The Beard hosted this intimate gig in the alleyway behind Odd Café in Greenside.
The venue was something out of an Indie, low-budget film. Picture fairy lights,
craft beers, a few random couches in corners. And the stage consisting of a
carpet. It was great to be so close and personal with the bands. There were
probably only seventy-five to a hundred people in attendance, which was
fantastic. We missed Gangsterdam unfortunately who opened.
The Moths played second and we boogied to their easy-listening instrumental,
surf-rock set. They are the perfect band for this type of set up. And were even
nearly shut down by the police. (Apparently the neighbours weren’t as happy
as us about this little gig) Luckily everything was smoothed over and we could
continue bopping our heads to their sweet tunes.
The headliners were Beach Party all the way from Cape Town. It was fantastic
to see them live. We were right in front, and since there wasn’t a stage, we
were basically on the stage. We even boogied a little with guitarist, Matthieu
Auriacombe. Their set was quite short – maybe only 35 minutes – possibly
because there was still pressure from the cops in the background. Despite the
brief show they were really great – and played all the crowd favourites, and had
the audience jumping and dancing and causing lots of trouble.
Interestingly enough maybe 70% of the audience consisted of people from other
bands with representatives from Shortstraw, Gangsterdam, The Plastics, Go
Barefoot, and The Stellas. (now sadly broken up) We felt pretty swish partying
with some of the best South African musicians, and even befriended very drunk
Pascal and Emille from The Plastics.
Kudos to The Beard for throwing this gig together, and for Odd Café for chasing
away the popo so we could get our boogyie on.
