Friday day is not a whole lot of fun. I spend almost every waking minute in a sweltering hot tent, cutting out thick pieces of cardboard, climbing around tying decor to stuff, fighting indirectly with fat men in suits.
Hooking up the decor, visuals and robot suits for the Dynamo party isn't all bad though. Over the course of the day dozens of people land up helping MJ, Brendon and I out and we actually have a lot of fun.
A few hours before the stage opens, Dynamo veterans Col and Cam flying in from Jozi and help bring everything together. By the time the Midnight Men start spining their disco, the space looks pretty damn awesome. I'm super proud of what we've hooked up.
Dario and Pierre play a fantastic set while we finish off final touches. Then I dash up to the campsite, have a quick wardrobe chance, get my gear out the storeroom and race to the main stage. Fast forward less than an hour and I'm having as much fun as I can imagine ever having.
It's pretty heartbreaking that, with every note my final show with Jo Fo is drawing closer and closer to closing. But I can't imagine a more perfect stage to be going out on. It's a festival, the stage is huge, thousands of people are watching us, and best of all, my visuals are twice as big and ten times as bright as anything I've performed before.
The daylight screens behind us are built to outshine the fucking sun! If I bring the intensity on my keytar all the way up it's WAY too bright. For the first time in my life it feels like the visuals are almost something tangible. Like some kind of scalding hot lava I can launch at people every time I hit a key.
Across every show of this tour, Jo Fo have saved the best for last. Getting a guest guitarist in on the already epic "Coast was Always Clear" has ended each set of this tour on a massive high-note. The only downside of this monsterous finale is there's no way we could hope to play an encore that wouldn't seem anticlimactic. But at Ramfest tonight "Coast" evolves into what could be the most powerful moment I've shared with a group of people on a stage.
Not knowing whether to get Kidofdoom's Rykmaster or Richard to do the guest guitar the band opt for both. Spitting out the last flashes of visuals alongside 2 doggies that have been my rock and roll brothers for the past 4 years, is just awesome. I wanna explode. But it's only when I spin around and see 4 bodies standing around the drum-kit that it becomes too much. Joe Doom, Marco Iso and Jaco Fokof are huddled around Junior, all four of them manically bashing on a piece or two of his kit.
Out the corner of my eye I can see Anja and Skat just rocking out; fight-pop go-go girls.
Churning out searing images of ghosts and lazer-cats while 10 people on this stage explode in a catharsis of noise. A sea of people staring up at us. Knowing Peter's on the other end of that ocean, burning holes in their retine. Hearing Lex screaming "some summers got grace, some are all over the place". Behind me the four drummers sound like the horsemen of the apocalypse.
It's just way to much. I've got tears streaming down my cheeks and I honestly don't think my mouth could physically be stretched to smiling any wider. And this is it, the last few moments of playing visuals with what could very well be my favourite band on the planet. Tick, tick, tick. I can't push myself to play any harder, move any faster, but I have to. "Some Summers, Some Summers!" Blur, blur, blur, bang, bang, bang. "... OH GAWD!!!". And that's it. Game over.
Friday day is not a whole lot of fun. I spend almost every waking minute in a sweltering hot tent, cutting out thick pieces of cardboard, climbing around tying decor to stuff, fighting indirectly with fat men in suits.
Dario and Pierre play a fantastic set while we finish off final touches. Then I dash up to the campsite, have a quick wardrobe chance, get my gear out the storeroom and race to the main stage. Fast forward less than an hour and I'm having as much fun as I can imagine ever having.
It's pretty heartbreaking that, with every note my final show with Jo Fo is drawing closer and closer to closing. But I can't imagine a more perfect stage to be going out on. It's a festival, the stage is huge, thousands of people are watching us, and best of all, my visuals are twice as big and ten times as bright as anything I've performed before.
The daylight screens behind us are built to outshine the fucking sun! If I bring the intensity on my keytar all the way up it's WAY too bright. For the first time in my life it feels like the visuals are almost something tangible. Like some kind of scalding hot lava I can launch at people every time I hit a key.
Across every show of this tour, Jo Fo have saved the best for last. Getting a guest guitarist in on the already epic "Coast was Always Clear" has ended each set of this tour on a massive high-note. The only downside of this monsterous finale is there's no way we could hope to play an encore that wouldn't seem anticlimactic. But at Ramfest tonight "Coast" evolves into what could be the most powerful moment I've shared with a group of people on a stage.
Out the corner of my eye I can see Anja and Skat just rocking out; fight-pop go-go girls.
Churning out searing images of ghosts and lazer-cats while 10 people on this stage explode in a catharsis of noise. A sea of people staring up at us. Knowing Peter's on the other end of that ocean, burning holes in their retine. Hearing Lex screaming "some summers got grace, some are all over the place". Behind me the four drummers sound like the horsemen of the apocalypse.
It's just way to much. I've got tears streaming down my cheeks and I honestly don't think my mouth could physically be stretched to smiling any wider. And this is it, the last few moments of playing visuals with what could very well be my favourite band on the planet. Tick, tick, tick. I can't push myself to play any harder, move any faster, but I have to. "Some Summers, Some Summers!" Blur, blur, blur, bang, bang, bang. "... OH GAWD!!!". And that's it. Game over.
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