Paul van Dyk’s hair has gone blonde but his ability to entertain a South African crowd and make it look seamless is as strong as when he first visited SA, more than a decade ago.
Truth night club hosted Paul van Dyk and a bunch of local house and trance DJs who enjoyed massive success at the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s. Speedy, Morgan and most of their company made good use of the sound equipment available to them.
The event began at eight and ran smoothly until around 06:00 the next day. The bars were fairly well-manned. Sometimes it took a few minutes too many to get a beer but, on the whole, people were served. A bar did run out of vodka, however, at about 01:30. This may have upset some vodka Red Bull fans.
Truth has changed its look over the last few weeks. The decorations and marquee type covers were fresh on the eye on the first Friday in February; freshly set for one of the most professional DJs in clubbing history.
Mr van Dyk began by drinking something out of a coffee mug – he’s German, so let’s say it was coffee. This was while he was waiting in the DJ pit. He then knelt on the steps up to the stage as if he was asking the stage to accept him for his set. At 01:55, PVD, aka Matthias Paul, began a three hour plus set, with a smile.
A large portion of the set was dedicated to modern house typical of his newest album, Evolution. I wonder if he thinks he is evolving into a modern house DJ. His latest single, Verano was very exciting on Friday night.
Later in his set, he played some classics such as For An Angel. Towards the end, he remixed the likes of Snow Patrol and Hurts. His version of British art-rock newbies Hurts’ Sunday was moving. It was Saturday morning but he would do well to play it somewhere in the world on a Sunday.
Given that he has in the past had the second largest Miles & More frequent flyer account of Lufthansa, he definitely will.
For a man of 40, with over 20 years’ experience, he looked active and happy. If a DJ looks happy, his audience is likely to feel slightly too. He even threw his head phones around a bit, trying to look cool.
He looked cute instead but the audience kept on jamming. Maybe if he was full of pills and ripped his shirt off, he would look cool chucking things around. Actually, topless men at clubs do not look particularly cool. This is why it was even more entertaining to see Mr van Dyk, a slight man of about 5 foot 8 entertain hordes of clubbing maniacs and a few topless posers.
Paul van Dyk was one of the pioneers of the dance scene in Berlin in the early 90s. His brand has spread from that regularly trendy city to Johannesburg; a city which is trying to build an identity. Truth has helped develop the clubbing part of that identity.
Alistair Anderson
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Jozifest 2012
Jozifest was an interesting experience but it needed something special to be memorable.
The lineup was strong but too many recently popular acts pulled out or were rumoured to be playing and then did not. If festival organisers want to hold well-attended events in Johannesburg, they need to cater for their audience properly.
A few bands overcame some stage challenges but the event was average.
Apparently Haezer and Die Antwoord were supposed to play. They did not. Haezer played a Cape Town gig. He could not get a flight to play Johannesburg too. It seems rather odd to me but the independent dance music scene is small in SA. The organisers did apologise.
What is unclear is why Die Antwoord did not play. They played Pretoria on Friday but the Jozifest organizers claimed they had to do Letterman on the weekend too.
Then, it came to light they were playing Letterman on the Monday. They could have flown on Sunday night.
That is rather confusing. Surely, planning for Die Antwoord could have been better.
Nevertheless, Jozifest is a new event and it otherwise ran quite well in a few places.
The event took place in Newtown on Friday night and then from midday on Saturday until around 3am, more bands made noises on stages. Some even entertained their fans and one-off audiences. It got going by 8pm on Saturday, which is a pity because it meant most of the day bands played to small crowds. If locals claim to support local music, they should be at the festival for much of its allotted time.
One of the standout performances was Lark’s. The members’ chemistry does not wane. Inge Beckmann was very entertaining on stage too. Lark’s crowd was bigger than most other bands’ crowds. The large crowd may have given the performance something extra. It stands as a lesson to music goers in SA. If you can get a big crowd together, the gig will be better.
Other highlights were 340ml, with a rare appearance, also aKing and Josie Field.
The sound on the main stage was weak. Apparently, it is difficult to get good acoustics in this Newtown set-up. It was still disappointing. Although, by the time Lark played, the sound had improved. This was around 11pm, strange. The dance and DJ stages were decent and their sound was far superior.
Next time, the main acts for the main audience should perform on the stage with the best acoustics.
The food was decent even if beer choice was limited to Amstel for much of Saturday.
It was a fairly fun, if average event but R150 was not excessive for two days of entertainment. The lineup proved to be good. With Haezer, it would have been better and pulled more of a crowd.
Alistair Anderson
The lineup was strong but too many recently popular acts pulled out or were rumoured to be playing and then did not. If festival organisers want to hold well-attended events in Johannesburg, they need to cater for their audience properly.
A few bands overcame some stage challenges but the event was average.
Apparently Haezer and Die Antwoord were supposed to play. They did not. Haezer played a Cape Town gig. He could not get a flight to play Johannesburg too. It seems rather odd to me but the independent dance music scene is small in SA. The organisers did apologise.
What is unclear is why Die Antwoord did not play. They played Pretoria on Friday but the Jozifest organizers claimed they had to do Letterman on the weekend too.
Then, it came to light they were playing Letterman on the Monday. They could have flown on Sunday night.
That is rather confusing. Surely, planning for Die Antwoord could have been better.
Nevertheless, Jozifest is a new event and it otherwise ran quite well in a few places.
The event took place in Newtown on Friday night and then from midday on Saturday until around 3am, more bands made noises on stages. Some even entertained their fans and one-off audiences. It got going by 8pm on Saturday, which is a pity because it meant most of the day bands played to small crowds. If locals claim to support local music, they should be at the festival for much of its allotted time.
One of the standout performances was Lark’s. The members’ chemistry does not wane. Inge Beckmann was very entertaining on stage too. Lark’s crowd was bigger than most other bands’ crowds. The large crowd may have given the performance something extra. It stands as a lesson to music goers in SA. If you can get a big crowd together, the gig will be better.
Other highlights were 340ml, with a rare appearance, also aKing and Josie Field.
The sound on the main stage was weak. Apparently, it is difficult to get good acoustics in this Newtown set-up. It was still disappointing. Although, by the time Lark played, the sound had improved. This was around 11pm, strange. The dance and DJ stages were decent and their sound was far superior.
Next time, the main acts for the main audience should perform on the stage with the best acoustics.
The food was decent even if beer choice was limited to Amstel for much of Saturday.
It was a fairly fun, if average event but R150 was not excessive for two days of entertainment. The lineup proved to be good. With Haezer, it would have been better and pulled more of a crowd.
Alistair Anderson
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