Tag: review

Alfred & Marc: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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We were at the Baxter last night to see the Alfred & Marc comedy show:

Popular SA comedians Alfred Adriaan and Marc Lottering join forces to bring you their best material as performed over the last few years. Both comics have been packing out theatres locally and abroad, and their respective fans can expect to be treated to two hours of sheer hilarity.

And it was very good fun. So you should know that they were very happy to announce to us that they have extended the run until the 11th January next year.

As ever, I’m all about complete honesty in my reviews of things and stuff, so I’ve compiled the best bits, the ok bits and the could-do-better bits of the evening into a quick three-way guide, inspired by a Western movie from the mid-1960s.

The Good

The Show. It was really funny. Sure, I know that I wasn’t absolutely the target demographic, but I still enjoyed it. And the house was PACKED with a lot of people (who mainly were the target demographic) having a great time, which, with all the crap going on in the world (including while we were in there), was just really heartwarming.

We’d seen some of Marc Lottering’s act before at his show in Camps Bay back in October (we’d been warned that this was a repeat of past material see the blurb above), but there was plenty of fresh stuff and plenty of comment on current affairs as well.
Alfred Adriaan was new to me, but his refreshing honesty and clever observational comedy on SA and relationships was very funny and very… well… relatable, despite our rather different backgrounds (the similarity between all of us actually being one of the points he made throughout his act).

It was all hugely energetic and really enjoyable.

Add to that the very nice food in the foyer – thank you, Prashad Cafe – the availability of Castle Milk Stout at the bar (YES BOYS!), and the early 90s dance soundtrack on the way in, and I was already in a good mood before I even saw anyone on stage.

The Bad

“Bad”? This seems harsh, in the same way that not describing “The Good” as “Great” seems harsh, but then I didn’t name the cowboy movie, did I?

So ok: not “Bad”, but just… “not Great”.

It was a bit long.

(That’s what she said) (sorry)

Maybe a bit of a personal thing, because my Afrikaans isn’t all that it could be (number of Afrikaans lessons I’ve ever been in = zero), but it was hard work trying to pick up all the very fast, very regular Afrikaans asides and punchlines. Remembering that they well delivered in full Coloured dialect as well.

That said, I reckon that I got nearly all of Lottering’s stuff, and probably about 80% of Adriaan’s. But man, into the second half I was tired, and I was losing concentration and – yikes – maybe a bit of enjoyment with it. 2 hours (plus a 20 minute interval) was really more than enough. Absolutely no disrespect to the comedians, because they kept going and going full pelt, but I was struggling to keep up by the end.

And honestly, I don’t think most of the rest of the audience had the same issue.

The Ugly

If “The Good” should have been “Great” and “The Bad” was better described as just “Not Great”, then this is still “Really Ugly”.

The seats in the Baxter Concert Hall. Who decided on them?

SO DAMN UNCOMFORTABLE.

Cramped front to back and side to side. Once you’d been in there for a hour, you were broken.
And then you had to go back and do another hour.

Thank goodness for the naughty humour – which hasn’t rubbed off on me (careful now) – at all.

Nowhere to put your legs, your knees around the ears of the guy in front of you (stop it), and just really distracting and off-putting. I woke up so stiff this morning (no) because of it. How bad was it? Well, when looking at future performances, I’d seriously consider not going for a long one (oi) if I found out that it was in that auditorium.

Very disappointing.

BUT… that was really the only downside of a really good evening, and so if these guys are your thing (and it’s not like their style will be unknown to you, is it?), then you should go along and have a good laugh.

Just maybe book a yoga class for the next morning, so you can really stretch it out (ooer!).

OMD in Cape Town – a great night out

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Did I miss the Zeitgeist on this one? It’s Sunday lunchtime, and the concert was Thursday night.
But I’ve been busy and tired and chilled, so this is late.
I get it.
Sorry, not sorry.

But still a concert and an evening absolutely worth documenting. Starting with a decent free parking spot a whole 100m from the gig: I’m really not sure where else you can do this. And sure, we were there only about an hour after the doors opened, but why not make use of the VIP bar, seated area, sunshine and early entertainment from SA’s own Werner Bekker?

Burger and chips and a visit to the merch store sorted, we grabbed some space on the grass and waited for éVoid, infamous for their 1984 hits Taximan and Shadows. And they played, and the crowd – seemingly exclusively 50 and 60-something year olds from Parow and Edgemead, and encouraged by a Bok Radio DJ – lapped it up. It was such a feelgood moment watching people transported back 40 years, back to whatever club in which they were dancing to that SA New Wave “Ethnotronica”. And they really were back there. Acting like they were teenagers, for as long as their knees would let them.

But wait… there’s more… OMD.
Andy McCluskey not looking any older than 12 years ago. Paul Humphries with only a passing resemblance to Jerry St. Clair from Phoenix Nights. They were just happy to be there, you could feel it from the first moment.

What followed was just under two hours of nostalgia, energy, audience engagement, incredible stage presence and just really good vibes. Starting with some new stuff, as expected, before Messages and Souvenir dragged us back to our youth.

A brave Kraftwerk-esque performance of Veruschka was a particular highlight for me, after which McCluskey thanked the audience for indulging them with “a slow, new one”.

The interplay between the crowd and McCluskey was just perfect: each feeding on the other’s energy and enthusiasm and just pure enjoyment of the moment.

A powerful, loud, brash – but still tight – version of Enola Gay rounded off the set before a stonking encore of Look At You Now, Pandora’s Box and Electricity sent everybody home happy, although I do suspect that everyone involved could happily have gone on for at least another hour.

All in all, just such a great evening. Band and audience both recognising their roles and duties on the night, and then performing them perfectly. One I will remember for a long time.

