Sunday 10th March, 17:30… Neck busted, body tanned, bags
still not unpacked and my brain… Well my brain is reminiscing about an amazing
weekend.
RAMfest 2013 saw the return of the weekend camp. The “one
day RAMfest jol” was not working for the Capetonians. One day RAMfest? “Ain’t
nobody got time for that”. Once I saw that board stating “RAMfest” with an
arrow pointing left, I felt a little imaginary party going on inside. A Ramgasm I think it’s called. We were,
ironically, greeted by one cow attempting to ram another cow at the turn off… Major LOL!
Friday started off a bit rocky, although the RAMfest twitter
feed was retweeting posts about the lovely weather and twitpic’ing blue skies.
Upon arrival we found some dark clouds and drizzles. But that never stopped
anyone from setting up camp and getting their drinkie on.
Sideshow burned the dance floor Friday night at the Olmeca
Tequila Electronic Stage with tracks such as “Take Off Your G-string” and Das
Kapital’s “Babylon” got the crowd pumping.
A few minutes before Sideshow’s set ended I found my feet involuntarily
moving in the direction of the Red Heart Rum Main Stage. For whom you ask? Only
the living legends Van Coke Kartel. There is a reason why so many people, as
well as myself, call them living legends, because they are exactly that!
Between Jason Oosthuizen’s drum solo and Jedd Kessow’s RIDICULOUS guitar solo,
we were treated to some more awesome-ness from guest artist such as George van
der Spuy, Theo Crous, Peach Van Pletzen and Jack Parow. We were told Hunter Kennedy and Laudo
Liebenberg would be joining the Van Coke oke’s on stage too, sadly that never
happened… which was disappointing, quite disappointing actually. It’s not a VCK
show if there’s no mosh pit, one erupted in the middle of Theo’s
appearance. Francois was not having it and did a stage dive to break it up. Smart
man. I absolutely loved how my neighbouring rocker offered me some brandy
during VCK’s rendition of “I Want Brandy”, that guy rocked! They had FIRE! They were on fire! The crowd
was burnt! Not literally now guys… but
yes, they were that HOT! “Sameswering” was a success. Francois Van Coke wins at
life and if you weren’t at their set, well you lost at life! Also, my kindness
has triumphed, Jedd threw his guitar pic from stage and smart me took my torch
and helped find it in the grass for a fan. #Win. Up next Jack Parow. DJ Naaldekoker started the set off with a dancey buzz. Loki Rothman is amazing. I’ve been playing guitar for a
while, but compared to that guy I’m a grain of sand in the Sahara! He wrapped
up his set with a slight different version of “Jy Dink Jy’s Cooler As Ekker”
which was… COOL! Parow’s lyrics and style are fresh and one a kind. Truly
unique guy. He pulled a slightly bigger
crowd than VCK, burping on stage and all. Parow gets a happy thumbs up from me.
If you went to bed with a tank top and leggings and a
comforter to cover you, you had a bad time. Saturday morning was quite chilly.
But hey, we had to wake up! I was so excited to take a nice warm shower after
waking up feeling like an ice block. Off we go to the bathroom. But the biggest
disappointment was the shower situation in the ladies bathroom. There was no warm water anymore and the
drains were blocked up. You would be standing ankle deep in murky shower water
if you were brave enough. Eeeh. By the
time I was done wet wiping the hell out of myself, the cleaners arrived to
unclog the shower pipes. But I still
refused to go in those showers!
As fresh as we could wetwipe ourselves, we went in search of
food. So many good food options (PS well done on that one RAMfest)! I found a
ham, cheese, avocado pear and mayonnaise toasted Panini. It was GLORIOUS! We
were now good to go and off we went to the BOOM! Stage for some comedy and good
tunes. The comedy hour featuring Paul
Snodgrass, Schalk Bezhuidenout , Brendan Murray and Garth Woods had the crowd
in stitches Snodgrass leading the comedians in a “Who’s Line Is It Anyway”
fashion. First band on stage was Sons of
Settlers. They have a good vibe about them.
