It’s competition time again boys and girls and today we are giving away a very special prize courtesy of SlickTiger Industries and Converse that will melt your face off or your money back!
If you’re into bands like Zebra & Giraffe, BLK JKS, Shadowclub, Reason and Vigilante then I’ve got good news because if you win THIS COMPETITION, you’ll be seeing them all live next Saturday.
See, Converse (being the badasses that they are) are throwing a MASSIVE party in Joburg at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown next Saturday and I’m giving away a double ticket to the event which includes a trip by motherflippin train from CT to JHB and hotel accommodation on the Sat night.
All you have to do to win this badass experience is write a comment below about the dirtiest you’ve ever gotten in a pair of sneakers (interpret that any way you like) and you could win this insane experience.
Comments will be limited to no more than three sentences and the comment that makes your Tiger pal crack up the most takes home the bacon.
This competition closes officially at 12am on Wednesday morning. The winner will be announced on the site later on that very same day.
Lastly, if you feel you fluffed your first attempt, you are more than welcome to submit a second and even a third comment but after that I’ll automatically delete any other comments you post so don’t go nuts on me ok?
Phew! What an epic festival review hey Party People? Christ, feels like all I’ve been posting for the last two weeks is Daisiesdaisiesdaisiesdaisies.
Time to wrap it all up with my Saturday post and then I promise you’ll not hear anything more about this festival until next year rolls around.
Like the day before it, Saturday morning was a hoot. Myself, Peggles, Barbarian and Spu spent it all chilling together while the girls hit the Daisy Den which took at least about two hours, just enough time for us to smash a couple beers and ease ourselves into the day.
From there everyone got all Tiger-striped up and we went to actually explore the festival and try to catch some bands.
We started by checking out the Hemporium stage where Little Kings were playing the most chilled out set you could ever imagine. I liked this band a lot, they just had this great vibe about them, very loose and easy breezy but great songwriters and performers, all of them.
This is what that looked like:
After that we met PURPLE MAN! Well, if by met PURPLE MAN I actually mean watch a man in a purple morph suit walk casually into the dam, then ya.
We met PURPLE MAN!
Once we’d finished laughing and taking pics of PURPLE MAN, I finally hit the media lounge for the first time at the festival where I had an ice cold Red Bull, ate some kind of cranberry / cereal snack thing and contemplated using one of the laptops there.
Next time. I swear I’m blogging from Daisies next time…
Next stop was the beach bar, which was PUMPING! On the way I ran into some proper BOYCHAYS and this happened:
I don’t remember how long we stayed there, but eventually we decided to hit the road when the people there started tweaking out and tried to fingerbang each other’s nostrils.
At the main stage we half-heartedly watched a band before deciding to wander over to the lemon tree theatre where we caught our good buddy Dylan Skew’s set which, again, had all of us literally in tears.
That guy is my favourite South African comedian, hands down. I swear, it’s like he’s read my mind, found the funniest, most random thoughts and made stand up out of it.
Hats off to that man. His material is seriously amazing.
Then we met these guys in lumo vests with camel packs who, judging from this picture, loved the shit out of me.
After that, we went back to the main stage to listen to some more bands I don’t remember and J-Rab met Bob, who she instantly fell in love with.
The temperature started plummeting pretty soon after that so we went back to The Mushroom and suited up for the evening. I had some jelly tots that a buddy had spare and wandered out into the night like some high-powered mutant.
God’s own prototype
Among other things we checked out the New World Beat Barn and I instantly regretted the fact that I hadn’t discovered it sooner in the festival. It was like some kind of crazy carnival in there, good times as far as the eye could see.
We also posed for a pic with this skeleton who was in a bath tub:
Above us there was this long string of balloons and lights that must have been at least 300 meters long. It floated like this long, luminescent string of glowing blue dental floss against the night sky. Like a lot of things I saw that night, it inspired awe and child-like wander in me and I knew things were going to be ok.
Believe it or not we actually stayed for the end of Arno Carstens’ set so we’d have a good spot for Shadowclub when they came on and Jacques and the boys did NOT disappoint.
I made a mental note to watch them live more and actually support this band. Their set was super-slick without losing its badass bluesy-rock edginess.
Which left only one main stage act left. The reason a lot of people were there in the first place. The band that inspired a million million bands to pick up guitars and write dancey indie rock.
Bloc Party. And man-o-man did their first three songs suck.
The sound was shocking which was sad because it had nothing to do with the band, but all their levels sounded way out with the vocals drowning everything out completely and the bass being almost non-existent.
