cape Town. The band announced on Facebook that they were looking for supporting acts and invited people to make suggestions, the outcome of which was that they’d be playing with like knives and Saintfearless.

I’d never heard either so checked them out on Facebook; like knives didn’t have any tracks up [edit: they’ve got 2 tracks up, I apologise and have no explanation for the momentary blindness that caused me to miss that…] but looked promising, Saintfearless had 4 tracks up of which I listened to the first 2 (Stars and aeroplanes and Conventional Love Song)…this turned out to be a mistake. The tracks were pretty bland and I was generally underwhelmed and considering arriving later and giving them a miss; I’m so glad I didn’t.

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Posted in Gigs/Live Music
Tagged cape town, favourites, gigs & festivals, isochronous, jumping musicians, like knives, mercury, music, photography, saintfearless, weekends

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Your LMG 3rd birthday party: The Sleepers, Van Coke Kartel & Foto Na Dans at Mercury

Posted on: March 31, 2011

Fri 11 March 2011

It was Friday the 11th and I was really tired and sorely tempted to stay at home and begin the weekend in glorious nothingness. But that couldn’t happen as Your LMG had arranged an awesome show with Foto Na Dans, Van Coke Kartel and The Sleepers to celebrate their 3rd birthday. It was an important night for another reason though – it was The Sleepers’ last performance with their vocalist Simon.

The Sleepers opened the evening and were definitely the overall highlight for me. Every now and then the gaps in between songs were punctuated by screams of ‘Don’t go Simon!’ and ‘Simon, we love you!’ from the crowd. From the band’s side there weren’t any long speeches, just a few heartfelt thanks and a little bit of banter on stage – at one point, one of Simon’s comments prompted guitarist Adam to declare that Simon can’t say things like that and he was officially kicked out of the band. Joking aside, it was obviously a very emotional night for everyone.

Last year The Sleepers released a live EP, Luminaire One, as a free download. Since I only recently bought their (excellent) album A Signal Path, I’ve always thought of them as a live band so I thoroughly enjoyed the EP. Especially as it contains We hid downwind, my favourite track of theirs. If you haven’t already, go download and enjoy the EP (and the beautiful PDF liner notes) here.

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