mama know nothing & mercurial

yes, so I know we're all giddy with this sort-of summer, and we can't stop saying Happy New Year even if we don't know what date or day it really is, but really - it's time to go back to work now and start paying off your credit card . (To console yourself, of course, you can always spend every other waking moment at your favourite watering hole trying to recall what it was like to be free.)

A good choice for that tonight would be at Upstairs (Royale on Long) featuring the talents and allure of Mamma Know Nothing and Mercurial - a cross-section of indigenous alternative folk. Yummy! Get some country in the inner city. Get some funk in your fine bodies. And yes, it IS my fault, actually. That’s what happens when you connect people under the auspices of a party...

he he he he.

raw and boundless : taxi violence in belville

i don't think i survived the weekend. was it the music? the sleepers, josh grierson(Mercurial), taxi violence. but then, according to the stone roses, you don't have to wait for death for this kind of heaven in the first place. if i am writing from beyond my skin, just know that you can still catch them live. who?

my perennial princes :

Taxi Violence

.

it was an acoustic set at Kuns Kafee in Belville Saturday night. between the backend of nowhere and the beginning of beyond ("behind the boerewors gordyn"), where old school meets new wave, the boys blew us away.

everything about them is understated and sexy.most of all the naturalness with which they live their passions and give it all to the music.

this time, louis (drums) strummed a geetar. they rearranged the songs to suit the scene. it might have been acoustic, but it was more powerful than anything i've yet heard from them - a tempered intensity. the guitars that sing. stop. drop. climax. a vocalist whose whole heart is in every breath. vocal harmonies that blend perfectly to court the guitar. drums that underscore the earth and fire in everything, that punctuate and perforate the harmony enough to move it from vibrating though your flesh down to your bones to redesign your blood. a steely crescendo that takes you higher and higher and deeper until

until?

it's like drugs. like love. it's the finger of the sun breaking into a dark vacuum.

Taxi violence is the consequence of synergy

Josh Grierson (Mercurial)

I don’t think there are words. But I will pull some together anyway. Considering profanity is my profession.

I have never been belted by beauty. I think. Disarmed, distended, upended; yes. But belted, no. Not until Josh (performing variously as Mercurial, Emokidjosh, and Josh Grierson, and often grabbing a mic during Taxi sets). As a precursor to its magnitude, I was knocked over by his voice during sound check - blasting though two doors and three walls over every other plugged instrument. With no mic. Thank heavens I was sitting already.

Then he came on stage, unassuming, warm, easy. And slaughtered us with the sweetest sounds. One man standing.

If you’re old enough (and no I’m not, but) think human rights concert 1987. A girl with a guitar. Captivates the whole crowd. (that was Tracy Chapman). Only, this is a guy. And we’ve got our rights. Or so it says in the constitution. This is a guy, with a guitar, and the voice of a vengeful angel.

This is what they call dumbstruck. Never mind the thunder.

It’s dry lightning with a kiss at the end. Just like last night’s almost-storm.

Josh Grierson's voice made my soul cry.

Use your rights. open your ears. and let him sing the sin out of you.