HATS OFF TO CHEVELLE (LIVE IN JHB- South Africa)

When I heard (through a friend of mine) that Chevelle were on their way to SA,  I thought this it, no gimmicks, no props, just a trio of audio assailants planning a mind blowing, melodic attack. To me this announcement was like what “Belieber’s” felt when they heard Bieber was coming to SA. Seriously!

Johannesburg’s Carnival city played host to Chevelle’s final, sold-out performance in SA.  The opening act was ShadowClub. Arguably not the most appropriate support act for Chevelle., but a great band nonetheless. And they served as an appetizer to the crowd, while they all eagerly anticipated the main course of the night- Chevelle.

Soon enough, the lights dimmed, the bands logo appeared and the crowd roared as techies were making their way to the stage. Every vein in my body began to pulsate. This was actually about to happen. I was about to see one of my favourite international bands live. A band that I started listening to over 10 years ago! At that point I started wondering what Chevelle fans are called. I mean Bieber has his “Beliebers”, Gaga her “Monsters” and Miss Minaj her “Barbs”.  Surely Chevelle fans need one too!

My train of thought was soon punctuated by a sudden echo..”Howzit hanging Joburg!” The sound of those 3 words drove the crowd ballistic as the band’s onslaught began with Sleep Apnea! Throughout the concert, the band had quite a few film- themed audio interludes. These were random quotes from what I assume are the bands favourite films. I’m so sure one of the quotes was, “Have you ever seen a grown man naked?” Hilarious! Nevertheless, the quotes were great and reflected the bands sense of humour. 

These were some of the Johannesburg highlights:

-       Stage banter between Pete (the vocalist) and Dean (the bassist)-  Pete confessed that he ate a lot of fettuccini and might bring it up. Just some memorabilia for those in golden circle.

-       The Brazier- Somehow, at some point, some rather unflattering lingerie made it onto the stage which Sammy (the drummer) had a good look at.

-       The baby banner- A woman in general admission created a banner saying she wants to have the   band members babies. Pete read it out loud and said it would cost her. 10 quid to be exact. But then changed his mind and said he would do it for free.  

-       Pete played unplugged- unintentionally! Yes this happened during their performance of The Red. I’ve posted it below. Have a look. It’s definitely a memorable moment.

-       The sick set list- Unlike most bands who deliberately left out some major hits when they toured SA (Think Linkin’s omission of Crawling, RHCP and Scar Tissue as well as Metallica and The Unforgiven) Chevelle sang all of theirs.  From Vitamin R to Send The Pain below. My personal favourites being Forfeit, Still Running and Pinata.

-    Oh yes, and not forgetting the specially "Made for South Africa" T's!

Overall, their performance was impeccable. Pete’s vocal talent-undeniable. And the concert- unforgettable. All I can say is “Hats off to Chevelle!”

The below video is their performance of The Red live in Jozi.

You probably can hear my inner fan girl emerge through some parts of the song. There’s some shaky cam here and there, but overall the highlight was definitely Pete's reaction to getting unplugged!

Just a kid. At Woodstock.

Woodstock ’99. What memories come to mind when I think about it- and I was just 11 years old! Man, was I a rock star kid or what?

Actually I wasn’t! I was your typical Backstreet Boys, ‘Nsync loving, bubblegum chewing kid. Quite the fizz pop if you ask me. But after days of watching Woodstock ’99 performances, something in me changed..

I knew rock & roll existed because my parents had mixtapes upon mixtapes of bands that they played excessively during our long drives. I just wasn’t aware that it was a culture of it’s own. With the amount of exposed flesh, cursing and drug induced vocalists taking to the stage, it really was something else. A massive gathering of a culture I had never seen before. To put it plainly, I was both shocked & amused. 

My parents (being the music obsessed people they are) set our VCR to record Woodstock for 4 nights. Now that I think about it, it’s surprising that it was actually televised, let alone broadcast here in South Africa!

So every morning after we recorded it, I’d wake up early, rewind the tape and see who had performed that day. From all the performances I saw, there was one that stuck clearly in my mind.. The first time I saw Korn.

Jonathan, no relation to Jim Davis

Their set was at night. Pretty fitting, considering the ominous tone of their music.

The stage was dimly lit, the guitarists stood as faint, tall shadowy figures, fixed to the floor like mannequins, strumming the intro power chords to Blind. Then suddenly, Jonathan Davis appeared, clad in a leather black kilt with unkempt tresses to match.

I had so many questions at the time after watching their performance. Why is he using a skirt? Why is he muttering gibberish? Why do these guys sound so discordant?

I clearly remember being scared, going into my parent’s bedroom and yelling,

“Mommy, mommy there is a weird witch man from last night’s recording!”

Ofcourse, she was just amused. I, however, repeatedly watched their performance after that. It was strange; I was scared, but captivated at the same time. All I knew was.. I liked the feeling. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers were another stand out act for me at Woodstock.

Back in ‘99, Ant was peroxide blonde, donned knickerbockers and was getting all up in that microphone like it was nobodies business. And Flea, well.. he was quite the fluorescent blue-haired attraction, rocking up in his birthday suit, and using his bass guitar to strategically block his crown jewels. A night for him to shine perhaps? Well that they did. And even as a kid, I thought, these guys are amazing; pity the crowd won’t remember it.

Flea slapping da bass at Woodstock '99

There were loads of other artists on the bill, Rage against the machine, The Offspring, Creed, Limp Bizkit- you name any alternative artist massive in the 90s, and they were there. To this day, as I type this up, I still have all the Woodstock performances recorded on VHS. 4 tapes in total. It’s something that I’ll never let go off.  It defined me. And if you’re wondering how I watch them, you guessed it! I have a VCR. A new age one. Yeah you heard me. They still exist!