The 6000 miles My CokeFest 2008 review

Snappy title, eh?

Once again, I was blown away by the differences between UK and South African concerts. People here are so conservative. To be honest, I’m glad I did things this way around. I’d be bloody terrified if I found myself down at the front at Glastonbury if I’d only ever done SA gigs before. There’d be other people around for starters. Within touching distance and everything.

So yes – things started a little quietly, despite the promised 100,000 watts of music power.

First up, local boys Shy Guevaras. Great start. If you’re looking for a good example of their work, try Little Suzie, which you can download for free – gratis! – here. And I advise that you do exactly that.

Next: Van Coke Kartel. Bloody dreadful. High point of their shouty, amateur performance was some pelicans flying overhead. Never seen that at a rock concert before.

Thankfully, Prime Circle reaffirmed our faith in South African bands. Given the honour of being to only SA band to perform at both MCF gigs, they did a tidy, if unspectacular, run through of all their favourites, finishing with a big performance of Live This Life.

And then the much vaunted international acts. Starting with Jared Leto and 30 Seconds to Mars. Now here, I had a bit of an issue. I’m not a huge fan of the music and I am not a huge fan of the hype surrounding Mr Leto.
I so wanted to hate them.
But I was actually very impressed. Sickeningly impressed. Grr.

Without a doubt, 30STM (or more particularly, Jared) took the award for Best Showmanship of the Day. There were more F-words than in Chapter 6 of the Oxford English Dictionary, plenty of utterly outrageous posturing, heaps of repeated praise for “this beautiful country” and even a climb to the stage roof about 25 metres up.

30 Seconds to Mars      Up there! Stage left!
30 Seconds to Mars. Can you spot monkey boy in the second pic?

With my first unforeseen highlight still sinking in, on came Kaiser Chiefs. I was very concerned that they would bomb completely – when you look at the the line up, they stuck out like a pale face in Uganda.
But maybe the heavy rockers needed a break. A bit of fun. Some choons. Maybe their infectious energy spilled out over the crowd, still a little overwhelmed from being called “Mutha******s” eleven times in a single sentence. Whatever the reason, Ricky Wilson soon had them won over and, despite almost killing himself with an impromptu race around the Golden Circle, he came a close second to Leto for sheer audacity.

Ricky Wilson      Sing!
Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson having it large – ambidextrously

Look, I’m not going to lie to you here. We watched Good Charlotte and Chris Cornell from a distance. I was in need of food, the wife suddenly remembered that she was 5 months pregnant and needed a break and Good Charlotte are not only gruellingly commercial to listen to, but are also pretty unpleasant to look at as well. Especially if, like me, you have a mild aversion to tattoos.

Chris Cornell played at dusk and was all atmospheric, polite, steady and professional. He did his Bond theme, he did some Audioslave stuff, he did Black Hole Sun. There was a distinct lack of excitement though, but hey, the guy is 43 years old. Bless.

And then. Muse. Had I built them up too much?  I almost did that with REM. But no. They were everything I expected and a whole lot heavier on top. It was an hour long set and it went by in 5 minutes. That’s how good it was.
And the crowd went wild. For a band that get very limited airplay over here, they certainly have a big following.

Muse      Matt Bellamy 
Muse. Wow.

Musically, it was impressive too. I don’t want to come over all knowledgeable like some sort of sycophantic expert muso (geddit?!?) or anything, but jislaaik! Matt Bellamy knows what he’s doing with a guitar. And a piano. Awesome.

And then we left the gig with several thousand others (I did warn you that would happen) and listened to Korn from the house. Which was still a bit too close really.

All in all, a great experience. Some disappointing bits, but with 9 bands on the bill, you’re going to be lucky to like them all. 5/9 was a pretty acceptable result and the 5 in question were particularly impressive.

Photos are on flickr, as I hinted earlier and as several hundred people have already worked out. Enjoy.

31 thoughts on “The 6000 miles My CokeFest 2008 review

  1. I’m friggin bummed I missed Muse, when I left for Canada, I was stoked cause I figured I’d actually get a chance to see them, since it looked like they would never come to SA. And look what happened. You lucky sons of bitched, you all in SA.

  2. Aww I’m so proud, you couldn’t hate them 🙂
    I feel a bit bad for korn though, their following has grown a bit older and tired of the screaming – it did irritate me while I was trying to go to sleep and I could hear the drone of the far off concert though.

  3. Rob – Well, they weren’t actually that good.
    Oh no. Wait. They WERE that good. Sorry for you.

    Koosh – They (30STM) were great live. I won’t be buying the album though.

  4. I find him a bit too girly WITHOUT the eyeliner, when he adds it…he reminds me of a great aunt I once had.
    It’s a pity really, he’s not bad looking…in a girly way.

  5. Sheena – You’ll have to join the queue behind 95% of the females that were there on Monday.

    Koosh – He needed a shave. Just my thoughts.

  6. Yeah, I’m like totally gay, live in cape town, don’t find a dwarf sized man that wears eyeliner hot…must be true.
    You pried the secret out of me 🙁

  7. Sheena – Still working on it. Slow head on today….

    Koosh – Ha ha! Love it! 😀 He swears too much as well. But you like his toes?

    EDIT – Maybe that’s all you can reach? Gosh – he is quite short, isn’t he? I never realised. I never cared.

  8. I find that Muse was the most awesome live band I have ever seen. I was making my way to the front from when Prime Circle were playing (whom I totally can’t stand) and I didn’t leave for a beer or a piss or food or anything the whole day…all just for muse and by the time they played i was completely dehydrated but at least i was right in the front!damn they were just so good,it was well worth it. as for 30stm…they were okay but The White Stripes would have been waaaaay better. without needing any eyeliner or climbing up the stage…or swearing like sailors

  9. Lucas – Welcome to 6000 miles… Yes – have to agree – Muse slipped neatly into my top 3 live performances ever, and I’ve seen a few. White Stripes would have been good, but as I say, I actually enjoyed the 30STM performance too.

  10. Now listen here you nasty people. I really really liked KORN. I thought they were really good and my mum enjoyed them too. It was great listening to KORN knowing that I didn’t have school in the morning. I think that was the best bit.

    Godz85@gmail.com

  11. Jonathan – Hey Jonathan. I had to edit your comment a bit to take the swear words out. Good luck with your exams!

  12. Mr 6000 – have you been doing mischievious things to people’s comments? If so, well done!

    Sounds like a great day, and don’t feel sad, as five out of nine ain’t bad (as Meatloaf would probably have said had he been there.)

  13. A few hours until you are formally announced as the top blogger in the country. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll eat olives. Good luck. 🙂

  14. Natalie – There’s a really big one each year close to you. No excuses!

    Bridget – Do you like olives? I like olives. No, seriously – I know I’m the best – all I need to do is to get others to recognise that too. 😉

  15. Armchair Critics

    This country is in advanced stages of corrosion
    From the State to government to legislature
    From the presidents to the paupers
    From the master to the slave
    No direction is given from the top
    Which is at best, top heavy?

    Everyone wants to sit back and shout the odds
    Nobody wants to step forward and take the initiative
    Everyone wants top positions and peak salaries
    Nobody is prepared to give their best
    Life is too easy in the fast lane
    Reparation is the name of the game
    Skills and job creation
    Are words lost to this nation.

    The minute glass is losing its sand
    Are we all doomed here in the promised land?

    -(C) 2008 Sonny Cox

    Sonny Cox’s last blog post was: Armchair Critics (Note: 6000 miles… is not responsible for the content of external internet sites)

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