Things quickly improved though and the crowd started losing their minds to this awesome band.
At some stage in Bloc Party’s set they let the balloons go. Actually, it could have been before, I’m not too sure, but watching them drift away, I felt a profound sense of loss, like the very stitching that held the festival together was coming undone.
And the truth is, it was.
I loved Bloc Party’s set but festival fatigue was kicking in and when they launched a barrage of fractal-patterned fireworks after it was all done, I felt totally satisfied in every conceivable way and ready to call it a day.
It was a great Daisies, no doubt. One that will live on in our minds as long as this post lives on, rattling in this junkyard site that I call home.
Excitement for this year’s Rocking The Daisies 2012 is mounting party people! Three sleeps and I’ll be there, cracking open a cold one at Camp Tiger and letting the good times roll.
So in this, the last instalment of my must-see bands, I am going to be tackling the bands you can’t miss on the main stage on Saturday.
Sure, there are other stages and other bands I could be covering, but as mentioned before, I can’t research every band at the festival so if there are other acts you think deserve some love, hit me up in the comments section.
If you’re also in this for the long haul from Thursday to Sunday, then Saturday is either going to make or break the festival for you.
Thursday night you’re probably gonna go balls to the wall and the same goes for the entire day on Friday so by the time Saturday rolls around you’re going to feel like you need a blood transfusion to boost the level of blood in your alcoholstream.
The trick to getting Saturday right will be to take it as super easy as possible during the day. Go for a dip in the dam if you’re feeling brave, indulge in a hot Woshbox shower, get a hearty breakfast in you and down at least a litre or two of orange juice and as much water as you can handle.
Flush your system out, rest up as much as possible and don’t even think about hitting the sauce until at least 4 or 5 in the afternoon because it’s gonna be a looooooooooooooong night and you want to be as fresh as possible when the big acts of RTD12 take to the stage to melt faces.
Though the main stage kicks off at 10am, I’m probably only going to mosey on over there at 12.10pm to catch Southern Gypsey Queen (featuring Al Frost).
It’ll be a bit like holding a defibrillator to my chest, cranking it to 11 and hitting the “charge†button (watch the video below and you’ll see why), but I do love me some loud, bluesey rock and roll.
This is the band sans Mr Frost – throw him in there and you’ve got a guaranteed recipe for face-melting good times.
Dig that drummer. What a flippin boychay.
After that it’ll be time to grab a bite and head back to your campsite for some R&R in the shade. Or go have a float in the dam (inflatable lilos are a must. Or you could go the Tiger route and take an entire inflatable BOAT. Bada-BANG!).
At 2.20pm Moving House are lighting up the main stage, a supergroup of sorts consisting of Andre Pienaar (Ashtray Electric) and Rob Davidson (ex Zebra & Giraffe).
I haven’t been able to find any of their material, but if I can summon the strength, I’ll definitely go check them out just based on the merit of their two previous bands.
The next band to watch out for will be Jeremy Loops at 6.05pm, who is one seriously talented guitarist and songwriter.
As the name suggests, this guy’s loop pedal skills have to be seen to be believed. One man. One guitar. And here’s what he’s capable of:
Insane sheeit right?! People who use loop pedals like that fascinate me because if they fuck up one of the loops, the whole song falls apart. So yeah. No pressure.
After that it’s Desmond And The Tutus on the main stage, but I’m gonna leave that one totally up to you guys.
The new single (“Zim Zala Bimâ€) has been murdered on local radio to the point where when it came on 5FM the other day the guy in the lane next to me deliberately swerved into oncoming traffic.
But let’s not forget what these guys are capable of. Here’s “Tattoo†off their most recent album Mnusic in case you need some reminding:
After that, run away.
Arno Carstens is up next and he’s probably going to play material off his new album, Atari Gala which, if the first video “Two Dogs†is anything to go by, could very well send you spiralling into a post-90s, ballad-rock depression guaranteed to kill whatever buzz you might have been feeling up until that point.
My advice would be to go line your stomach and start drinking heavily. It’s time to up your game, once Arno clears out it’s going to be two and a half hours of bone-rattling badassery, starting with Shadowclub, the made-in-SA version of The Strokes.
Funny story is I interviewed these guys back in ‘08 before they skyrocketed to fame. I used to do this fucked up show on UJFM called The Tuesday Night Bandslam With Rick Hunter And Al Burton (I was Al Burton).
Myself and Graumpot would go around with a roving mic and arrange to interview bands in weird places like bowling alleys, the Zoo Lake, the planetarium and in the case of Shadowclub, the putt-putt course at Fourways.
