***** Click here to read the TOUR DIARY *****
Friday, December 24, 2010
DURBAN TOUR 2010: Diary
After playing a few shows in Johannesburg, Night Sky Empire decided to go to Durban to play some shows before everybody there leaves for the December holidays. Taking into account that they know some people there and that they had some places where they could sleep, they self-booked a small tour, tried to get some well-known bands to play with them and ignored the small list of attendees on the Facebook event page.
Thurday, 18 Nov
The tour started and we left Joburg – myself Cale, Thato, Harry and photographer Musa Nxumalo – all happy to get out of Joburg and have a little bit of a holiday. After listening to many CD’s, having to change a tyre and stopping a couple of times to take some snapshots, we decided to stop off in Pietermaritzburg and spend the night there. There we could sort out everything for Saturday’s show and get to meet some of the nice folks from that small city.
Friday, 19 Nov
From Pietermaritzburg, we continued on the road to Durban. There we met up with Alistair, with whom we would be staying. He conveniently lived up the road from The Winston Pub, probably Durban’s most infamous bar and one of the few live music venues in the city.
We headed to The BAT Centre to sort out a backline for Tuesdays gig and then to the beach before having to be at The Winston for sound-check. Unfortunately, before we were about to start playing our show later that night, The Winston was raided by police and without being able to produce some of their licenses during the raid the show was shut down. Luckily for us we were added to the line-up for the upcoming show on Wednesday.
The miserable and bleak Night Sky Empire, along with some of the friends who had come to the show, then went out to party.
Saturday, 20 Nov
Still a bit bleak from the night before we went to the beach and then out to buy some clothes as we’d be staying longer. This made us feel a bit better, plus we bumped into some cool local folks at the supermarket who we’d been talking to when we started to organise the tour and they invited us to a braai. We hit the braai later on and chilled with some of the local punk bands and witnessed some intense dog fights.
In the evening we headed back to Pietermaritzburg to play our show at The Red Door - Pietermaritzburg’s only alternative club and one of South Africa’s best live music venues. We met up with Tosch again, who we’d be staying with and we also met the other band that was playing with us - Thomas Krane, a really cool indie/rock band that had only 3 of the 5 members playing tonight.
We were next up and had a really enjoyable show. Afterwards we were interviewed for an online magazine and hung out until the club had to close. We definitely would love to play at The Red Door again, one of our best shows so far.
Sunday, 21 Nov
We slept over at Tosch’s lovely house, very similar to old houses in Melville, with a beautiful garden and even a small river running through the property. We relaxed and listened to many albums on vinyl, highlights included King Crimson and an obscure electro band called Space from 1977.
We dropped Musa at the bus stop as he had to get back to Joburg for work the next day. Later on we headed back to Durban to catch Tree Houses On The Sea performing live at the harbour.
Monday, 22 Nov
Today we bought a new car tyre and Thato had to sort out his toothache. We also went to Umhlanga to check out the lagoon and see some family. We took some cool band shots too.
Today we bought a new car tyre and Thato had to sort out his toothache. We also went to Umhlanga to check out the lagoon and see some family. We took some cool band shots too.
Our second show in Durban – The BAT Centre. A lovely arts and culture centre right on the harbour that has live music every Tuesday (Good Music Tuesdays). These shows pack and this was one of our biggest shows. We didn’t really think it was the greatest of shows because of some on-stage sound problems, but afterwards people said they thoroughly enjoyed it and that it sounded great.
Wednesday, 24 Nov
This was one of the best days of the tour. We got to check out the city and the botanical gardens and actually play at The Winston. Purity, vocalist for local Durban band Fruits & Veggies, wanted to link up so we could hang out and chill before playing together in the evening. She dropped us a text that was on the lines of: “Oh, you do know that it’s drag tonight, right?”
We really didn’t know, but it seems to be quite the thing in Durban. Apparently it happens every once in a while and dudes even own a dress for the once-in-a-while-drag-night-at-the-winston-with-some-bands-playing-in-drag-too.
Purity was super eager to go buy some clothes for us to wear and because we didn’t want to be the odd ones out at the party or stop Purity from probably one her best shopping experiences we agreed. We headed back to The BAT to fetch some equipment we’d left behind. There we bumped into Rowan and he chilled with us for most of the day as we headed into the city to get lunch. We picked up Purity and went to the botanical gardens. Then we went to try on our clothes for the night and hence we had no one take any footage of us playing in dresses.
Skollie Jol was the name of the show. Dudes looked like chicks, and the chicks had dicks, and moustaches. Skollie played a great opening set of his acoustic punk tunes and we played a cool show too, sounding heavier than ever. Fruits & Veggies then rocked it hard and we partied into the night as our tour was over. We’ll definitely be back. It was awesome.
Thanks to everyone who made the tour possible and who helped us out in anyway. Also thanks to Musa and the event organisers and sound engineers. Special thanks to Alistair, Tosch, and Sue, and of course everyone who came out to support us.
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