Their single “Climb On My Back” had me swaying and bobbing my head happily. The rest of the morning was spent chilling
out in our tent - strategically placed within earshot of the BOOM! Stage.
The sun had arrived and shared its bounty of rays on the
land of the RAM. I nicely rushed over to the main stage to see Moving House. I
was most excited for their set, as their debut album is promising and
supporting young bands is my thing. At the gates of the main stage people were eagerly waiting to enter. Some to secure a place right in front for Rise
Against and Bring Me The Horizon and some to see they MH boys. It’s a tough job
opening up the Main Stage at 15:30 in the boiling sun on the main festival day.
But they did well. They started of their set with “Keys”, the first song off their
debut album. They did a cover of Lana Del Rey’s famous “Video Games” too. I
swear that song was written by Andre Pienaar. Rob Davidson ending off with
those chords made me snap back to reality and realise that they just did the
most beautiful rendition I had ever heard! I sang along sweetly to “Gospel” the
lyrics “I’ll be alright this time, I’ll be ok”. They are currently my
gospel. They did “Hot Town” as well,
which I loved, so fitting for the little Riviersonderend – Our Hot Town for the
weekend! You can get their debut album off iTunes. DO IT!
I had an hour to refresh and chill out till Woodstock
Mafia’s set and boy was that needed! Their set was good! Kicking off things
with “Rebel Dreams”, their second single, currently being played on radio and
also my favourite song of theirs. Lead
singer Joe Theron got all sweaty and stuff. Yum. By the time they did their
debut song “Electric Light” things had heated up lekker in the crowd. People be
jamming hard to that one! “I am a sinner
and a saint, don’t forget it, don’t you forget it” those lyrics from “Trigger
and Gun” is everything Ramfefst was about. Ps: they threw t-shirts into the
crowd, if you were one of the lucky few to catch one, meet me in the dark alley
in the CBD.
A few hours later I found myself at the Electro stage.
Shimmied my booty to the front and saw that PH FAT was on stage. Once they did
their sick track “Animals” literally everyone got down like animals! Yo! Next
up: Das Kapital!!! The DJ act I was most excited for. Ironically he opens up
with “Lords Of Salem”. I find it funny as people regularly accuse him of
infiltrating our brains with satanic music, people are just narrow minded and
ridiculous, the joke is over people! DK
got the ladies shouting “I LOVE YOU!” and climbing on the railings and ish! He
also played another ironic track called “Scumbag” by Bro Safari (rell the
soundbender remix). I highly recommend you go listen to it. He was wearing a
Notorious B.I.G t-shirt, which was pretty gangster.
After DK’s set a hectic cool down was needed. Because in two
hours was Hyphen, Sibot and then PENDULUM!!! on the Electronic Stage. COMMENCE COOL DOWN. And we’re back at the
Electronic Stage. We arrived there to hear Hyphen playing one of the greatest
dance songs ever “You’ve got to show me love” … if you don’t dance to that song
please re-evaluate your life. Personally, Hyphen was my favourite on Saturday
night. He got me dancing so hard and jamming like there SERIOUSLY was no
tomorrow. The crowd shrinked as Twelv & Thesis followed Hyphen. I wasn’t
impressed. I sat at the picnic tables watching them from the distance. Their
set felt like a twelve hour thesis.
SIBOT!!!!!! You booty shaker maker, you!!! (bows down and
repeats the line “I’m not worthy!!”) Sibot, joined by Toyota on Visuals, made
the crowd and I come back to life. I had to go dance right in the centre of the
crowd as I was getting cold though. But that made it all the better! When he
did his own track “Tronarist” (my personal favourite) every being in everyone’s body had shot to the
moon and back. That is all. SIBOT YOU ARE COOL! Don’t ever stop!
Pendulum, Pendulum, Pendulum. Where do I begin? First off thank you
RAMfest for bringing them back so that I can experience their awesomeness.
