Bands: BEAST

Like I promised, here is my post on "Beast". Hailing from Cape Town they traveled up north to Johannesburg and Pretoria last weekend to come and surprise us and man; did they ever. They're still relatively new to the music scene as far as I know, comprising of members from, Taxi Violence, The Plastics and Lark. All pretty well known bands in our small country on the Southern tip of Africa. The latter (Lark) is probably the most well known.

I am ashamed to admit that to this day I haven't seen Lark live (yet) and I hope to rectify this as soon as possible.

Back to Saturday's show at Arcade Empire though! I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the "four-nippled rock and roll aberration" called "Beast". My first thought as they walked onto stage and started playing was; "two bassists and no guitar"? This should be interesting. And man, was it!?

From the first song I was pretty damn sure that something special was on the horizon! Inge Beckmann knows a thing or two about being a "frontman" (woman). She can sing! I know this from hearing Lark stuff, but damn does it sound good with some rock and roll in the mix and it doesn't hurt that she's probably one of the hottest woman in music and did I mention she's in a rock and roll band? That's pretty sexy in my opinion.

I haven't seen so much energy during a live show in a while and I dig the drummer's (Sasha Righini) playing a helluva lot, (being a drummer myself). Taxi Violence has always been a rad act to watch and they're guitarist and bassist (edit: drummer and guitarist) or in this case bassist (Louis Nel) and bassist (Ryan Zietsman) rocked the shit out of their guitars.

In my humble opinion? This is the next big thing coming out of South Africa in terms of music, catch it live as soon as you can!

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Bands: Newtown Knife Gang

It's been a while since I've shot any live music. The last show was end of May.

So last weekend I was ready and stoked to go watch (and photograph) the "Bateleur" show in Pretoria, but my plans took a turn a few hours before I would be off to catch their show.

A friend invited (and said he'd pay for) me to join him for the "Beast", "Newtown Knife Gang" and "Man As Machine" show at Arcade Empire. Not one to refuse a free gig (with some potentially good bands) I obliged and was off to meet up with him.

We pretty much missed the "MAM" show and chilled outside whilst waiting for "NKG" to set up and get ready. I've known about the band for a while now and was pretty keen to check them out! I mean; it was after all four of the original members of "16 Stitch" (whom were rad when they were still going). I must admit though, that I am NOT a fan of their first single "Listen". I'd seen the video by chance on the television a few months back and it annoyed me thoroughly. It had way too much pop sensibility for my taste.

That being said, it's a whole different ball game when they're on stage. Does it remind me of 16 Stitch? Yes, but that isn't a bad thing! The guys are still jumping around and full of energy as always. I was super bummed when I heard that 16 Stitch had called it quits and I'm glad that the remaining members started something new after "Andrew" (the previous vocalist) had left to join "Zebra & Giraffe".

Anyway, I am by no means a music reviewer. These are just my opinions. Do yourselves a favor though and go check out "NKG" if they're in a venue near you. I'll be posting some photos and my impressions on "Beast" soon, for now I'll just say; wow!!

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