Category: Music

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Entertainment Music

Mo Unplugged at High Flyers

So I skipped on out last night to High Flyers in Boksburg with JP for a beer or two and happened to see the one-man band “Mo” playing there. I have to say he had some pretty impressive guitar work.

His music choise was all over the place, which made it very interesting to watch and listen to. Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” was performed with a John Mayer-esque twist, as Mo liked to refer to it. Funny thing is, to everyone that was quite acceptable, but when I er, play, I like to use a bit of a Shaun Dewberry twist on things – somehow it is not as much appreciated by my audiences (what audiences?).

Further tunes that were strummed out included Coldplay’s “Clocks”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “Mr Jones” and the Eagle-eyed Cherry-esque “Falling in Love Again”. Mo managed to use a capo quite effectively – it seemed to bring songs down to a simple set of chords, and I’m seriously now contemplating getting one for myself having seen the use thereof.

Later on Mo performed a well done, but rather shit sounding version of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, but that did not bother the rather large crowd – they enjoyed it all the same. Mo then stepped things up a bit with an awesome Radiohead “High and Dry”, managing to hit the high notes very well, and it seems that Mo has a pretty good voice. Just before we left we were also treated to Pearl Jam’s “Better Man” and the last song of the evening for us was Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”, complete with harmonica intro too.

Nice one Mo, I’m sure I’d enjoy seeing your performance again sometime.
Evening summary: Good service, pleasant atmosphere, friendly staff, and good music. It is definitely one to repeat sometime soon.

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Entertainment Music

Changing Tune

So, surprisingly, it was not very difficult to figure out how to replace a guitar string on my acoustic once I had a bit of guidance from guitar.about.com.

I got a set of extra light gauge strings, it was recommended by the guy at the store, so I’m guessing they should be fine to use – especially for this beginner.

Now I just have to change the other five strings and find my wire snippers…

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Entertainment Music

‘Burst’ at Charelli’s

Thursday evenings are quickly becoming “new music talent scout evenings” for Brad and I. Last night a four piece rock outfit going by the name ‘Burst’ took the stage at Charelli’s.

From the outset it was obvious that the guys were not as polished as other acts we’ve seen, but somehow that was a good thing. Having a performance that is a bit rough cut fitted them well. Their slightly less polished solos (at times – they like to pretend they can’t play), the odd off-key singing note, and some slightly deviant cover versions proved that they are a working band, but they enjoy doing what they’re doing too – rocking out.

Their repertoire was good – older Green Day hits like ‘Basket Case’, Collective Soul’s ‘December’ (always an awesome song played live), Better than Ezra’s ‘Good’ and some ZZ Top got them off to a lively start.

On their next set they chased down Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ in hybrid form of Part 1 and Part 2. This was followed by the likes of Smash Mouth’s ‘I’m a believer’, the Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint it Black’ and a phenomenally powerful and energetic rendition of Metallica’s ‘Until It Sleeps’ – the highlight of their set by far. It became plainly obvious that ‘Burst’ is all about hard rock music.

More followed with Live’s ‘Lightning Crashes’ (the lyrics were way off base but it still sounded good, and hey, the song was in fact played specifically for Brad and myself) – cheers to Burst for their audience involvement, despite a dismal performance by that very audience who looked like a bunch of clones watching TV or something. They then wrapped things up very neatly with more including James’ ‘Sit Down’, U2’s ‘With or without you’ (the lead singer was professing some Irish blood) and a good, heavy cover of Creed’s ‘My Sacrifice’.

The lead vocalists’s voice was far more powerful and rich than that of the lead guitarist. Although there were some songs only the lead guitarist would have been able to sing, the lead guitar should probably concentrate on his sometimes sketchy guitar work a little more (he was awesome at solos though).

Ultimately it was a good performance – they did what they were expected to do and they did it well. Hopefully they’ll be playing again soon. Thanks to ‘Burst’ for a great evening’s entertainment.

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Entertainment Music

Saving Silence at Charelli’s

Last night’s adventures turned into an unexpected treat – Brad and I went out for what was supposed to be a quick drink at Charelli’s – and discovered a great rock band playing there. Saving Silence is a 5 piece outfit boasting powerful melodic rock, solid acoustic guitarwork and a few edgy twists in their set too.

Highlights of the performance were the ballad written for a cousin’s wedding (unfortunately the lead singer tended to mumble the song names), the funky reggae tune where they bring on the rapper, and a cover of ACDC’s Thunderstruck on acoustic. Very good stuff. Their album is due out around August.

As a side note, I like the idea of a good black rapper heading up a straight-laced rock band. Serious rock with just a hint of funkiness through rap, kwaito, R&B and soul could do very well in South Africa, targeting the right combination of audiences. This sort of collaboration has to be done right, in the same way it was with “Can you feel it building?” by Tweak, Pro-Verb and Josie. Artists, are you listening?

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Computing Entertainment Music

Cherryflava thinks Musica sucks. But how bad?

Just to add to our woes as described on Cherryflava’s site, Cherry managed to miss the fact that the Musica download site, on top of being hugely incompatible with the target market for music downloads, is also hosted in the United Kingdom – fat lot of good that does for us international-bandwidth restricted suckers in South Africa.