Tag: review

That Karibu Review

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Last night we went out to Karibu restaurant on the Waterfront. Now, I know what you’re thinking: tourist trap. And you’re right.
For the amount of money that you spend there, you could have a really decent meal at a really decent restaurant in Cape Town. Or even Franschhoek, if you could afford the petrol. But last night we were with tourists and we went in to the experience fully aware that we were going to be overcharged for our evening. Note that the benchmark 2009 Beyerskloof Pinotage (available for R40 retail at the vineyard earlier in the day) was a monumental and record breaking R145 a bottle. Ouch!

But like I said – we went in with our eyes open, so that was fine.

Let’s start with the positive. Singular. The food was good. Not exceptional. Not OMG-I’m-going-to-have-to-stop-eating-and-phone-Cape-Talk wonderful, but pretty good. Which was nice.

Sadly, the positive ended there. Lets start with our waitress, who I shall not name and shame, save to say that she was named after a German car company. Beginning with M. And ending with ercedes. You might be able to work it out – I don’t know.
She couldn’t speak English. Now I know that South Africa has 11 official languages, but I’m willing to bet that her Afrikaans, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu weren’t up to much either. Her Spanish was probably awesome, but mine is rubbish, so that wouldn’t have helped much either.

Let me give you an example. I told her what I wanted for my starter; she wrote it down. I told her what I wanted for my main course; she wrote it down. And then she asked me what I wanted for my starter. Of course, she meant what would I like to have as a side order for my main course, but she didn’t know how to say that in English. Fundamentals.
Still – that was better than my brother who was given a random side order for his main course (not having been asked) and my mother, who was given the wrong side order with her main course. I got the wrong starter (unsurprisingly), my wife didn’t get her glass of water and the manager had to come and confirm what my main course was, because the kitchen didn’t know. Not great.

We were asked if the TV (right next to our table for the football) was too loud, which it was, so they turned it down. Then they pumped the sound through the restaurant music system anyway, so we had to shout over the commentary, never mind the vuvuzelas. Why bother?
The tablecloth was dirty, the napkins hadn’t been dried properly since being washed and the cutlery still had dried… something… on from the last diner. Or maybe even the one before.
It was poor. Really, really poor.

Look, I don’t mind paying through the nose for a “tourist” thing ever now and again when I’m with tourists. But for that money, I expect better than the dreadful service and tatty surroundings.
The waitress got a R3 tip on a R1,497 bill.
Having said that, she did get a free hint, as well.

The sad thing is that with the World Cup on at the moment, the Waterfront is full of tourists who now think that Karibu “South African Dining” represents the average SA restaurant, when nothing could be further from the truth.
When the biggest benefit for this country from this World Cup is the positive experiences that our visitors have while they are over here and their recommendations of SA as a holiday destination to their friends, family and countrymen, places like Karibu are scoring us a big own goal.

The Killers at Val de Vie – Review

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We went, we saw, we made it back almost partially unscathed.
Personal photos, courtesy of Mrs 6k’s K850i are on the way, but in the meantime, here are some others to keep you going.

The Venue
Val de Vie is very nice. Posh. And the concert crowd (and the concert, actually) seemed a bit out of place. The stage was the usual Big Concerts stage, the big screens with the one rogue pixel, the rectangular stage and the pretty impressive array of lighting. The field was well kept, nice short grass, flat – limited chances of twisted ankles etc. I thought the free* bar was well run (went several times, queued a bit), the loos were plentiful (went twice – no queuing!!).
I was rather impressed.

The Parking/Traffic Issue
This morning, I note that there’s a huge storm about the traffic and the parking at the concert. If I see the words “epic fail” one more time, it will just be… well… an “epic fail”. On the way in, we met traffic just before the N1 junction and then we queued all the way into the estate. We had (as everyone had) received two emails from Big Concerts last week, both stating (amongst other things):

Fans are advised to arrive at the venue as early as possible in order to prevent pressure on the roads approaching the estate. Gates are scheduled to open at 16:00.

We would have been there at 16:00 on the dot. Who thinks that if they aim to turn up at the venue at 17:00 or later then they’re going to sail straight in? Seriaas? As it was, we got in and parked up just after half past four. Fine by me.
On the way out, it was hugely congested – much like other gigs and sporting events I have been to in the UK and SA. Back to that email again:

The show will be over by 22:30 and we expect traffic volumes to have eased by midnight.

Which was pretty much exactly right as well. Actually, the show finished at 22:15 and I left the venue by quarter past midnight. But I’m not going to quibble over a couple of quarter hours.

I refuse to blame Big Concerts (the promoter) for the “epic fail” parking and traffic. I never saw it. It was busy – hugely busy, sure. Were people not expecting that, despite the emails and the information? Even if Big Concerts had opened the gates an hour earlier, people would still have left it until the last minute to try and get in and then ignored the well-publicised warnings about the traffic after the concert.
You got home a bit late – big deal. Was Mummy angry because today is a school day or are you just jumping on the bandwagon because you need something to whine about?

The Support
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Zebra and Giraffe are the most promising band to come out of South Africa since, well, certainly since I’ve been here. I always feel sorry for support acts as they are so regularly overlooked, but this was a huge opportunity for Z&G and they gave it everything. In My Eyes stood out for me as did The Knife. There was energy, there was passion. Greg Carlin’s voice was perfectly on form and the audience interaction was perfect in tone and quantity and was well reciprocated.
Zebra and Giraffe and The Dirty Skirts are playing in Cape Town this Saturday in a (not ever so) well-publicised event at WBHS and I’ll certainly be there, because I just can’t get enough of these guys at the moment.

