Die Antwoord pomp dit lekker

A surreal turn

The evening took somewhat of a surreal turn early on and it seemed to be the taste of things to come. Unfortunately not on the guest list, that at a quick glance read as the who's who's of Cape Town's music and entertainment journalists, a friend and I were advised to try entering from another entrance. That didn't go so well. While arguing with a security guard and trying to play the media card, a man who looked like he could be Ninja's dad pulled up in giant yellow landy with the incredibly bizarre looking progeria survivor Leon Botha, aka DJ $olarize. They drove straight through; no entrance woes for them. DJ $olarize appeared in their video for Enter the Ninja and opened for them later that night.

Luckily we eventually managed to get in (thanks Liny) and Die Antwoord were well worth the four-and-a-half-hour wait, and two brief power cuts, till they played.

Sexy and scary

Die Antwoord is a finely tuned act and are the ultimate entertainers. Yo-landi is sexy and scary, combining a dangerous mix of tiny childlike body and voice with a mouth as dirty as a Marvel toilet on a Saturday night and dance moves even dirtier. Ninja, the Clyde to her Bonnie, the Sid to her Nancy, the wors to her bun is a lanky tatooed wild-eyed maverick and, together, the two really know how to work a stage and a crowd.

They start things off with Enter the Ninja, the song and accompanying video that catapulted them into cyber notoriety, in their characteristic graffiti-style black-and-white tracksuits. Later on, Yo-landi decked out in gold tights transforms into the Rich Bitch and Ninja strips down to a pair of Sponge Bob boxers. (Poor innocent young Sponge Bob will never be the same for me after watching Ninja gyrate around in those boxers.)

Fok jou!

Early on into their act, Yo-landi spots a face in the crowd and with a banshee Fok jou! she leaps from the stage and rips a hat from one of the photographers heads flinging it into the heaving crowd. Ninja follows suit with a spew of profanities and the guy looking somewhat put out disappears from the photographers pit into the crowd. An orchestrated act or maybe they really spotted someone who truly offended them, I don't know, but it seems typical of Die Antwoord's style, where fact and fiction often blur the line.

Ninja and Yo-landi are the Antwoord and their energy and interactions with each other is what makes Die Antwoord what it is, but their act obviously is not limited to them alone. DJ Hitek, probably the most authentic of the group, hovers in the background dropping the beats, double-jointed back-up dancers never let the energy dip and rappers Isaac Mutant, Knoffel, Jaak Paarl and Scallywag join them for song Wie Maak Die Jol Vol.

Taking the piss

Good luck to Die Antwoord for their extensive international tour; one wonders how they will be received and if the overseas market will take them at face value or realise they are, for the most part, taking the piss. Though it is in no doubt that Die Antwoord will ever inspire ambivalent feelings - love them or hate them you have to give them props for their commitment to their personas and utter entertainment value, even if Ninja has to write the lyrics on his arm.

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Check their site for their crazy tour schedule which sees them hit New York, Japan, Serbia, Canada and Germany to just name a few www.dieantwoord.com.