Archive for the 'Music' Category

So with the dawn of our second last day in Joburg we decided that a late morning was in order especially as this was Dawid and Tracy’s last day in Joburg before heading on the long drive back to Natal. Dawid was in for a special day as well seeing it was his birthday so we were in for a nice large breakfast before they had to hit the road. So after our morning ablutions were completed we all gathered in the dining area and wished Dawid a happy birthday before we tucked into yet another scrumptious Amakoekoe breakfast. After we were done Newlande and myself went back to our room and played some DS and chatted while Dawid, Tracy and Steven aka Denouncer started the ordeal of packing up all their possessions and checking out of the guest house. Once they were done we said our goodbyes and thanked them for a wonderful time before I grabbed them for some group photos.

With the rest of the Amakoekoe gang gone me and Newlande were left on our lonesome and decided that we should grab hold of Graeme and Jarrod to see if they’d be up for some mall crawling and lunch. So after a good few sms’s to organise everything we managed to finally guide them through to our lodgings before hopping into Graeme’s brand new Peugeot and heading off to Northgate mall. We browsed through a few games shops and walked and talked before deciding to head into Spur for a nice lunch. While we were dining I spied out of the corner of my eye that the staff of the restaurant were approaching with a birthday surprise. Now none of us here were having a birthday so it was a bit of a shock when they stopped at our table and began singing happy birthday to Newlande who was so astonished that she said a few choice four letter words in Afrikaans before blushing crazily when the rest of the patrons began congratulating her on her ‘non-birthday’

With lunch done we headed back into Rage for the final time so that we could make good use of the smaller crowds and try to grab some hands on game time with the playable demos on show there. There wasn’t much new on show so I spent a pleasant 90 minutes just walking the show floor and checking out everything for one last time. So once we were done here we made our way back to the guest house and then proceeded to get hold of Deanen for our night’s main attraction, a Metallica tribute concert at Tempos. After some hassle in trying to describe to Deanen how to precisely get through to our guest house we managed to meet up with him and make the journey through to tempos.

After arriving at the gate and paying the entrance fee of R40 (Newlande got in for free because it was ladies night!) we made our one to one of several stages where bands perform every Sunday evening. There was a band by the name of Summit that performed some passable renditions of punk and alternative songs although I must say that their vocalist just couldn’t manage to pull off some of the songs. After sampling some tunes here we made our way through to the Metallica stage where we hooked up with some friends of Deanen’s and settled in for the evening’s proceedings. First up was a band by the name of Falling Aces that was quite good if nothing spectacular, but I was in for the surprise of my life when I saw that the one and only Barney Simon was the host for the evening! I’ve always been a huge fan of his so it was with a huge smile on my face that I got ready for the main performance of the evening. Without further ado we were presented with a South African band, White Rabbit, that performed some great covers of Metallica songs and really got the crowd pumped. So much so that Newlande went head first into the mosh pit with her pink Justice League t shirt! They really outdid themselves and gave a great performance of all Metallica’s big hits. Deanen’s brother was also fortunate enough to garner a free copy of the new Metallica album, Death Magnetic and a bottle of champagne for his moshing skills.

At the end of the concert we went through to Amakoekoe with Deanen and after he dropped us off we fell into our room exhausted from our day. We didn’t have the energy to get up to anything so we just lay in bed and chatted for an hour or so before closing our eyes and falling asleep in preparation for our big day, the trip back home.