Videos courtesy of my daughter, who also had a great evening

Great gig, bizarre encore: David Gray in Cape Town, 2022

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I mean, you knew that the evening was going to be a belter when you get escorted right across the local casino, drinks and all, into the VIP room with free beer, bubbly and gourmet pizza before the concert has even begun. [Thanks, Andrew 😉 ].

And then, when it did begin, it was just a lot of fun with some great music. Ten songs in the first half, starting with You’re The World To Me and Fugitive before finally getting the audience involved in Be Mine, and bewitching us all into silence (incredible for a South African crowd) with a raw, emotional performance of Alibi. Hospital Food rolled neatly into the catchy Nemesis to end off a tight, professional set by a clearly accomplished band and singer.

Twenty minutes later – beating most of the bar-queuing audience back – he returned with a new drummer (the one and only Craig McClune) and a bang, for the main event, and Please Forgive Me and Babylon got the crowd – and the band – bouncing.
Running on through the album, he remarked on his two favourite songs that “took him back like a time machine to that tiny bedsit in Stoke Newington, N16”: Nightblindness and Silver Lining. And then after those two poignant, introspective numbers during which he seemed strangely distant, it was like a switch was flicked and he back to engaging the now slightly less reluctant audience with the now seemingly obligatory cellphone waving to This Year’s Love: “Come on, I know you’ve all got phones. And I know you’ve all got arms!”.
Sail Away and a really beautiful Say Hello, Wave Goodbye completed the album set and then there was… the encore.

Right.

Back on then, and having just given us one Marc Almond number (from the album), he went straight into another song that Soft Cell made famous: Tainted Love. A real poppy, swingy, almost silly version though. It was fun, but it didn’t quite fit. And then he sat at the piano and told us the story of the day in June 2000 that White Ladder and David Gray finally made it into the big time. A tale of a father on chemotherapy, a lucky break of a near headline slot at Glastonbury, and a chance backstage meeting with an apparently bewildered David Bowie, complete with pictures of the whole thing. It was more what I had expected from the whole evening: a bit of background, some anecdotes etc. But this was the only window we got into the story of the album. And then – using the somewhat tenuous Bowie link – the rest of the encore: Life On Mars and Oh! You Pretty Things. And it was great, but it wasn’t David Gray, it was David Bowie, and it wasn’t what the audience had come for. I’m sorry to say that we watched a fair percentage leave during these two songs. Bit disrespectful, but then that’s sadly par for the SA audience: we’ve been here before (more than once).

When you’re playing your biggest album in full, you can’t save your biggest hit for the end of the encore. Still, we thought there would be a rousing repeat of Babylon or something, because why not? But the second Bowie song was segued really awkwardly into the last few (admittedly energetic) bars of Please Forgive Me. But only the last few bars. It was just weird to finish off a concert with 4 cover versions (from three different artists) and then the false ending reprise of one of your songs.

It was still really good, but it was also really odd.

Anyway… overall, an altogether lovely evening and (even before the encore) we’d been treated to a lot of genuinely great music and some amazing vocals. It’s been 16 years since we last saw him here, but if he does come back again, I’ll definitely be there.

Day 632 – This is cheery

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Spoiler: It’s not cheery at all. But it is quite good.

Some wonderful editing of live singers into the background theme.

There are some really positive moments in this video, and you should try to hang onto those, because overall, it’s a reminder that – like 2020 before it – 2021 was actually a bit of a shitshow, full of conquest, war, famine and death.

And I think we all know what comes next.

We leave as we began, with Covid still running riot and talk of lockdowns all over the place. Anti-vax idiots still peddling their misinformation and the ANC still “running the country” (into the ground).

Chaos abounds.

At least the summer weather is pretty good in Cape Town today*.

I thought that next year would definitely be better (after all, the bar has been set really rather low), but then I realised that it’s pronounced “2020 too”, and suddenly, I don’t feel quite so hopeful.

* hold onto the the positives, remember?

a-ha in Cape Town – some thoughts

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Last night was really very special. Right up there with the Bergen concert.

A balmy evening, a really well-organised experience, some decent support acts, an appreciative crowd, and – of course – Morten, Magne and Pål doing their stuff up on stage. Really fantastic.

As a celebration of the 35th (weep!) anniversary of their first album, they played all ten tracks in full and in order before moving on to some of their more well-known songs. As a fan and a purist, this was so perfect: the opportunity to hear them play some stuff which I hadn’t heard live since (literally) 1986. Just a remarkable experience.

The Blue Sky was gorgeous, the demo version of I Dream Myself Alive was unique and such a rush for the true fans. Here I Stand And Face The Rain  was powerful, energetic and evocative.

And then done with the old stuff, and straight into the bassy, rocky Sycamore Leaves. Wow.

Shall we play something you all know, now?

asked Magne, and the crowd roared as they launched into I’ve Been Losing You. But I just wanted them to keep playing – whatever.

Foot Of The Mountain, Analogue and The Swing Of Things sounded better than I have ever heard them, Stay On These Roads was beautiful and so well-received and respected, and although we didn’t get Crying In The Rain or the new Digital River, that was just fine. It was almost as if they had tailor-made the setlist for me.

Thanks, boys.

The short, but sweet encore of Scoundrel Days (a personal favourite) with a scary echoey reverb, and a rousing The Living Daylights rounded the evening off perfectly.

Not that I couldn’t have done with another hour and a half.  A really wonderful experience, and one I was so chuffed to have shared with the kids.

Was this my last a-ha concert? Who knows? (After all, I have been to my last a-ha concert several times already…!) I hope not, obviously, because I just love their music and hearing it live is so special for me.

But… but, if it was, then this was a fitting send off. What a truly exceptional evening.

 

All my photos from the concert (15)