To a Crisp.

On saturday the 27th of March Joburg Burning hit us all with all of its mighty force. Five venues, 33 of South Africa's finest bands and hundreds of Joburg teenagers all looking for a party. It was i night to remember, truly one for the books. The streets of old Melville were flooded with skinny jeans, freshly lit cigarettes , black all stars, hair dye and waist belts. Conversations between friends were shouted across the oblivious traffic, car guards mingled with the indie masses outside Paul's tavern and Roxy's and the rock bar (just dont have the heart to use its given name) overflowed on to the crowded streets. The activity on main road spidered out into Wesdine and Richmond as we all lost hope with the promised shuttles and prepared to trek to Back 2 Basix and The Bo. A group of kids walked past me singing Sho Shaloza on the way to Rock Bar. Anything could happen and everything did.

Apart from all of the normal favorites like Ashtray Electric, Thieve and Taxi Violence i discovered some new material. When i walked into Rock Bar looking for a cold drink and a place to sit down i made a happy discovery. Not only did i get my G n T but also an entirely new musical experience. Elliot Loom were playing and it was the most perfect set for the way that i was feeling. Man oh man, these cats were cool. Their set was the perfect balance of positively chilled instrumentals and eerily soulful lyrical moments. The perfect mixture of music to sit down to and rock out to. I never wanted the set to end, my only wish is that i knew more about them, i didn't even get a chance to chat to them after their show. My second coincidental was a mistake of timing. I was headed into Roxy's to see Ashtray Electric play, i happened to be extremely early, my group of natives headed out to Fontana for a late supper, but i stuck around and happened to catch the end of Josie Field's set. Not sure if this is the evil Joburg judger in me but i always thought that she was just pretty and hippy but essentially talentless and cliched. I. was. so. wrong. She is flippen cool. With just her and her acoustic she would have been cool, but coupled with her man on electric, her set was face-melting.  Sort of reggae, but not, classic and groundbreaking, i dont know how she managed it but, she was great. I am a newly turned fan. 

Unusually i found Desmond and the Tutus strangely disorderly and unimpressive. Usually, their unfailing energy and enthusiasm is infectious and unavoidable. When they play you cant help but feel happy and clappy and shiny. This time they just didn't do it for me. The songs were the same and the crowd was largely made up of the same groups of people but Shane and the guys were clearly not feeling it. Their hearts were just not in it. For the first time ever i got the feeling that they believed themselves to be too good for what they were doing. Not cool. The only thing that rescued the show were the unruly crowd-members who managed to get up on stage. A special noddy badge goes out to the guy in the green who made my night with the most epic fail of a stage dive i have ever seen. THANKYOUTHANKYOU. noddy badge to you. 

Apart from Desmonds' fail and the lack of a reliable shuttle to the hard-to-get-to venues, i think that the night of the 27th of March is in undeliable need of a...

noddy badge. nice one. 

thank you Joburg, we burnt you until you were black and awesome.