Sometimes I am so pleasantly surprised by the people of my hometown, it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I was a little bit apprehensive about how well attended this gig was going to be, given that the Tri Nations match was happening at Absa Stadium that afternoon and that it was the weekend before payday. Also, as much as I adore the Sick Shop, the folks of Durban seem to be veering towards the emo side of things lately (shudder) so I wasn’t sure how well it would go down. Turned out I underestimated my fellow Durbanites by a long shot!
About 300 people showed up at Burn to catch Martin Rocka and the Sick Shop, and they were definitely not just there for the legendary R3 shooters. During the performance I kept turning around to check out the crowd and it was like a spell had been performed on the room. None of the usual arms folded, blank faced statues that you see so often at gigs. Oh no. The dance floor started off full, and it stayed full for the entire hour that the band played. More importantly, people were dancing. I mean, really dancing, not just sort of shuffling their feet from side to side or looking fidgety. The people in the front were totally getting into the rockabilly swing of things and throwing themselves and each other around the dance floor in a crazy swirl. Everyone was smiling. And cheering. It was fantastic. And of course the most fantastic thing about the evening was the band itself. I’ll be the first to admit that my sense of humour is not quite the same as everyone else’s, but I think you’d have to be a real prude not to see the fun in Rocka’s filthy quips. And fun is what this band is all about. They’re having such a good time on stage that I think it’s nearly impossible for the people watching not to have a great time too. But it’s not all about playing silly buggers – their accomplishment as musicians is so evident it smacks you in the face and leaves you feeling dizzy. Polished without being slick, tight without being boring, they are a cohesive unit that should be taking the SA music scene by force. Of course, they’ll rarely get any radio play with the kinds of songs they do, so that’s asking for the impossible….but I suspect they just may be okay with that. I think dark and subversive is pretty much their thing, but they manage to do it in such an entertaining way that it brings on those warm and fuzzies I was talking about earlier. In a cynical, dirty kind of way though, not in a “I love the world, let me skip through the daisy fields with my puppy” kind of way of course! Which is pretty much what I love about them, me being the cynical, dirty girl that I am.
I don’t know how many people were lured to Burn by the fact that the promo posters had a naked lady on them (dirty boys), but I don’t think anyone left disappointed. It was a night of first-class entertainment, and friends were still talking about some of Mr Rocka’s more choice song intros when I saw them the next day. The only thing I have left to say is…No. More. Shooters!!!!!!
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