Music - Shaun Dewberry

The Warm Up to R.E.M in Joburg

Yes, R.E.M. mania has hit South Africa hard and the pace is not letting up. I’m starting to get real excited about the concert on Thursday. The venue is sold-out and the crowd is hungry. The media has been pushing R.E.M. down our throats from all angles.

Judging by the shows in Cape Town last weekend the South African audience is a force to be reckoned with. Here’s an excerpt from remhq.com:

“…Two tremendous shows in front of some of the most enthusiastic, raucous crowds R.E.M. has ever seen (and heard); On Saturday night, the staccato clapping part during the bridge, where the audience mimics the sounds on stage, literally was louder than the amplified sounds coming from the stage…pretty wild!…”

That Cape Town show (a more independent review here) only had an eight thousand strong audience. The Dome in Northgate can handle around eighteen thousand people. With a close to two hour strong set lined up it is going to rock.

Danko Jones @ The Doors

So despite my Computicket debacle I still got my hands on a ticket to see Danko Jones at the Doors nightclub in Edenvale on Saturday. In all honesty the tickets weren’t that difficult to get hold of – the place was relatively empty but filled up enough to make it worthwhile.

16Stitch opened with a strong performance, although it was a very short set. Still they put on a class act and started to get the audience hyped, but it appeared quite a few people were not that into their performance. My highlight of the performance was when a girl sidled up to a guy standing in front of me, obviously her boyfriend, and asked him “Is this music a bit heavy for you?”. Oh dear.

Danko Jones came out firing on all cylinders and really got the crowd worked up. Danko has quite a strong stage presence, and just the right amount of attitude to be on the edge but not be overbearing. Their style of music is solid, heavy, real rock and roll. Not rock though – definitely rock and roll. All in all it was a top level performance. Well done guys.

An interesting point for me though was that I did not feel compelled to buy any of their CDs at the door. Perhaps I just spent too much on the Linkin Park and other CDs I picked up earlier in the week and didn’t want to destroy my budget completely, but perhaps, although it was great stuff I didn’t feel it was the right time for me to buy their CD. I’ll keep deliberating it though.