Wednesday, October 29, 2008

A taste of Ramfest!

Ramfest DVD Launch at Klein Libertas Theatre 24 October 2008
Ramfest is one of SA’s biggest festivals of rock, and the hype around it is growing by the second. Many of the performing bands at Ramfest are not necessarily the mainstream, commercial bands that have made it big amongst the masses who know precious little about good music. And next year’s line-up rumours promise for a festival that will be hard to forget! Friday night saw the launch of the Ramfest DVD, hosted by Klein Libertas Theatre, just to give us all a little taste of what we can expect for next year. And oh, it is exciting indeed! The night was an exciting one for all involved in Ramfest, and the guys from KLT pulled out all the stops. The setup was great [and I’m guessing fairly expensive], with impressive outdoor lighting and screening of the actual DVD. Pity the wind wouldn’t play along, but these things cannot be helped. The DVD features a number of Ramfest bands, including Taxi Violence, Foto Na Dans and the legendary Lark. Decent quality for South African filming and budget, I guess, this little sample is sure to get you excited about next year’s Ramfest. aKing was one half of the live acts for the night and, well, what can I say? Always the same, but always good. With plenty musical talent and lyrics that seem almost too poetic to be songs, these guys never ever disappoint. Having seen them live, unplugged, big stage, small stage, technical difficulties or not, I have yet to walk away from an aKing gig with a frown. Kudos for consistency, though perhaps some new material is in order? And then there was Battery 9. A little before my time, but there are few South Africans who can say they’ve never heard of these guys. With an enormous following once upon a time, they certainly made it as big as one can in the South African music industry. And the Ooms are back! But I confess I expected a bit more. Though the performance was good, it lacked the overwhelming power and electricity with which they used to perform. It was easy to spot their fans in the crowd, but then again there weren’t all that many. As for the new album, Galbraak, I am impressed. It is marginally easier on the ear than some of their old stuff and far more varied. I would suggest getting your paws on this one, it’s pretty cool. Overall, it was a great launch. Ramfest 2009 is going to be super. Fact. See you there.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

^How cool that Britney wrote on your blog? :P Haha

Nice article, definitely not too "biast" as some would say :P

Looking forward to some more updates from one of SA's future media industry moguls.