A very short picture story of last weekend:

I’ve never kept track of St Patrick’s day and as a result I only realised it was in fact yesterday thanks to the radio station. During the day festive mood rubbed off so by the time I was driving back from the bouldering cave passing all the green people heading to Hatfield square, I was keen to celebrate my first. I’m not really a beer drinker, but come hell or high water I’ll have a Guinness!!

Poor planning
Arriving at the square I realise I should probably have made a day of it, joined in the festivities the afternoon while the Tuks DJ’s were still broadcasting from there. By now the queue to enter the square went as far as the eye could see and obviously the creche forgot the gates open – average age must have been around 17. Plan B, again?! The other water holes are dead by comparison ( strangely not taking any advantage of the green fever ) and I was looking forward to a lively crowd.

Fall back to the trusty old Steak & Ale, only they have no Guinness! Staring at the bar stock, I spot a bottle of Jameson which would be my salvation in my quest to be Irish for a night.  

My luck improves as the band playing turns out quite good. I never bothered to find out the name, but the girl singing had a good voice and looked like she really felt the music. Despite her being solidly English and being visibly nervous with the Afrikaans song she hit the spot with “Mannetjies Roux”, the people loved it.

Coming up
I’m not sure if I have the energy to retry Strings & Skins @ Klitsgras tonight. Maybe. Tomorrow though it’s Wolmer DogFest, the line up includes Raoul & Black Friday, Black Cat Bones, Not My Dog and about 4 other bands – it’s going to be a blast!! Mom’s away on Sunday and (at least for me) an unexpected holiday on Monday. I realised with a shock my holiday is less than a month off, so I’ll probably spend all the time I can spare climbing, cycling or something like that.

Hey! It’s Friday!!!!

….and finally a bit of randomness:

Tonight’s a good Friday night, there’s a few options: Klitsgras – String & Skins Beeg Band. Black Friday (remember the Wolmer Blues Bash?) @ Cafe Barcelona and No Quarter Feat with Wayne Coughlan @ Steak & Ale. Tings sadly does not have an up to date guide online.

Klitsgras it is.
I like the idea of being able to move around there, maybe snack on something small, just relaxing and letting the beats drown out all the shit popping up in my mind.

Halfway there I’m not sure if I want to go anymore, maybe I should go somewhere else? O’Gallito’s serves these luxurious glasses of wine – an ice cold rose with some smoked salmon sushi might just hit the spot. No, I’ve eaten well today, let’s not spoil it, so I push on.

Check the onramp going back – no cops – yes!

A sticky situation, or at least one of them
I’m really thirsty, the sort that a beer does not help for,  so I stop of at the garage for one of those super duper healthy fortified mineral waters. The one I pick is for extra energy, without having any caffeine or sugar in it: +1 for the good eating plan. Thus emboldened I get in my car and drive off, only to have the drink pop out of the cup holder. Look, this thing has a BIG cap, so 7/8 of the contents are out before it even hits the ground.

Faaaaaaaark!!!!

An excellent song of The Narrow starts playing. Fuck it, the car needs a good valet anyways, off we go into the darkness of the far east.

Need to get the car serviced before my April trip – I smell petrol every time I get out of the car

What can I write on my blog, I’m all out of topics, nothing interesting happened today…..Wait, how about ”Since early in the evening I’m experiencing a feeling of emptiness. Not unlike that feeling when you’re trying to quit smoking and you want to do something, keep yourself busy, but you’re not quite sure what it is that will scratch your itch.” HA! Infinite loop created.

Tuks reception starts fading, Klitsgras is really out in the sticks. As I turn off and into the gate I have a not so small o-shit moment. The gate is closed and the place is obviously dead.

Faaaaark!!! #2

Somehow I screwed up the dates in my head. For a moment I consider trying to check Facebook on my phone to confirm, but then the absurdity of doing that struck me – I quickly put the phone away before anyone could see me. Murphy is having a laugh at my expense tonight.

Cut your losses
We’re heading back. Too late for the sushi now. Steak & Ale it is.

On the way back only 2 assholes blind me with their brights – things are starting to look up. I get lost in my thoughts, having the perfect conversations with people living in my head. Able to express myself perfectly, we have the most delightfully efficient arguments & banter in my mind.

*pop*

Steak & Ale
My perfect play is interrupted by reality as I turn of the highway back in Centurion.

I missed the first act, so they let me in at half price. I get my first drink without any of the usual bar-counter hassles (gin & tonic, to compliment my favourite bedtime drink: ice cold soda & a squeeze of lemon juice on the rocks – I’m such a refined mother fucker, aren’t I?) by which time the second act start playing – quite possibly perfect timing.

Put that in your pipe & smoke it Murphy

Wayne Coughlan & friends
3 okes with steelstrings, one on electric. Failed to ever REALLY get it going. Make no mistake, these guys are good, but I felt they were not doing as well as they could. A cover version or two were played, all very well. I got the impression they derive immense pleasure from the little harmonies they created, and that’s all well, but I’m a big fan of thumping steelstring rock / blues rock – good examples are “You’re crazy”, GnR on the Lies album, and “Locomotive Breath” – Jethro Tull. I just think with FOUR guitars, they can get a hell of a shit-kicking heart thumping beat going, and still each just do the solo breakouts they seem to focus on.

The one exception was the title track of their new album called “Machete” – well done! I truly got lost in the song, I may buy the album for that one alone.

All in all not bad, but not great.

No Quarter feat Wayne Coughlan & friends
This proved a much better recipe. Essentially they added a drummer, basist and all switched to electrics. I nearly walked out during the intro of the first song, it looked to be just another merry-go-round of “you play a bit, then me, then the next guy”, but all of a sudden they pulled it together and really got it going. Classic blues and some rock type riffs. A bunch of people started dancing as proof of the pudding.

Satisfied, ready to sleep I bid goodnight to my perfect slice of life. Hope you had a good one too, the best ones are those not planned to the finest details and even if so, rarely work out as planned. Roll with the punches, have a laugh and say “fuck it”.

I thoroughly enjoyed the set and the band’s energy, especially BruceBleed who was supercharged in his Superman shirt despite the place being a little less than packed. Food & service was good - but perhaps the long weekend messed around everyone’s calendar (and budget?) a bit………

I made of with some nice loot: A reservation card signed by all the bad members ( hopefully worth a bunch when they hit the big time ;-P ), a CD & DVD (I think – did not open the DVD yet…..).

You can catch them again this Saturday at the Wolmer Events arena, along with bunch of other cool bands – check this schedule out :
15:00 *** Piet Botha & Jonathan Martin
16:00 *** Chiba Fly
17:00 *** Octanium
18:00 *** Exit Stranger
19:00 *** Wysdiman
20:00 *** Couch Potatoes
21:00 *** Black Cat Bone
22:00 *** Action Thrillers
23:00 *** Grynd Rodd Muse
24:00 *** Acerbic State

Last but not least: I see Evolver is playing at the Steak & Ale on the 26th – would have loved to see them, but by that time I’ll be chilling in Mokopane, mentally preparing for my Dome mission the next morning, a rock “show” with a difference…..muhahahaha