Our sound equipment kept fucking out and Jacques from Shadowclub (frontman) had this look like he was smelling a fart throughout the interview.
Then we started playing putt-putt so we could record some funny, random shit like we did for all our shows but Jacques was so over it by that stage he just walked from one course to the next hitting his ball into the water, kicking it around and generally just making it known that he thought the whole thing was a load of shit.
We ended up throwing the interview in the bin. The bassist at the time (forget his name) felt bad and suggested we try again when Jacques was in a better mood.
Second time around, we just interviewed them at Fuel Bar one night before they got onstage to play a gig at Carfax. The interview went a lot better and Jacques seemed to be much more chilled until about 30mins in when he started laughing in this really creepy way and told us he’d taken a large quantity of acid before the interview that felt like it was kicking in.
Crazy cat that guy. In my experience a bit of a douche, but I can’t fault the band, especially not Isaac the drummer, he’s a real stand-up guy and one of the best drummers in the business.
After that, it’s time.
Get your head in the game, smash a tequila or three, go take a long pee, fight for a spot nice and close to the stage and steel yourself.
Bloc Party, this year’s headline act are up at 11.20pm and trust me, you are not gonna want to miss this one.
This band was instrumental in kick-starting the indie movement that’s been rolling out in its various guises over the last decade.
Here’s their best track, “Banquet†which I’ll be losing my goddamned mind to when they rock it live:
So those are my must-see bands on the main stage on Saturday, like I said before, holler if you think any other bands deserve a mention and I’ll gladly show them some love.
Otherwise I’ll try have a review up by Monday / Tuesday after the festival has ended, so watch this space because I have a feeling Daisies is going to be pretty damn epic this year.
You can still get tickets from www.webtickets.co.za so get on that if you haven’t already.
Oh, and if you see a guy with a Tiger on his head missioning around, don’t be a stranger
YOU GUYS AREN’T GOING TO MOTHERFUCKING BELIEVE WHAT FUCKING WENT DOWN YESTERDAY! THE CRAZIEST SHIT, LITERALLY THE CRAZIEST SHIT YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE!
After that mopey “I give up†post I wrote because I’d completely lost hope that I’d ever get tickets to Synergy and get to interview Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (one of my favourite bands of all time), EVERYTHING changed!
Thanks to Mr Dan Nash, the organisers of Synergy, a little badass called Paula K and most importantly, Grant Gelt from New Sound Artist Management I now not only have two tickets to the festival, but a photo pass so J-Rab can get shots from the photo pit and they’re doing what they can to arrange an interview on Saturday!
How fucking crazy is that shit?! It just goes to show, if you want something badly enough and throw yourself into it face first (with a cat on your back) sometimes, just sometimes, it actually works out.
Throughout the day one thing after the other was falling into place and then last night, at about 9pm, an email came from New Sound Artist Management saying they’d read my posts and wanted to basically help me get as close to the band as humanly possibly!
If you guys could’ve seen me last night you would have thought I had actually finally lost my fucking mind. Air punching, screams of “FUCK YEAH!†and practically having a full on seizure is how I spent the better part of an hour.
Then I promptly passed out from exhaustion, woke up this morning and continued the air-punching, seizure-inducing marathon that will probably only stop on Sunday.
This is going to be the best fucking festival EVER! I can hardly sit still I’m so fucking stoked – how the hell I’m going to get through the next 24 hours without physically detonating from excitement is anyone’s guess.
Batten the hatches boys and girls, the Tiger’s tearin’ up Synergy
That was “Weapon Of Choiceâ€. They’ve changed their drummer since recording that video, so you won’t see that dude (Nick Jago) behind the kit. But don’t be sad, they replaced him with a total belter!
In all my BRMC-inspired obsession, I realise that I’ve completely neglected to mention the killer SA bands that I’m going to be supporting at Synergy.
There’s a shitload of them, so not sure how I’m really going to be able to fit them all in, but here’s my festival wishlist:
The Plastics
Shadowclub
Taxi Violence
Zebra and Giraffe
Good Luck
McCree
Sixgun Gospel
Tumi & The Volume
Desmond and the Tutus (it’s been WAAAAYYYY too long!)
Isochronous
THE NARROW (HELL’S YEAH!)
Captain Stu (if I survive until the bitter end – please guys, stay to watch these guys, besides being awesome guys, their music is guaranteed to melt faces)
Life, my friends, has a funny way of working out sometimes.
