Fire through the Window & The Redflecks – The Willowvale, 04.04.08

The Willowvale Hotel is definitely the hottest place to be in Durbs if you’re an indie hip kid or just want to watch a really great band. It certainly seems to be the only venue around that isn’t focussing primarily on metal (no fingers pointed). So off we skipped on Friday night to catch my pick for awesome Durban band of the moment, and their American friends.

I think there was another band playing, since we saw some dudes sitting around in matching suits (although that’s not really out of place at the Willowvale) – but we must have missed them, catching another show at Thunder Road first. By the time we arrived The Redflecks were about ready to go on. The band has been doing a whistle-stop tour of South Africa, hailing from Nashville, and I had to giggle at a comment someone made on their myspace page, fearing for their safety. They are made up of Ben on guitar, Amy on vocals and Nicole on bass/keyboards/all other percussion type things. Nicole used to play bass in Nemesis, the band Marc from Fire through the Window once fronted, so I guess that’s the connection. They took to the stage in a hail of bad early 80’s glitter and headbands, which should have been a sign that this was not going to be a good start to my Willowvale experience. Their sound has been described as electro-rock, reminiscent of Blondie. To me, they sounded like the unfortunate bastard offspring of The Breeders and Portishead…and they didn’t really get the good genes. Amy would appear to have a really good voice, which was one redeeming feature, but alas it was drowned out in pseudo-psychedelic synth wank. There wasn’t much exciting going on onstage and I found most of their songs boring and repetitive. Not quite a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but close enough. One of my friends did really enjoy them…he described their sound as ‘raw’. Ahem. Enough said.

All was not lost though, because Fire through the Window, as always, pulled the magic out of the bag. They are flawless and I would be heartily surprised if big things do not happen for this band. If you haven’t heard them by now, you clearly never listen to 5fm/watch MK/pay attention to the hype surrounding a band of this calibre. Best you remedy the situation ASAP. Their songs are pretty without being cutesy and manage to capture that fine balance between being rock enough to have some street cred, while still being easy enough on the ear to merit extensive radio play. Sinead is by far one of the most natural and down to earth people I’ve ever seen on stage – she reels the audience in with her little stories and the sense that she’s just having a chat with us. There’s also a palpable sense that her and Marc are having a great time up there, and they’re hoping the audience will join in. Which is exactly what they did on Friday night…to the point of near mayhem. To say that I never expected to encounter a violent mosh pit at a FTTW gig would be the understatement of the decade. So imagine my surprise when I found myself in the middle of just that, as well as nearly on the receiving end of a kick to the head from a crowd surfing fan. Eventually I had to bail to the side of the stage – there’s only one band I’m prepared to shed actual blood for – while the frenzy continued unabated for the duration of the show. The band has some great new material, with the same sing-along-able quality of all their songs. But I think the new highlight of their show is their rendition of the Kings of Leon’s Four Kicks. It takes a lot of balls to tackle a Kings of Leon song – the band has a cult following and an unusual style. FTTW more than do this song justice and the crowd were begging for it almost from the start. As they break out into the cover, Sinead suddenly goes from wide eyed sweetheart next door to a husky voiced sex kitten who looks as likely to scratch as purr. The fans are enraptured and the mosh pit goes wild. They wrapped it up with a collaboration with the Redflecks gang and certainly left the stage on a high note.

Given the rather youthful appearance of most of the patrons at the Willowvale that night, it came as no surprise really that the venue was almost cleared out by 12am – must stick to those curfews you know. I myself was quite happy to have an early night, with a bound to be raucous wedding to attend the next day, and drifted home on the happy buzz that always follows a FTTW show.