It’s a really tough decision – I want both sooo badly. The prices and specs are roughly the same.
Which way would you go?
Month: March 2006
Office Slacker: That Prison Break is actually a really good series.
Me: Yeah, but I must get weed from Rudi…
Office Slacker: Ummm, don’t you mean “Weeds“?
Me: Er, yes. Did I just say that out loud in the office?
I seem to have finally recovered enough from the past week’s activities to get this post up. I also managed to bruise my finger while playing guitar last night (new strings, no practice, visions of Metallica, etc), so if there are any typos please bear with me.
21st March was Human Rights Day here in SA (It also happens to be the start of the quick slide into winter, which I hate), and so after a quiet braai at a friend’s house, myself and Pro-Soccer-Story-Boy decided to find some entertainment to exercise our most basic human rights and heat things up at the same time.
Carnal delights of the flesh was the choice for the evening as we headed into the heretofore unknown venue that is The Lounge. (Our attempts at a Teazers visit were stymied by a slow business day.)
Jean-pant isn’t quite acceptable attire for this establishment, but following a quick wardrobe renovation (thank goodness I have a jacket-in-the-car policy) we entered the swanky yet almost empty club and found ourselves a comfortable table in the corner, relaxed on the comfy couches, and ordered a couple of drinks. This experience had VIP treatment written all over it.
Despite its upmarket expensive location and reputation The Lounge actually seems to be pretty good value for money once you cash back the vouchers received at the door, and I’m impressed that it feels a lot more relaxing and way more comfortable than Teazers. The business is also not as transparent as Teazers, where you literally feel the money draining out of your pockets as the women remove their clothing. The Lounge is far more laid back and customer friendly and far more social. I guess Teazers is to this place as Hunter’s Rock is to Teazers, and Hunter’s Rock is bad bad bad…
The reason we were there, of course, is to look at girls, and after sampling the eye-candy and a couple of chats here and there, PSSB and I decided to have the lovely Jez and Ginger as our hostesses for the evening… It was a tough decision, but it was a good choice we made.
Food and drink slipped past in a blur as we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves, purely for the sake of our own enjoyment and self satisfaction. this evening would be a reward for our (mostly) hard earned cash. Forgetting all else, we were dancing with the ladies, rejecting their offers of (double!!) payment for us to remove our clothing, and generally just having a great time. Ginger, Jez, you girls rock.
Of course the music plays an all important role in a venue like this. Firstly PSSB was devastated to realize how much Madonna’s latest hit ripped off ABBA, especially considering he likes(d) the Madonna song. Following this we had to endure the agony of about five Bulgarian pop/dance songs, which had been requested by a party of visiting Bulgarians. The Bulgarians also promptly decided that the raised floor was theirs to dance on, pole-hugging and all. Bored to death and worried about the strange dancing behaviour of these foreigners, and at the offer of the DJ, we placed our own request for some rock music.
Boy oh boy did we get what we asked for – enter the sounds of Metallica with a beautiful woman dancing in various states of undress just for me – and she even knew the words!! Metallica will never be the same again – [flashback] – this was what the Metallica concert should have been like – [flashback again] good food, plenty of alcohol and a scantily-clad, gorgeous woman on my lap. [aaah, flashback once more]
There is something amazingly tantalizing and erotic about a woman who smells good. These women wear the most amazing perfumes – I must have looked like I needed a line to schnarf with the way I was nosing around them, inhaling their essence.
[–snip out too much detail right about here–]
The entertainment continued well into the evening, turning the night into a raging success.
PSSB and I will be back to visit The Lounge I’m sure.
What? It was a “business meeting”!
Tags: The Lounge, club, Teazers, Ginger, Jez
Saturday’s concert was awesome, despite the problems detailed in my last post. As a matter of fact, I’d have to write an essay just to do each act justice.
All the supporting acts performed really good sets – sticking to the hits and keeping the crowd alive. The only band that seemed to be a bit flat was The Rasmus, but I’ve had plenty of exposure to Finns, and relatively speaking they were positively jovial!!!
Simple Plan were great openers, Seether rocked with all their classics and some new material too, Collective Soul had a great (gremlin-filled) performance and Metallica just blew everyone away, over and over again. James Hetfield has a stage presence second to none. They owned that stadium. By the end of their two hour long performance they looked just as tired as we did (probably far more) and yet they did not want to leave the stage. Our enthusiasm gave big man James gooseflesh! Lars practically died of exhaustion on stage too!
Was it worth the R500? Hell yeah.
After about 15 minutes of us cheering them and them cheering us, eventually they left the stage with a promise to return soon.
Oh, you want photos? Check here…
Tags: band, South Africa, rock, collaboration, SouthAfricanRockMusic, South African Rock, Metallica, Collective Soul, Seether, The Rasmus, Simple Plan, Prime Circle, The Finkelstiens, The Parlotones, Arno Carstens
Bringing out some of the best rock bands in the world was a no brainer. Even I could have organised that. It’s a simple equation:
rock bands + starved rock audience = big moola$$$.
Unfortunately the only way the concert would be a complete success was if all the facilities and logistics around it were properly organised too.
Shame on you 5fm for not understanding the passive nature of rock audiences.
Shame on you 5fm for never playing rock music so the bands are disappointed when people don’t recognise the songs.
Shame on you 5fm for pretending you’re something you’re not.
Shame on you for sending the worst MCs in the world.
Shame on you for not telling Collective Soul and Metallica that they were actually in Pretoria.
Shame on you Big Concerts for letting food run out.
Shame on you Big Concerts for letting drink run out.
Shame on you Big Concerts for thinking you needed a cooling off period at the bar.
Shame on you Big Concerts for forcing people to remove jewellery that may be construed as dangerous – it’s just bling.
Shame on you Big Concerts for queues for the bathroom, the food, the drink, outside, everywhere.
Shame on you Big Concerts for no traffic control.
Shame on you Big Concerts for poor security.
Shame on you Big Concerts for having to change your tune halfway through the day and start allowing people to bring in plastic bottles and other food.
Shame on you for letting something trip some power circuits during one of Collective Soul’s biggest songs.
Shame on you for making Collective Soul tell you to pay the power bill.
Shame on you Big Concerts.
Quick story:
I was in the Golden Circle, on the left hand side when facing the stage. I saw at least 5 people jump the low wall to access the Golden Circle area, without having the required ticket, during the space of 20 minutes. Only once I told the security people that they had a HUGE risk did they actually start barricading that area. I felt like a shit for doing it, but if that fence had not gone up and Metallica had come on stage, the Golden Circle would have been flooded by people climbing into it, which would lead to an uncontrollable and dangerous situation.
Shame on you Coca Cola for not making sure that Big Concerts and 5fm had a handle on things.
It is time for a new events company in South Africa. Someone who CAN organise a proper concert. Be careful Big Concerts, you’re about to become real small.
I am NOT looking forward to the facilities at the Robbie Williams concert.
Tags: Coca Cola, Big Concerts, 5fm, concert, suck, bad, management, logistics