To everyone who made this possible, thank you again, I won’t forget this
“If it bleeds, it leads,†is generally accepted as the first rule of journalism, which is why I should have been sceptical right from the outset when I heard that Kings Of Leon were cocky, arrogant arseholes who were known to give the middle finger to crowds who don’t hang onto every note the band plays.
Their performance last night in Cape Town was anything but cocky and arrogant, which proves that either the rumours were a load of utter shite, or the band were suitably impressed by their reception last night when they took to the stage and melted our faces off.
I was lucky enough to have been given VIP passes by the kind folks at Nokia, but even better than that was the fact that I also bagged one of 20 VIP parking tickets that were randomly put into the 200 media packs they handed out.
It’s the only way to go, seriously. J-Rab and I drove right INTO THE STADIUM after passing through security checks that were so intense, at one of them they unleashed a sniffer dog on us to make sure we weren’t packing any bombs to blow the place up (luckily I’m saving the bomb for when Maroon 5 come to play so I was safe).
Once inside we hopped in the lift, shot up to the fifth floor and sauntered into the Nokia suite where, like a typical blogger, I immediately started abusing the free drinks and taking pictures of the food.
We managed to catch the end of Shadowclub’s set which I was really impressed with. It’s a bit sad the stadium was basically empty at that stage because the guys put on a great show and played some killer blues/rock in the Strokes / Wolfmother / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club vein that would have gotten the crowd pretty pumped if there was one.
What quickly became apparent though was that while the Nokia lounge was seriously p1mping, it was pretty far away from the stage, and even with my camera on full zoom, this is what everything looked like:
A plan would have to be made… but not before another few rounds of drinks / bowls of biltong.
The Black Hotels followed Shadowclub and played a decent set, but sadly we missed quite a big chunk of it thanks to the varied distractions of the VIP lounge (whisky).
Unfortunately when it came to the SA bands, they were given such limited stage time that it felt like they were over before they’d really begun. On the plus side, their sound was surprisingly good and for once it didn’t sound like they were playing through rusty tin cans.
By the time Die Heuwels Fantasties took to the stage, the place was starting to really fill out and energy levels in the crowd were rising fast. Die Heuwels played like seasoned stadium veterans, but it wasn’t until Jack Parow joined them onstage for “Die Vraagstuk†that the crowd really started going batshit crazy.
From there on in, the night belonged to Kings Of Leon and I for one was truly blown away by their performance which, coming from a cynical basterd like myself, is saying a lot.
I started following KOL when Because Of The Times dropped and within weeks of getting my filthy mitts on that album, picked up Youth And Young Manhood and Aha Shake Heartbreak.
For me, the material in those three albums is some of the band’s best to date, which was why I fucking loved their set last night.
Sure, they played the four tracks that make up the entire catalogue most South Africans know (ie. “Sex On Fireâ€, “Use Somebodyâ€, “Radioactive†and “Pyroâ€), but they also played at least 7 or 8 tracks from Because Of The Times and some classics like “Molly’s Chambers†and “Taper Jeans Girl†from their first two albums.
It was a nod to their die-hard fans to remind us that before they exploded into the mainstream with Only By The Night KOL was our band, not 5FM’s, and the music they wrote was the soundtrack to our lives that we heard at random house parties and played on epic road trips.
I know I sound like a typical music snob saying it, but there’s a very close connection you feel to a band before they get picked up by the mainstream that is never quite the same after their material gets blasted on high rotation on every radio and TV station known to man.
And don’t even get me started on remixes. I’ve heard “Sex On Fire†remixed so many times I start twitching involuntarily whenever I hear that song butchered on another “doef doef†beat.
In a sentence, I loved KOL’s performance last night because it made me remember why I used to love this band and judging from how fucking nuts the crowd went, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the people there last night go out and buy their first three albums.
Also, Nathan Followill is a fucking SICK drummer. If you’re going to watch them in Joburg, keep an eye on that man, he’s truly amazing to watch live – he pounds the living shit out of his skins, it’s beautiful.
Joburg, prepare yourselves for a concert you won’t soon forget, but take my advice and go out there and get their first three albums because listening to those songs live is nothing short of breath-taking.
Big up to Nokia for hooking a brother up. I love your work guys, after the concert we partied at the VIP lounge until they turned the lights on and then J-Rab asked if she could have the flowers and kind folks at Nokia were like “Sure, go wild.â€
But most importantly – Kings Of Leon, thank you for an amazing show, you made a believer out of this cynical music snob and for the two hours you were onstage, became our band again
It’s competition time again boys and girls and today we are giving away a very special prize courtesy of SlickTiger Industries and Converse that will melt your face off or your money back!