Second of all, thank you for making me realise how banging the stage set up and
lighting at the Electronic Stage was! I mean seriously! Lazer lights all over
the show and smoke machines that actually didn’t choke you! Pendulum, I like
you. No. Pendulum, I love you. You have a new fan. Honestly, I haven’t heard
their music before. But RAMfest sold me. I danced, I jived and I shook stuff
that shouldn’t be shaken! And then…. I was broken. I had to go back DOME. Yes
dome - as in tent. I lay there on my mattress. Snuggled in my RED sleeping bag.
Just listening to the sick tracks of Pendulum and hearing how bat shit crazy
the crowd was going for it. (I could hear it from my tent, I swear.) A few
moments later… I was out.
SUNDAY ALREADY? Why?! No!! Then I remembered; “Tailor,
11:00am, be there” and YAY me, I woke up in time for her set and the comedy
hour! The comedy was funny, duh. A few brave troopers after the Saturday War
were found at the BOOM! Stage. Anytime someone got up to go to the bar… or
home, they were commanded by the comedians to “SIT BACK DOWN!” My favourite
joke was when one of the comedians (forgive me for forgetting his name, this
was Sunday after all - but he was funny), accidently knocked the mic stand and
said something along the lines of: “Sorry Posh Spice! WOAH! You picked up
weight!”. I’m still laughing at that. You can see in Tailors eyes and body
language that she is passionate about her music. She treated us to songs such
as “Step Back” and “Wolf” and also a song “Rich Man” which she wrote after
travelling to Mosselbay to play a gig and then told she couldn’t anymore. Be sure to see her livesometime.
By the time we had to pack up our things, I was crying baby crocodile tears on the inside. I didn’t want to leave! I was living
my dream at the Circle Of Dreams! Maybe I'm biased because this was my first music festival.
Maybe I’m biased because I think the Fourie brothers are the coolest and
kindest dudes ever. Maybe I’m even biased because literally all my favourite
acts played. But RAMfest, you get 10000000000 out of 10 from me. See you next
year.
My soul can rest easy... I have seen The Kooks perform “Sway” and it was amazing.
I was so excited on the days leading up to the event on Saturday April 20th. What was I going to wear? Fellow Kooks fan and I decided band t-shirts would work, we are cool like that. She - Crash Car Burn, me - Jim Morrison. When we arrived at Maitland Secondary School, I was pleased to see how smooth things went. Parking was done orderly, the line to get searched and ID’s checked before entering the bus went swiftly and then actually getting on the bus after a few minutes wait, gave me nothing to complain about. The bus trip was a quick one to Salt River Studios, the secret venue for the concert. A massive warehouse, used for films, adverts, etc, was the perfect venue to fit the thousands of Kooks fans. Upon arrival we were once more searched, asked for ID and got our tickets scanned. Oh* we were also given free chewing gum at the entrance. 
In between all of this my friend and I managed to hit the porter-potties, what I believe was the longest bar ever and the food stalls. All really well done, YAY to 5 Gum. I was outside when I heard the first strumage (yes I think I just created a word) of guitar to The Kooks’ first song “Ooh La”. It was amazing to see how everyone ran, fast walked or shimmied their way to try and get as close as possible to the stage. My friend and I found other friends and stood on top of random block things around the bar area, to be able to get a clear view. Ah. I was so happy. An indie paradise I called it. They did my favourites such as Sway, How’d You Like That and crowd favourites such as Junk Of The Heart and Naïve. After making ladies swoon and men reconsider their sexuality, the guys came back to do a two song encore. Ending with Naïve and I’m so serious when I say the crowd went ape to it. My favourite image was that of ladies sitting on their boyfriend’s shoulders. Luke Pritchard, front man extraordinaire, and nice looking too, you sir… are quite suave. Once they ended everyone pretty much decided it was time to go. Everyone walked in an orderly fashion toward the buses. But the vulture inside of us all awakened and it became a zombie apocalypse to catch a bus. I loved it! I found it absolutely hilarious.
