I missed the first Cool As Folk which happened last year, but am so glad I didn’t miss the second one that happened last Thursday.
The event was presented by GreenPop, an exciting organisation aimed at planting trees in under-greened areas, and their decor alone made the evening memorable; a large tree mural greeted everyone as they arrived and, upstairs, the stage was transformed into a forest, it was really beautiful.
…he is a pyro.
Last month my mom attended and photographed the FASX Airshow in Swellendam, and last week she went back up to do a photographic slideshow presentation and talk for some of the organisers and people involved. We used to visit Swellendam a lot during school holidays so I was keen to come with and see how the place had changed since 2002…
We stopped at the Worcester One Stop on the way up and met some friendly Swedes (with fantastically stereotypical Swedish names) on 2 pink busses. I have a bit of an obsession with all things Scandinavian (and Swedish in particular) so this random meeting was an instant weekend highlight for me. One day when I have large amounts of excess cash, I’ll seriously consider taking a European tour with the Pink Busses.
We then passed this crazy pumpkin place…
And in Ashton, we saw an awesome old cash register in a butchery and this rocking discotheque discotique…
The Bone Collectors have a great name – one that made me curious about them as soon as I heard it, plus, their next scheduled gig happened to be a band launch – doubly cool. Wolftown was the ‘new’ band being launched – I later discovered that they were the reincarnation of The Ragdolls, another band (with a cool name) who I never got around to seeing…
Mercury was pretty empty when we arrived, which made the promo girls in their elaborate costumes and the sheriff-types in chaps and spurs stand out even more. I felt underdressed, a feeling which gradually gave way to a sense of being under-tattooed as the venue started filling up.
I commented a while ago that there’s a bit of a lack of post-punk-type bands in SA, interestingly though there seems to be an increase in post-rock-type bands which I think is pretty exciting. Kidofdoom have a good reputation; I saw them only once previously some years ago and quite enjoyed their self-titled album, so decided to check them out again. I was also really keen to see Bateleur who were also on the four band roster.
