Music, for when the lights go out…
“So rattle your cages
And rattle your bones
But don’t leave me hear alone.
‘Cause God isn’t with us
The Devil don’t need us
You’re gonna have to make it on your own.”
-Red Crow
It’s the middle of the night and here I sit trying to find the words. There can’t be many things harder than trying to recreate, to describe, the feeling of remembering something you never realized you had forgotten.
I first heard the above lyrics on the 27th December last year at a gig at Kirstenbosch . It was a bad day and the only cure for it was an Ashtra
y
Electric gig. I don’t believe I had never heard of Pretty Blue Guns till I purchased my ticket. When PBG started playing I grooved along with the rest of the playgoers, thinking this is groovy stuff and planning on checking up on it at a later stage, but this plan was left as a smoldering ruin on my boots as I got up to head the lavatory area and I heard the chorus of Red Crow.
The only thing I can compare it too was the first time I heard Bob Dylan’s
Chim
es of Freedom Flashing and in those few lines I got back all the faith I had lost: my faith in love, hope and solidarity.
I then went on a possessed pilgrimage to find the album. However, the song was not on the album but it offered me some of the most incredible songs I had heard in a long,
long, long, long time. Yes, a very long time. I realized I had to meet them and this is why they are the first band featured by The Marauders.
Our chance came on Saturday the 30th January at Zula Sound Bar in Long Street. Stoffelus and I prepared ourselves emotionally, mentally, physically and sexually for the night in the space of the week leading up to it. We arrived at 8 o’clock in time for the supporting b
and’s sound check. On our casual stroll to the bar we discussed how we were going to work this gig and if we dared ask for an interview but as luck would have it the shadow on my left turned out to be the lead singer Andre Leo. I took a leap of faith and calmed myself to a mild panic and introduced us. Unlike the other arsehole “rock stars” we met over the last few years Andre was warm and genuine and granted us an interview after the show without making us get on o
ur knees for it. I then told him how much I loved Red Crow but as I didn’t know the name of the song I attempted to hum it to myself to remember all the lyrics but the words fled me and since I wouldn’t let him tell me because I was determined to do it alone (I think it’s a Leo thing - go figure) he said they might play it in the set.
At eleven they start playing and floor is flooded. Andre, Brandon, Greg and
Lucas get onto stage even them quite, dubious wallflowers felt it all come together during No Good. The entire performance was an odessey, despite each song being different and creating a c
ompletely new atmosphere with each opening chord there was a definite cohesion in the why t
he songs were brought across in such a raw way and the ebb and flow between feeling of love and lust.
Before Andre ended the gig, as he promised with Red Crow, he explained wha
t
inspired it to be written - it was not what I had invisioned, nor will I say what it was because firstly it's not my story to tell and secondly because it would change the meaning for you when you go out and hear it. I think that Dylan was right when he said that when a song is written it's not just good for him or even good for him at all but it must be good for somebody. On this album you will find one good for you. When I asked Andre what inspired what he wrote about he claimed it was not only our "remarkable world" but to write songs others relate to and to not be self-in
d
ulgent (at this point Greg bursts out that Andre is his inspiration, the romance of it all was startling).
So guys and dolls this is it, you heard the story and it's time to go out and testify. Go to a gig, hear a song and bring the love.