Civil Twilight's Summer Sunset Concert

With the looming probability of ‘sunset-twilight’ and ‘glittering-vampire’ jokes, I went to the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset concert. The lounging began early with yesterday’s gammon coming to the party and bringing his friends salad and wine. It was a festive atmosphere with a lot of Cape Town’s arty types making their way out in the beautiful sun.

After time spent lounging on the grass catching up with friends, and hearing about how pretty much everyone around me knew the members of Civil Twilight from Cape Town days except me, the concert started. Civil Twilight started and the crowd were like “they’re starting to play”, so we listened.

As a person who really only knows Letters from the Sky it was great to hear the songs fresh for the first time, although I do feel Civil Twilight are a bit of an acquired taste so think I need to go back and listen to them again. The falsetto voice makes it tough to just jump into the vibe, but their talent is obvious especially when the lead guitarist started using a cello bow on his electric guitar.

The song that stood out most for me was Quiet in My Town which is a slow building song, that kicks in really nicely. It’s quite deep and talks about how things are messed up but nobody seems to be noticing or saying anything. Go give it a listen.

Another thing which always surprises me is how Christian their lyrics are “but until that day I'll find a way to let everybody know that you're coming back, you're coming back for me (Letters from the Sky).” It’s great to hear and see people who are Christian making great music that is listened to internationally regardless of spiritual and religious beliefs. Music has always been a place though where Christians seem to show their creativity. I just hope there becomes a greater move into other forms of the creative especially film and theatre.