Music News South Africa

Partying like a blue tit at the Assembly

We arrived at the Assembly just in time to catch first band of the night dear john love emma who are as quirky sounding as their name. dear john love emma are a band of seven with a unique sound which is compiled from a fusion of different instruments and voices. There were the usual guitars and drums but also a synth, violin, xylophone, euphonium and mandolin in the mix.
Partying like a blue tit at the Assembly

Rather hard to classify this band but I guess one could call it a fusion of folk, opera, rock, jazz with perhaps a dash of country thrown in for flavour sounds quite disgusting on paper I must admit, but live they were quite sweet and delicious. Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea which was made apparent by some of our party companions comments but I found them refreshingly different from the usual SA indie band and definitely think they are a band to watch out for in the future.

Partying like a blue tit at the Assembly

Next up were the ever popular Plastics. This band is still pretty new on the scene but has been gaining much respect and exposure since winning the Red Bull Radar Battle of the Bands competition at Rocking the Daisies last year. The best thing about this band for me is vocalist Pascal's voice, nice and deep and growly, somewhat at odds with his fresh faced boyish looks. I can't help thinking he sounds a bit like Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys (minus the Sheffield twang) and actually the whole band has quite the arctic monkey feel about it. Nice fun danceable music all around.

Partying like a blue tit at the Assembly

After taking a bit of a hiatus it seems like The New Loud Rockets are back on the indie scene. This was my first time seeing them and hmm… I guess they were alright; I wasn't blown away and can't say that there was anything that made them really stand out as such. The vocals were pretty much indistinguishable which unfortunately seemed to be a bit of a theme the whole night. This was sort of ok for first band dear john love emma whose lyrics were mostly operatic aahs and omms but increasingly frustrating for The Plastics and Rockets. They weren't really bad or anything I guess I was just expecting more from the headliner and more established band of the night. For me the night belonged to dear john love emma who charmed and impressed me with their quirkiness.

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