5 Gum, Braamfontein Rooftops, & Live Music

Last week Saturday, early in the morning – hazy and hungover, I found myself crammed into the back of a 1Time flight with a photographer and a band, well, most of the band – the guitarist was still on his way to the airport, to a flight he’d never make. The band was Ashtray Electric, the guitarist, my good mate Rudi ‘Let’s Get Fucked Up’ Cronje, and the photog was Adriaan Louw, a dude producing some awesome work. We we’re en route to Joburg, for a party on a rooftop in a part of town us Capetonians have been warned to stay away from.

Ashtray Electric

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Besides the flight attendant folding down a chair and basically sitting on my lap, then gripping his knees – white knuckled, as we took off, not much happened between take off and our arrival in Braamfontein. I found myself driving due to Rudi missing his flight and Andre not having a valid license, a responsibility I’d be sure to shirk as soon as possible. We arrived in the centre a little after lunch. I dropped the band at Alex Theatre and headed to the Joburg Neighbourhood Market with Adriaan. We’d both heard good things, and we weren’t disappointed.

The market takes place on two stories and is everything you’d expect, as a Capetonian. Pretty sure the Joburg crowd hasn’t seen anything like it before, unless they’ve been in Cape Town over the weekend. The food was top class, the stalls were all great and, of course, craft beer has found it’s way up north. Brewers and Darling beers were representing the #RealBeer segment. We chilled there briefly, dropped in on the soundcheck, then went to check into our hotel – the Parktonian, just three blocks up from the Alex.

It was pretty surreal cruising the streets around the Alex, an area that is being ‘re-claimed’ and trendied up. Re-claimed from who or what I don’t know, hi-jack and death perhaps, because for a two block radius people from all walks of life cruised the streets like they were in an advert for Jozie. Pass the boundary though, and you’re straight back in squalor and streets I sure as hell wouldn’t walk alone, or with a pack of five. Your idea of a typical Joburg dude would not survive here. These streets are reserved for hipsters and thugs.

We spent the next few hours around and in the Parktonian rooftop pool, the bar and then finally our rooms – where I found out that waiting for a band to get ready can take as long as waiting for your girlfriend to get ready…in the dark. We were back at the Alex Theatre just after 7pm, and just in time to see Beatenberg. I first saw these kids playing off the back of an old school flatbed with an Afrikaburn sunset as their backdrop. They were pretty special then, and last Saturday they further improved my impression of them. They’re a different sight, this band of young, quiet looking kids with an odd dressing frontman – his guitar held uncomfortably high, and a voice not unlike Paul Simon, but man, if you get the chance to see these guys make sure you do not miss it. I almost want these dudes to already be three albums down so they can occupy more space on my playlist. The music is likable, and the band no less talented for it.

Beatenberg

Next up was Rambling Bones, and it was quite clear there were a lot of Fuzi fans there just for these dudes. The backsides left the soft astroturf floor and the crowd began to move. Unfortunately, their set seemed to fall apart early in. Something happened with the sound and there seemed to be no energy. One song was stopped half way through and started again, to which one fan said ‘they’re from Fuzi, they can do whatever the fuck they want’ – a sentiment echoed by the crowd who were enjoying the performance regardless. We moved downstairs to grab some cold beers, via the thin, steep stairwell, past a T-shirt exhibition and a single file, never ending line of fresh punters on their way up to the roof.

We returned for Shortstraw, a band that people, have been going nuts about. This was the first time I’d seen them, and I really enjoyed what they had to offer. There seems to be, as there is toward the end of every long winter, a move toward happier, carefree acts and bands. Shortstraw fit right here – in the good-to-see-don’t-know-much-about-them-but-they’re-fun-while-I’m-out-and-drinking category. They got the crowd primed for the next act, Ashtray Electric.

For a band I really enjoy, I very rarely see Ashtray perform live. Perhaps this is why I always enjoy them so much, perhaps that’s why I sometimes feel I’m being bias toward them, but as Adriaan put it, their show on Saturday was nothing short of ‘epic’. On that rooftop, lower than the run down buildings surrounding it, with a heaving sweaty crowd, and smoke and lighting that, with the wind, would make the most average band look magical, Ashtray put on a performance you can be sorry you missed. Vocally Andre was incredible, their brand new touring drummer put on an astounding first time performance, and even the just-hours-ago-dead-man Rudi came alive and gave the crowd what they wanted.

With the rooftop nearing capacity, people were still pushing in for the next act, the one it seemed most of these kids were here to see – Desmond & The Tutus. I’ve always had good things to say about this band, they’ve always been the chilled out jump around band I can’t wait to see. But I’d only seen them at festivals. I hadn’t seen them in front of a crowd like this; hungry, packed onto a roof, hot and sweaty, in the middle of Braamfontein. They were on their home turf here, I could see it. Shane was a different man. The entire gig was different. It was louder, harder and more aggressive. The crowd ate it up. They were climbing on stage and launching themselves in every direction, jumping wildly and screaming back lyrics. The smile was still there though, on the face of the crowd, as it always is when these dudes take to the stage.

Desmond & The Tutus

As they finished up the cops were in, shutting shit down. They’d been outside the venue since 7pm. Noise complaints from students – no student I’d ever known. They could do nothing, or chose to do nothing, till after 12, and thankfully they didn’t. The night got to play out, and we, 1400 revelers and I, got to experience one of the most awesome brand events I’ve been to. If this is the kind of thing we can come to expect from 5 Gum, then we are all in for a phenomenal 2012. When brand managers, with an educated opinion on music, and a budget to back their visions – of doing more than simply buying into an existing event, start putting on events like this, we all win.

From there it was back to my hotel room for nightcaps until sunrise, but that’s a story for another time. These pictures can tell you more.