I dashed to the Albert Hall door after misleading Mr suspicious-looking car guard/hitchhiker into believing we were heading in the opposite direction and discovered the place was under renovations. A big thank you for letting us know guys…we really appreciate it…(as the sarcasm drips from the side of her mouth).
So we had a few choices at hand consisting of, doing a drive-by pass Mercury to see who's playing, treading toward the Assembly to checkout Fokofpolisiekar…AGAIN, pitter patting up to Long Street to see what was going down at Zula Bar orrr, heading to OBZ Fest, which I nearly called Zim Fest…Coke Fest, Ram Fest…I'm beginning to think we're living in one big era of non-stop music festivals. It's all good though for SA musicians, as the platforms grow for spreading the talent. And what's happened to the oh so BIG hip hop and happening VFest - the place to be this summer? Urrrh, I'm guessing that fell through the sewer drain as well.
We zoomed of toward notorious Obz, notorious for chilling out hippy-style and mingling with the down-trodden as we try to solve the world's never-ending problems by rolling a joint together and singing kum bah yah. The place was packed with all kinds of people - young, really young, super young, middle-aged, really old, decrepid…We were there to see the bands at that stage arriving at around 22:00ish. We caught the last five minutes of Nine, a four-piece band who in 1991 “decided to dabble into the, then culturally taboo, world of hard rock. Inspired by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Living Colour, Fishbone, Bad Brains and later Soundgarden, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rage Against The Machine… Embracing the worlds of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and John McLaughlin, they fused jazz, funk, hip hop, adding distorted guitar and mad riffing.” What the fudgesicles is mad riffing? They were relatively entertaining and had some frontrow fans bobbing their heads, swaying from side to side and wave their arms like those arms had a life of their own.
We then waited in a tent for the next band - Hog Hoggidy Hog - to take stage. Now here is one band i would love to ask, “Where'd you get your name?” Is it the sound of a dog choking on a bone, a favourite childhood cartoon, a pet name for a loved one? But anywho, Ruth and I made our way toward the centre of the crowd and were approached by Grant. Grant's the type of guy you don't take home to momma for fear of scaring momma. Grant hated the music, so Grant got drunk and enticed his recovering druggie buddy with an offer of a little somethin' somethin' he didn't actually have. So what was Grant doing at Obz Fest if he hated the music so much?…Beats me…
Hog Hoggidy Hog started up and Grant ran off into the distance to bother someone else. They played a variation of their usual set with a couple of new ones as well. I can't fgure out if I like this band or not though. Sure they get the fans going in a rage of moshing and an overwhelming sense of happiness seems to overcome you when you're listening and dancing to the music yet for some reason you can't explain why. There's nothing phantasmically awesome about this band and yet they work. Maybe I was just lost in the madness around me as the world literally starts to spin as you're pushed and shoved in the pit of dust that you suddenly find yourself in. Nevertheless it is one helluva experience as you feel a rush of fear and excitement all at once, cos if you're dainty like Ruth and I are, you're bound to find yourself kissing the floor. We managed to avoid falling but I did get both feet stomped on and an elbow to the temple that's still sorta sore…ah the joys of livin' on the edge of a moshpit…Hog Hoggidy Hog is a pop-ska-reggae-rock band that will have you yelling for more…if you're intoxicated enough. otherwise you'll walk off thinkin' “wow, that was nice.”
