For someone who doesn’t care much for live music I’ve been
to quite a lot of live music situations in the last few weeks. It’s not that I
hate music in gen, but I’ve had a complicated relationship with it throughout
my life. My earliest memory: I was still of single digit age, and I was singing
in the backseat of my parent’s car when my mother suddenly couldn’t deal, and
she broke the news to me, that I absolutely could not sing. She was right of
course and I can’t hold that against her sweet soul. My parents have always
been the supportive encouraging type, even when I got D’s in school, which was
most of the time, they made me feel like such an achiever. So it was a pretty
big deal for my mother to be like “Nah nigga, stop, no and don’t”. My mother
doesn’t speak like that but you catch my drift.
Anyway, second music memory: I was about 12 and a bit of a
flaming queen with purple overly styled relaxed hurr, and for some reason I
couldn’t stand music and oranges, except Dolly Parton (may she live forever). I
eventually got back into music in the early 90s, mostly hip hop (because as we
all know hip hop is life itself), around Eazy E days, as a fag raised on gangsta rap, but it was never the
same. I never got back into oranges, fuck citrus. To this day I prefer to
listen to music only on my headphones, which I do a lot of. I hate having music
play openly in the house, something the arty music loving live-in lover
considers a punishment for his past life sins. Ag shem, arme ding.
So with such a complex relationship with music I’m sure you
can imagine how tricky live music is for me. To be fair, there was a time over
a decade ago in my early twenties when experimentation with all things
psychedelic saw me chase around any opportunity for live acts and the dancefloor,
but that was then, I was young, skinny, beautiful, high as fuck, and
invincible. Now, the thought of tripping out fills me with schedule 6 anxiety,
in large crowds nogal, no.
I’m rambling a bit, and I’m kind of forgetting the point I
wanna make, or if I even had a point. Anyway, ja, I’ve been to these events and
I saw these artists live, at mostly intimate events, all within the last month or so, and I thoroughly
enjoyed them, some with a beer in hand, some whilst I was sober. I recommend you get to know them if you still don't. I’m
kinda hoping this is the beginning of a new relationship with live music for
me. Yay. Enjoy, or not, whatevs.
ZAKI IBRAHIM @ CITY SOIREE
THE OH SO CONTROVERSIAL DOOKOOM CREW @ STRAIGHT NO CHASER
OKMALUMKOOLKAT @ ROCKING THE DAISIES
UMLILO @ ROCKING THE DAISIES
