This is How it Went

Cape Town, Saturday 7th August 10pm. I found myself drowning in a vigorously moving sea of adolescent darkly-clothed bodies, awaiting the release of a build up of excitement that began a few days earlier, and it was the moment the roar of the crowd was met with the opening to ‘A Devil in a Midnight Mass’ that I realized not only that this is going to be absolutely mind-blowing but that I had made the right decision in ignoring all those stubborn, ‘I’m too cool for Billy Talent’ hipsters and instead listened to my inner voice that told me you will not regret this.
Sure, Billy Talent’s more recent album ‘Billy Talent III’ may have lost them quite a number of early fans, but a true fan of their great first and second albums would have to have been insane to pass up a very reasonably-priced concert, showcasing a band that may have only lived a short but good life on their IPod playlist as well as getting them through their problem-laden high school days. A mere night of nostalgia aside, their concert actually did more than just take you back a few years, it showed us how an epic live concert should be.
The opening act of the night was some band from Australia who somehow managed to sneak themselves onto the line up at the last minute. Apart from providing the crowd with a laugh because their drummer looked like Bill Cosby, their sound would have been better reserved for that Sunday afternoon slot after a three day festival when most people have already gone home. The small crowd which they managed to attract was in fact dancing to the chilled summer-afternoon beat emanating from the stage but it was hard to tell if it was the music doing it to them or those ghastly R30 double Vodka and Monster concoctions.
Following this, we witnessed some local talent by the awesome Taxi Violence which were definitely a well-chosen addition to the line up after they managed to pick up the crowd’s waning spirit and brought an intense air of rock and roll back inside the Three Arts after the crowd were almost lulled to sleep with the random choice of John Mayer’s music being played over the speakers between the bands. After Taxi Violence warmed up the crowd, some energy levels, mine included, were slightly lowered again from boredom after the tiresome, ‘I’m just here to steal the limelight from Billy Talent’ performance from Francois Van Coke and his Fokofpolisekar adaptation, Van Coke Kartel. The only good thing I could see coming from them being there was maybe to remind the crowd that they’re still in South Africa so when a big overseas band like Billy Talent arrives on our shores we must be grateful.
After the opening acts were done and we’d decided on what else we can choose from the disappointing choices at the bar, we returned inside the theatre clutching our cans of Castle to be hit with a rush of excited energy mustered up from the overly enthusiastic crowd anticipating the arrival of this Canadian super group to the stage. After that well-chosen and brilliantly performed opening song, we were all treated to a double dose of awesomeness with a not too sparing sprinkling of rad for the next two hours as they performed a superbly selected set list consisting of their hits and the all-time favourites. To my relief they achieved a good balance in playing songs taken from all three albums. To my surprise and my dismay, at a point between swaying blissfully to ‘Surrender’ and jumping high enough to hurt my converse-clad feet to ‘Line and Sinker’, I noticed a number of onlookers sitting motionless and expressionless on the sidelines and the clear distinction between the true Billy fans and these kids who were just there to look cool dawned on me. And I thought that the ‘cool thing’ was to not go watch Billy Talent? I suddenly thought of all the real fans that would have killed for a ticket but had to miss out thanks to these eager-beavers representing hipster image chic, buying all the remaining tickets.
After the amazing climatic closing of the show with ‘Red Flag’, the band was gone from our sights and I was left with this euphoric sense of a high. The only way to describe it would be to imagine how one feels after the countdown to midnight at a drunken New Year’s Eve party where all you can do is hug and kiss the stranger next to you. I don’t think that I’m alone in my smug satisfaction from realizing that many of the decisions you make with your own mind turn out to be the best decisions you’ve ever made.