The Killers
Ah. The main event. And – I know this is going to prompt howls of derision – but can I say that I was a little bit disappointed?
The hype, the build-up, the anticipation had been huge. And yes, the set was good – it was really, really good – but for me, it didn’t live up to the expectation. Maybe that was because my expectations were too high, but why shouldn’t they have been? After all, this is one of the biggest bands in the world right now and they had n thousand fans eating out of their hands.
In truth, it was a one man show. Brandon Flowers has remarkable energy and a remarkable presence: as he approached the microphone before they kicked off with Human as if working out how best to attack it. But as he strutted around and posed like he was the only one on stage, it began to feel a bit faux; a bit contrived.
This was a show that they have done all over the world and in many ways, it was as if they were just doing another show. Like there was nothing special about it for them. You knew that the ad libs had been ad libbed for the last six months: “Is it too early to say that you’re a bit louder than Johannesburg yet?”. If anything, it was just too well done.

That said, they know their stuff. None of the B-side rubbish – this was a catalogue of their hits and there’s nothing that a crowd loves more than hit after hit after hit. Smile Like You Mean It and Mr Brightside  (written about a bloke from the industrial East end of Sheffield) were particularly well received. Confetti and pyrotechnics assisted with wowing the audience and there were numerous sing along moments to boot. Ronnie Vannucci on the drums was one of the forgotten heroes as Flowers pandered to the audience and stole the show, but what a passionate performance at the back.
The encore was undeniably spectacular. Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine and When You Were Young were a superb end to a memorable show, but one which never quite reached its full potential for me.

Overall
An excellent afternoon and evening out. Great company (including (briefly, at least) the legendary Ian MacDonald from SA – The Good News), a great vibe and a great concert. And the perfect end to a spectacular party weekend. And while The Killers didn’t quite do it for me, I think I was perhaps in the minority. Mrs 6k loved every single minute and that’s a rare, yet very welcome, vote of approval.
Next up for Val de Vie is Elton John and they’re going to have buy a teleporter if they’re going to keep Cape Town’s old tannies happy.

UPDATE: Kfm/Big Concerts comment on the traffic:

Heavy volumes were always expected and as a consequence fans were repeatedly advised through various channels to assist the authorities in reducing the traffic load.  These requests included allowing enough time to enter and exit the venue; the sharing of rides (carpooling), and a general call for patience and respect for other fans on the road.  
Regrettably it appears from the reports provided through the Venue Operational Centre that the warnings were not heeded and many motorists left their approach to the venue much too late.  As a consequence of the congestion they experienced, tempers flared and many people simply parked their cars illegally blocking the venue entry and exit. 

That’s what I just said. 

* free: allegedly because the liquor licence was refused/not applied for.

a-ha: Foot of the Mountain

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2010 marks the 25th anniversary of a-ha‘s first big hit, Take on Me, and the band are planning a world tour to mark the occasion. It seems unlikely that Cape Town will be on their venue list, but if you’re reading, Morten (and I know you’re a big fan of 6000 miles…) then you’re welcome to stop by our place on your way through. Please try to avoid June and July though, I have a World Cup happening and I will be busy doing World Cup stuff.

What a lot of people don’t realise is that a-ha are still together and still releasing albums. Their latest offering, Foot of the Mountain, is their 9th album and was released just last month. And with it, they have unashamedly returned to their 80’s synthy-pop roots, Morten’s distinctive and ageless voice soaring above wonderfully over-produced keyboards from the very first song, like an unusually cheerful Dave Gahan. And that’s something that’s been missing in their work for a while (the over-produced keyboards, not an unusually cheerful Dave Gahan).
Stand out tracks include What There Is, Shadowside and Foot of the Mountain, the latter probably being the most reminiscent of their early stuff, thanks to the repeating keyboard riff. And then there’s the rather Snow Patrol-esque sound of Nothing is Keeping You Here, which even now I can imagine was penned by Gary Lightbody. Although it wasn’t. 
So yes, it’s a surefire hit, but with whom, exactly?

AHA_header

I’ve enjoyed a-ha’s music since the beginning. Yes, I’m a fan and yes, I have all their stuff – even when they lost their direction a bit around 1993. I’ve seen them countless times. I have Paul Waaktaar-Savoy’s leather wristband at home, gained after he threw it into the crowd at Sheffield City Hall in 1988. I have their solo work, even Morten’s Poetenes Evangelium, which is wholly in Norwegian and which I therefore don’t understand, but I still enjoy listening to. Last night, I even held on until the end of the pisspoor Coneheads on SET so that I could hear his version of Can’t Take My Eyes Off You. OK – I’ll accept that that was a bit sad.

Of course, when the whole a-ha thing started in the UK, it was cutting edge, new age and trendy. Not quite so now it seems, as they are BBC Radio 2’s album of the month and being interviewed by Dale Winton. Terrifyingly middle-aged, you might argue. And I’d agree. 
But I guess that as the band and their music has got older, so have their fans (I know I have, despite my best efforts to resist). And somehow, the 1980’s style of Foot of the Mountain has got me reliving those days and made me feel all young again.

That’s why I think it’s going to be a popular album with their fans – they still have a huge following in South America, Germany and, of course, Scandinavia. I don’t think they’ll win huge numbers of new followers with FotM, despite the critical acclaim that it has received: there just isn’t a big new market for this sort of music these days. But I doubt that the band are expecting a plethora of teenies bopping along to their stuff anyway.

Suffice to say that this latest offering will keep their fans very happy and eagerly awaiting the upcoming tour and – beyond that – the next album. Let’s just hope that we don’t have to wait another four years for that.