Kidofdoom - Friday 25 Feb - Ramfest 2010
photos by Genevieve Woodley
photos by Genevieve Woodley
Showing posts with label Ramfest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ramfest. Show all posts
Monday, November 15, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
We pray for moments like this XXXVI - Ramfest - 25 Feb 2010
So I've survived the sweaty hell of doing the decor for the Dynamo stage and I didn't explode during the sweaty not-hell of my last set with Jo Fo. After those two were over you'd think a Ben could just chill and enjoy the festival. But this isn't the case- I've still got two important things to do:
Straight after the carnage of Johnny Foreigner ends I need to start preparing for a new kind of carnage. 3 of the Doomers were already on stage for the end of Jo Fo's set, so that only leave's Makkie that needs to get up on stage with us. A brief change over later and we're ready to switch the soundtrack of the festival from fight pop to doom.
What follows is totally sweet. But honestly kinda bitter-sweet. Firstly there's the fact that Barend can't be playing this show with us. As awesome as it is having Makkie in his place, it feels so wrong not having Barend on this stage. And also, having just played my last show with Johnny Foreigner, I can't help but occasionally think about how this could be the last time we play as Kidofdoom. With Ryk having just moved to Cape Town nobody's sure what the future holds for the band. Ramfest is the band's last booked show and knowing this could be the end I just go nuts.
But it's over all too soon...
After we pack up I can finally check in on the Dynamo stage for the first time all night. It's rocking. We head back to lock up our gear, drop by the campsite to grab a drink and fresh t-shirt.
Spend the next while hanging at the Dynamo stage. Which is a mad party. Lapse is playing and people are totally loosing it to his set. Pretty soon it'll be time to complete my last obligation for this crazy crazy day. I get into the Red Bull truck, plug in my headphones and get ready to bring the Sass.
I get the impression that the whole night this stage has just been playing Cape Town style electro. I figure it'll only be right to turn things on their heads with some Pretoria style rock and roll. Cue Martian Martian. People freak out.
Looking out across the hundreds of people and screaming to Jean's sounds I wonder how many of the people in this tent were amongst those that caught Martian Martian live on our first tour back in oh six?
Things escalate from here. The energy in the place is just mad. When I play Test Icicles someone decieds it'll be a good idea to try "stage dive" off the bass bin that's mounted on the back of the van. This reults in something tripping all the sound. Dead silence. People dash around, plug things in and out, try turning it off and on again.
In the big scheme of things the loss of sound for a few minutes isn't a big deal. By the time I can start playing again the tent is feeling a little more empty, but those that have stuck around get right back into it.
Personally I feel like I should be rocking out a bit harder myself, but after and epic train raid down, straight into creating the decor for this stage, straight into the johnny Foreigner set, straight into the Kidofdoom set, my energy levels are getting pretty low.
By the time I finish my set, I am finished. I'd love to party in the tent for a while longer, but the only thing I can do is head to our tent and crash.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
We pray for moments like this XXXV - Ramfest - 25 Feb 2010
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.
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