Thomas Krane at the Waiting Room

A few months my friend, Stephen the Meaven, introduced me to a band called Thomas Krane. I really enjoyed the album and when I heard they were coming to Cape Town we decided that we’d have to go to a gig. So last night they played at the Waiting Room and we trundled down Kloof Street to the gig.

We arrived early and played some foosball upstairs. I’d like to say that the Waiting Room is awesome. I haven’t been in a while, but its great and it just reinforced the fact that it is my favourite live venue in Cape Town. Sure the sound can suck sometimes but the sound usually sucks at live venues, it’s almost a prerequisite.

Anyway, back to Thomas Krane. The two-piece band (apparently sometimes there’s four of them) is made up of lead singer, Dan Hampton, who plays guitar and distorted bass, and a girl, Mary-Anne Hampton, who stands and plays drums and sings backing vocals.

They have such a unique and new sound which is great to hear from a South African band. It gets tiring listening to G-C-D all the time, and it’s great that there are people making interesting music. I really hope they get more recognition and start playing bigger gigs. South Africa needs music that is interesting, well written, and expressive like Thomas Krane.

The entrance for the gig was free, but still the Waiting Room was hardly packed. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the gig, I just wished more people were there to enjoy the music. It saddens me a bit that people have to make gigs free, and have to give away music for free (you can go to https://www.facebook.com/thomaskrane to download songs for free).

I say “high five” to Thomas Krane, and hope to go to more gigs.

PS. One thing though, they seemed a bit down. Maybe they’d had a long day, or just were tired after the tour in Cape Town but the energy wasn’t fully there. Although it does compliment the deepness of the music, possibly a smile or two more would’ve been the order of the day. But other than that, definitely a band to watch.

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.