Photo Album: Blood Brothers @ Carnival City

This past weekend I was one of the lucky rock fans to make my to Blood Brothers at Carnival City. There is no doubt in my mind that this musical collaboration (which has been dubbed the “South African version of Kings of Chaos” by some) was one of my coolest experiences of the year (and possibly my whole life).

We hopped on the High Five Party Bus at Chefs on Decks around 4 PM and made our way to the East Rand (and some of us even remembered our passports). The bus ride to Carnival City was filled with high fives, good tunes, laughter and lots of Jose Cuervo and before you could type “#Cuervolucion” on your phone, we arrived at the venue.

Excitement pumping through our veins, we hit two of the bars at Carnival City and we hit them pretty hard, but managed to keep our cool until the show started. Just after 8 PM the fun started with Kobus De Kock Jr and George Van Der Spuy singing a good cover version of Audioslave’s “Cochise”, followed by Francois Van Coke singing the vocals to Fokofpolisiekar’s “Antibiotika” and I immediately realized that it was going to be a long and rocking night.

It was great hearing songs like Springbok Nude Girls’ “Giant Love Affair”, Goodnight Wembley’s “Time Machine”, the Black Cat Bones’ “No Place Like Home” and other legendary South African tracks as well as rock classics like Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”, Nirvana’s “Smell Like Teen Spirit” and Pearl Jam’s “Spin The Black Circle”, but my highlight of the show was definitely the last two songs in their 34 song set: “Ghost of Tom Joad” & “Rockin’ in the Free World”.

I have to admit that Blood Brothers was totally awesome and I really hope that the organizers do this again next year. They could totally rotate the musicians (just like the organizers do for “Kings of Chaos”). The show ran smoothly, the bar cues were fairly short, the bathrooms were clean and it look and felt like everyone was having a really good time.

Kudos to Rudi, Henre and everyone else involved in making this show at Carnival City a success, special thanks to @BaasDeBeer for entertaining us on the bus ride and to High Five Party Bus for getting us there and back in one piece and a high five to Jose Cuervo for keeping us hydrated.

Cape Townians you are in for a treat at Grand West on the 23rd of September, so make sure that you buy tickets on Web Tickets NOW, before they sell out.

Watch this space for regular updates in the Music and Photography category on Running Wolf’s Rant.