Averral Sole is the latest alternative rock band from PE. The band consists of four members; Wouter Botes on drums, Zane Britz on guitar, Jo-Anne Nomsa Mattheus on bass guitar and vocals, and Arno Erasmus on lead guitar and vocals.
The name Averral Sole has a special meaning to the band. The word "averral" means to make a statement. While "sole" carries the meaning of "uniqueness". So if one had... to explain the name of the band in one sentence, one could say it means: Statement of Uniqueness.
This can also describe the music of the band. Though the bands music is predominantly rock, each song has a different genre hidden beneath the rock exterior. Some of the hidden genres one can recognise, includes: reggae, pop, metal, country and a few others. The music and lyrics are mostly written by the whole band. The band writes mostly of everyday life, love and a bit of anger here and there.
Each of the members has a lot of experience in the music industry. Arno has been playing guitar since the age of 6, and started performing at the age of 10. Arno has been invovled in performances with the Centrestage cast for the last 3 years, and has performed with various acts at the KKNK. All of this, and Arno is only 20 years old.
Zane Britz has been in various rock and hard rock bands. Zane and Wouter were in the band Draining Patience, after that they formed the band The Northaern Lights. Jo-Anne later joined The Northaern Lights as their lead singer. The band didn't go on long after that. Zane, Wouter and Jo-Anne started jamming together just as Wouter started a new job outside of his music. That is where he met Arno who decided he wanted to jam with them. They then formed Averral Sole.
Together these band members have a lot of experience in quite a few different genres, I mean, 3 of the members have even played in boere orkeste, while two other members have come from playing in cover bands and have played as session musicians for big Afrikaans artists.
On the 23rd of September the band had their launch. The launch was so that the band can introduce themselves to everyone interested in the music scene, so that they can be heard. The entrance fee to this gig was free, and was held at Toni's Place in Newton Park. The venue was packed, and the atmosphere was electrifying. Before Averral Sole came on stage, The River Kai had opened for them. The lights suddenly went off, the smoke machine blows a big cloud of smoke, the strobes are flashing, in the background is the sound of a spaceship landing. Suddenly all the lights go off, the noise stops, the people are quiet and staring at the stage as if we are waiting for the aliens to appear. Then, Wouter starts with a drum roll, and the rest of the band follows, opening their set with an exciting guitar solo, then they slide in to their first song.
The bands music has a good balance between fun, serious, hardcore and chilled. The audience enjoyed the music more than I had ever seen a PE crowed enjoy any PE band, especially when, at the end of the show, the audience started chanting "WE WANT MORE!" The bands next gig will be on the 8th of October at the Jesters Full Power Music Festival where they will share the stage with 8 other PE bands. Don't miss this gig, it promises to be big! For more info on this gig, go to: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=f50823d696de1baacd35af85a18d30f5&eu=TyqZwZS4ouNNwHnnljB8Jw#!/event.php?eid=145356355560198
To find out more about the band, go to: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=f50823d696de1baacd35af85a18d30f5&eu=TyqZwZS4ouNNwHnnljB8Jw#!/AverralSole?sk=info
Or you could just Google the band, it works.
Or email Jo-Anne on nomsaface@gmail.com
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Let's Dance! At Earthdance!
Earthdance...Earthdance. Makes me think of hippies, fun, music and sex, because sex just goes with everything I mentioned before it. And that is exactly what it is; The Earthdance Festival 2011 in the Eastern Cape. This weekend-long festival, held at Wacky Woods near the Gamtoos River, is a festival filled with good music, good people and good times.In previous years the festival only had DJ’s and stalls, but this has changed since last year. Last year was the first time they introduced bands to the festival. I remember this, because I was there. At the time I was still managing a band called The Northaern Lights (they, like every other PE band, have broken up). We got to the festival, which was quite small, only to see that this gig could just turn into one epic fails. And it did. There was no stage, there was no sound engineer to control the sound, they didn’t have any monitors, the drum kit kept slipping on the grass, the sound provided was of horrible quality and the DJ wouldn’t let us use his JBL’s (which is understandable since they’re going for about R16 000 each).
Even though that gig was horribly organised, we weren’t angry with the organisers, because they had warned us that they have never catered for bands before. So we understood where they were coming from. However, this year’s festival promises much bigger things, and much better planning. This year, the festival starts on Friday the 23rd, but the bands will be performing on the Saturday the 24th. The band section, which is called “Sun to Moon”, is being organised by Project Finger Blister. The owner of PFB says: “PFB Was a project that myself Chanel and a friend Andre started in 2009 to Get the bands that we knew were awesome, exposed and out there for the all to see/hear.
I’m pretty sure we all know how hard that can be! We got some of them together and succeeded in making a pretty rad "Disc of Demo's" from various genre's with a track or 2 from each band just to get a taste for them! We were quite impressed with the feedback, though sadly life did its thing and PFB was forgotten, last week I came across one of those discs and decided that it was time to give this baby some attention again”.
I’m pretty sure we all know how hard that can be! We got some of them together and succeeded in making a pretty rad "Disc of Demo's" from various genre's with a track or 2 from each band just to get a taste for them! We were quite impressed with the feedback, though sadly life did its thing and PFB was forgotten, last week I came across one of those discs and decided that it was time to give this baby some attention again”.
