The Design Indaba Music Circuit 2013 kicked off in fine style with a raucous rock event. That the Aces n Spades bar was already near capacity packed long before the first band even strummed a note, was a sure sign that things might get a lil’ messy tonight (in the best possible way).
While Cape Town’s hip set slaked their thirsts like they had all walked there through searing desert heat (it was warm outside!), psychobilly punksters The Dollfins took to the stage and wasted no time in getting right to it. “It” being their brand of no-holds-barred garage psychobilly rawk with a dash of punk and a lot of speed.
At full flame, they somehow fail to ignite the crowd, but maybe for all the right reasons. This crowd is just too damn hip to appreciate the magic of this band. Their audience tonight is elsewhere.
Next up are Taxi Violence. Although now considered “long in the tooth” by SA rock band standards, they soon remind everyone present just why we used to like them so much. Especially at festivals. Their party-rock songs (and an anthem or two), are a social occasion in themselves and the sort to get the crowd jumping around and singing along. It’s a merry sight to see and they turn it up a notch. “C’mon and satisfy me, yeah!” Two of the members of Taxi Violence now play in the band to follow – Beast.
With little time to wipe the sweat from their brows, they re-tune themselves and their instruments to a darker, wilder setting. Inge Beckmann rises up behind the mic and with a wail of distorted guitar feedback noise, Beast are in the house!
From their very first song to the last, there is no other band here tonight even worth talking about. This is the band all these people (and by now they are spilling out onto the pavement) have come to see. This is the band Cape Town wants to get fucked up to. Theirs is the soundtrack to an elegantly wasted generation high on the knowledge that tomorrow’s hangover is gonna hurt, and well it should.
If this is all about design, we are going to design ourselves a future where every band sounds (and looks) like Beast and everyone is pretty, tomorrow is an illusion and the present is the only place we wanna be baby! It was all quite magical.
