How could so many have been so wrong?
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Category: Entertainment
Friday at Sun was definitely a reduced productivity day, but with good reason. The marketing guys were holding an ‘Information Town Hall’ at The Castle in Kyalami and this was followed in the evening with a Kick-Off Dinner at Casalinga Ristorante. I attended the dinner.
Despite the distance we had to travel, about half an hour from Joburg or forty minutes from Pretoria, I arrived in time (!!) and headed into the venue to a warm welcome from those at the front entrance (of course I knew nobody, but it turns out that one of the people welcoming everyone, Vito Bonafede, is Sun’s Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa). Cool.
Paul Rotherham of Highveld Stereo and “Body on Tap” shampoo fame (he runs around with a basin washing stranger’s hair) was our master of ceremonies for the evening, giving things a good kickoff with a couple of jokes and a bit of sucking up to Sun – action as is befit anyone being paid a ton of money to talk for about ten minutes.
Vito then followed with a few words and a few awards, keeping his speech succint and to the point. At the same time a starter of assorted starter-type food was served. Not bad. This was followed with our choice of one of three dishes, the only two I can remember being a Salmon dish and Lamb Shank. This was where the evening fell horribly down. Despite everything else being excellent the food quality was extremely mediocre. Casalinga was very disappointing in this regard. Such an exclusive restaurant also has no business serving cheap vegetables such as blobs of grilled cabbage and spinach. Edible but sad. Dessert was a bit better, but then I strongly suspect the desserts were not created in-house.
To quell the disappointing food, however, there was another surprise in store with Melanie Lowe of Idols renown as well as two other vocal artists to provide us with some live entertainment. Mel, well, she was not that great – I’ve seen better performances at Charelli’s! The other two vocalists were really good – a pity I did not get their names.
After a bit of dancing the remainder of the crowd made their way to the bar area where we ended up sitting, standing and sharing stories for hours over drinks, and more drinks (and more drinks – on the company’s tab of course).
Attending this event was awesome for me as a new employee – I got to know my colleagues a bit better and it gave me a good feel for the “lay of the land” at my new company. Despite the downsides – mediocre food and a far distance to travel – the event was by far more positive than negative.
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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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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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‘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.