The Stone Jets played a really lovely show at the Amphitheatre at the end of April; it’s a tricky venue as it caters mostly to casual Waterfront shoppers , passersby and denizens of the foodcourt but it was great to watch the audience swell throughout their performance and it was a very pretty evening.
Julia Robert and The Pranks both played their last shows (along with Black Lung) at Manila Bar at the end of April. Though tinged with sadness of their farewells it was a really enjoyable night with loads of energy all round, especially from The Pranks’ eternally engaging frontwoman Purity.
Here are some shots from the night.
This is one of the last photos of our dear ginger boy Hammond, taken yesterday morning. We don’t know exactly how old he was but was at least 3 when he adopted us in 2001 so must’ve been around 18. Though we’ve known it was coming for a while his loss has still been hard to accept and my bed felt empty without him last night…he’s been around through thick and thin, a brawler in his youth and battle-scarred in old age he was always a character to say the least. As his health deteriorated it became my mom’s running joke anytime he’d do something crotchety or unfortunate about it being time to send him to Valhalla…I thought a lot about that, wondering if those who don’t die in battle would go to Valhalla. Well in true style our boy put up a fight to the end, even as our dear vet gently explained it was heart failure and it was his time, he got in one final swipe before the tranquilizer lulled him to sleep. Enjoy Valhalla you crazy bastard, we miss you already ♥
Australia’s Karnivool graced the mother city with a show at Mercury at the end of April with the support of local instrumental metal trio ohgod. I’m not a big fan of Karnivool and to be honest was a little underwhelmed by their performance but the crowd certainly enjoyed the show.
Here are some shots from the evening.
I haven’t been to a show as sweaty, intense or downright fun as the QOTSA Tribute 2016 in a very long time. Say what you will about tribute shows but when they’re as good as this one was I’m all for them – you could tell the music of Queens of the Stone Age was a big inspiration to everyone involved and their passion was palpable, flooding off the stage and into the tightly packed crowd (I have never seen Manila that full) who’d been eagerly anticipating the night for ages.
Working out the logistics of the show couldn’t have been easy with 20-odd performers rotating in and out, but things flowed pretty much seamlessly from one song and set to the next, and everyone gave truly great performances. Surprise stand-out of the show for me was their rearranged version of UNKLE’s Restless but the setlist on the whole was perfect as were the vocal choices in particular.
Throughout the night the message was stressed that shows like this prove that the rock scene is alive in Cape Town – rock in particular has definitely been in a bit of a slump of late but hopefully the overwhelming success of a night like this will help inject some passion back into the scene.
