by
Marley
Da Loose Mongoose restaurant is a beautiful place set out on
the Plaston Road (the KMIA road towards White River side) with big old trees,
excellent food and of course that chilled out vibe only
White River can
provide.
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| Food menu |
As a Lowvelder you know that the difference between Nelspartans
and White River peeps is a vibe thing. Almost like the difference between
people from Somerset West and Muizenberg or Pretoria and Pretoria North, you
get the picture. A few months ago I had the pleasure of chatting to Stefan
Retief – Vocalist of the locally famed band
Voetstoots, about his plan to host
a music festival over a day so. His aim was to give the musicians of the
Lowveld a chance to play not only at a different venue but also to a 'fresh'
audience. Despite mostly social media being used to advertise (which can turn
into one of those debates around the braai) the festival was well attended even
though it was over Easter weekend.
Over the course of the Easter weekend I met 3 American girls
at
Funky Monkeys back packers who are doing volunteer work in a village in some
far off place in one of the trust areas. I took one of them as my "date" and so off
we went on that warm and sunny Saturday afternoon to Da Loose Mongoose
restaurant. We arrived a bit late so we missed Quintero and Chris Phillips (I
had good reasons) but we landed straight in the middle of
Smook’s set. After
introducing my new friend to everyone and getting a cold beer, I had time to
sit back and admire the setup. A big canvas tent, a beach sand dance floor (which
reminded me of
STRAB’s beach stage) and the sound was really amazing. Pieter
Vogel, drummer of Voetstoots was the MC for the day and he looked sharp in his
Castle Rhino t-shirt.
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| Smook |
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| Blue Torch |
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| Blue Torch |
I caught up with
Chris Phillips and turns out he is moving
to Paarl in April for the sake of his music career. He is also known as
Augmented Strings but he recently decided to collaborate with different artists
hence
Chris Phillips - The Project was born. I must admit I will miss my friend and his music
(thank goodness for
SoundCloud) and I wish him all the luck in the world. He
has the potential to become one of those singer/song writers that just change
people's hearts, much like Jack Johnson does. I asked him how the sound was for
his set (considering Nelspruit has lost their best sound engineer to Cape Town)
and he said it was really great on stage, and that he could hear himself
perfectly. From where I was sitting I had no complaints either - big ups to
Stefan. To be honest I was so busy socialising that I hardly noticed some of
the musicians on stage but
Blue Torch got the crowd going with his well-known
covers. He is a regular performer at Pappas Pizza’s Sunday evening live music
nights and the older generation responded well to his voice. After his set I
was standing at the bar which was setup under massive thorn trees, chatting to
Mr Dave Walters of Mpower FM when I heard the call of the Didgeridoo. Joe Vogel
of
Chiba Fly took the stage and he looked like a one man band with everything
he plays within either arm or foot reach of himself. His brother Pieter joined
him on stage for a little djembe drumming session and before I knew it the sun
had set.
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| Joe Vogels - Chiba Fly |
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| Joe Vogels - Chiba Fly |
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| Joe Vogels - Chiba Fly |
The weatherman predicted rain but it only came well after
the Easter Weekend.
Phoenix Fire and Drum’s performance just before
Voetstoots
had the crowd in awe. I saw the height of the tent and the length of their
flames and I got a bit worried but Linda (one of the fire dancers) reassured me
that it was fine and there was nothing to worry about. It was more than fine,
it was fantastic! Raquel and Justin on drums and percussion built everyone’s energy
up and the 3 fire dancers George, Damian and Linda had me believe that they were
one with the universe. Fire shows are an amazing thing to see, I've seen many
but
Phoenix Fire and Drum have really shown us why they are so popular.
Next up was
Voetstoots and they had their fans up and dancing
right in front of the stage. I kept on thinking about what my mate Danie of the
Black Market Riots had said about playing to crowds that just sit and watch
your show instead of dancing, going nuts to the music and showing that they are
enjoying themselves. Even though it wasn’t the WHOLE crowd in front of the
stage there was a whole lot of dancing going on by the time they played their
last song. They were the perfect warm up for the main act, a Pretoria based
band called
The Smokin' Mojo's. I have seen them live before and a lot of
people asked me what I thought of them, well imagine
The Black Cat Bones but
without the craziness of
The Black Cat Bones... okay it’s not easy to grasp if
you haven't seen either one of them live but what they do is make an awesome blend
of blues, rock and folk music. I think some people were quite drunk as they
swayed about while other festival goers were dancing to the groove of the
music. I checked on my American friend who I found sitting next to Chris
Phillips (I think she likes him) and she confirmed that she was loving every
second of the day and night – good thing as that was the goal.
I slipped away just before midnight and I'm sorry I left
because this is when the fun really begun. Yip if you are a member on our
FB page you would surely have seen a picture of a car parked in a pool (which was
not mine by the way). This was the work of a local festival goer and yes, it’s
going to haunt him for the next few weeks or at least until next year’s
festival. I also apparently missed a spontaneous drumming circle after
The Smokin’ Mojo’s set. But, all is not lost as Raquel will be holding a
drumming circle later this month at
Bardolino Artist’s Retreat (Hermansburg road off the
R40 towards Barberton) on the 20
th April. My American friend caught a ride back to
Nelspruit with Chris (I did offer her a lift, she declined) but she ran into
some trouble when she got to Funky Monkeys. She found out they have a curfew at
the gate so she struggled to get to bed too. I on the other hand always get
asked why I leave "so early" or around midnight... Years ago when I
just started cutting my teeth as a party animal a friend said to me
"Always leave the party on a high. That way you don't hit the low. Plus if
you still drinking after 1AM then that is where the trouble starts"
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| Photo courtesy of Da Loose Mongoose FB page |
The 1st Mongoose Festival was an awesome way to fill in a
super long weekend. I thanked Stefan for keeping me in the loop of things. Stefan,
thank you for organizing the whole thing! I know you had help from your awesome
wife (who recently gave birth to their son who is so cute) and your band
(Voetstoots). Also to the good people of Da Loose Mongoose without you, our
beer would have been warm, our bellies empty and the festival homeless. Of course the sponsors that was also a huge and very important part of the success of this festival. And
don't forget the name because Da Loose Mongoose is a not a place to forget. To
the fans that supported the festival: you guys don't realize how crucial the part
is you play in live music. I know, I am one and hence why I blog about it, but
really, music wouldn't be the same without you all.
Thank you to the Lowveld for giving me some small hope again
for our live music scene.
**Note of thanks***
To Jacques Schutte of Schutte Fotografia for allowing me to use his excellent photos of the 1st Mongoose Festival. Check his work out on Facebook by
clicking here
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