The line-up of the Sun to Moon segment of the festival is as follows;
· 11h00 Vergeet van Gister
· 12h00 Volksvyand
· 13h00 RocketPower
· 14h00 Voodoo and the Evil eyes
· 15h00 Bittersoet September· 16h00 The River Kai
· 17h00 HeyBangDead
· 18h00 Jam Room
· 19h00 Dear Martyr
· 20h00 Sick Day September
· 21h00 The Jack Rabbit Slims
· 22h00 Joe Alien
· 23h00 Huis Najaar
Tickets for the festival are: R200 for the weekend including a camping spot, or R150 from the Saturday onwards. You can also get the tickets pre-sold from Global Foods, 88 Heugh road, Walmer Port Elizabeth.
This festival is going to be crazy fun, but what else would one expect from such a line-up? We will see each other there! To find out more about this festival, visit one of the following websites:
Project Finger Blister: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=f50823d696de1baacd35af85a18d30f5&eu=TyqZwZS4ouNNwHnnljB8Jw#!/ProjectFingerBlister
Sun to Moon event: http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=f50823d696de1baacd35af85a18d30f5&eu=TyqZwZS4ouNNwHnnljB8Jw#!/event.php?eid=240842009291200
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Jesters: THE Alternative Club
So PE probably has one of the biggest music scenes in South Africa, but because it is so spread out and contains so many different styles, no one actually realises it. There is a big Afrikaans scene, a big folk scene, but probably the biggest scene of all is the Alternative scene.
“Alternative” in music terms means anything from Rock to Pop, as long as it is a band playing the music, or it is being played live, basically. There are a few placed where you could go to see a live act, but only one place in PE has been around for a while, and only caters to live acts. That place is called; Jesters Alternative Club. This little club has hosted some big names, local acts include: Crash Car Burn, Fuzigish and a whole lot more. They have also hosted a few international acts.
The club has been stereo typed as being a metal club, but I assure you, this is not true. At Jesters, the owners believe that any music played by a band should be given the chance to be heard. Therefore, they host different genres on different nights. They have metal nights for all the metal bands, rock nights for rock bands and so forth...Jesters is also probably one of the bars with the coolest staff and the best prices. They are very well known for their “Happy Hour”. With a generous glass of wine for only R7, a double brandy and coke for R15, and Jagermeister and tequila for R10 a shot, with prices like these, it’s understandable that people finish their drink so quickly, or often even buy 3 or 4 drinks at a time during this hour. Even outside of this hour, the prices are spiffing.
Jesters is situated in Central, which makes it great for everyone in PE. Wherever you come from in PE, it shouldn’t take you more than 15minutes to drive there. Even if you come from Blue Water Bay, it takes you 15minutes to get there! Jesters probably has the most interesting, friendly and happy crowd of people that hang out there. Everyone is chilled out, and there is no steroid-pumped air-heads trying to start fights for no reason. And if they do happen to show up, they are welcomed, and because everyone around them are so happy and chilled, they become the same.
The kids at Jesters are the coolest kids in town. They’re my favourite kids. You can find them at 92 Westbourne Road, Central. If you haven’t been to Jesters, you should come this weekend, or any weekend after that, there is always something happening. Check them out on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42483792450 I hope to see you there!
Lekker naweek!
Nomsa.
HELLO!!!!
Welcome to my blog; Gee Haar n Roos. My name is Jo-Anne, but you can call me Nomsa. Why Nomsa, you ask? We’ll get to that later. Every week I will make an entry, and I want you to read it, and if you want, you may comment on it. Besides, everyone is entitled to their wrong opinions, even I am.
Now we can talk more about me, well, not talk, read. YOU CAN READ! YOU CAN READ! YOU CAN READ! YOU CAN READ! (I used to own the whole series on video tapes). They call me Nomsa because I told them to. I think Nomsa is a kief name, and apparently (I don’t know how true this is) it means vagina in Xhosa or Zulu or something. That makes it even cooler. The name of the blog; “Gee Haar n Roos” means: “Give her a Rose”, which is the title of an Epic Afrikaans song. Google it.
I like to think that I know a thing or two about music and the music scene in general, since I am very involved in it. I “slappa da bass man” in four completely different bands, I have managed a band, I sing, I’m a “baarmoeder” (bar lady) at a music club, which you will probably also hear about in later articles. The bands I play in at the moment include: a Rock band(Averral Sole, check us out on Facebook), a cover band, an Afrikaans pop band(Mattheus. Yes, we play “sokkie bokkie treffers”, but we have never used the words ”sokkie” or “bokkie” in any of our songs) and a Boere-Orkes. You can see the Boere-Orkes on KykNet (DSTV channel 111) on the 1st of October 2011 at 21:00. I have played in punk bands, one metal band and I often do session work.
I am getting bored writing about me, lil-let’s get back to the blog. Right now I can not make any promises of how great my blog will be, or what I will write about, because these things just happen, but it will, more than likely, be about music. Though I will try (moderately) hard to entertain you with things I see and experience. Let’s see what happens...
Much Love
Nomsa!
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