The first edition of the Uprising Festival eight years ago was organised by a group of 15-year-old skater punks with one stage, four bands and a focus on faux-punk and straight-edge music.
The latest, which started at Durban’s Bat Hall last Friday, is a good indicator that the pimple cream has been chucked aside and that the festival has gained a musical maturity and inclusiveness centred on the potential of local music.
Genres now include hip-hop, reggae and the quirkier side of folk-pop, with the four-day event being staged at venues ranging from the mall-rat haven of Umhlanga to KwaMashu township.
The South Jersey Pom Poms (SJPPs) opened proceedings on Friday night, with the full, orange moon hanging heavy over Durban harbour. So it was perhaps apt that their set included an interpretation of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon. The song was pregnant with hope and longing with vocalist Eva Jackson splintering the lyrics with tiny shards of unattainable love.
The SJPPs recently returned from playing at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival and the group (Jochen Zeller on acoustic guitar, Grant Emmerich on drums and Ben Murrell on bass) appear in fine fettle — as tight as Pandora Peaks in a Wonderbra.
As evidenced by the band’s eponymous debut album, languid, bluesy ruminations set to intricately playful guitar melodies and textural accents by Emmerich have been the band’s musical staple so far.
These remain on two new songs performed, Too Slow for the Fast Lane and The Sailor Song. Yet both hint that the SJPPs are experimenting with speeding things up a bit. The Sailor Song, especially, swerves from softer melodies and quieter spaces to high-tempo crescendos — a rollicking good move as it allows Jackson a greater palette for her vocals.
Next up was the six-piece Christ-core group from Durban, The Rising End. Whatever one makes of the band’s lyrics, they are raucously good when it comes to rocking out.
Producing effortless hardcore with “doom vocals”, (banshee) screeches and acid-swallowing screams from Will Edgecombe and Aidan Collier, the set was punctuated by the sort of frenzied mic-diving (30 or so kids converging on a mic to scream lyrics and body-surf).
Guitarists Mark Ferris and Frank Steven delivered high-octane melodies while the rhythm section of drummer Damien Lindece and James Claassen (bass) knitted together a fast and furious set.
That these guys can play great music was underlined by songs such as His Father, which highlighted their feel for melody during its quieter moments before breaking into mayhem.
Another Durban outfit, The Gonzo Republic, followed The Rising End. Comprising Clay Human (vocals), Josh Beechley (guitar), Steve Du Plessis (drums) and Noj (bass), the band appears to have extracted influences from the best of recent emergent guitar bands – think Snow Patrol to Franz Ferdinand — to come up with a sound that nods in appreciation to genres outside rock: jazz and funk, for example.
Superpower is a fine example of the sound with riffs that are both angular and melodic and a grooving bassline veering towards stompier reggae-punk.
Johannesburg’s five-piece Tidal Waves closed the live section of the programme with a blend of roots reggae, rock which veered into the punkier and the funkier and African guitar influences including maskanda.
The maskanda elements were strongest on songs such as RaPolitiki, where it provided a clean melodic counterpoint to the more frenetic punk-rock of the song.
Comprising Jacob Welana (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Sam Shaol (drums and vocals), bassist Lucky Mtholane, Ruben Faku (keyboard) and Jaco Mans on lead guitar the band is, within a South African context, innovative in their music.
However, constant pandering to sometimes repetitive reggae frameworks distracted from their musical capabilities. With their guitarwork, for example, ranging from punk and dark-rock to the sort of miscegenated sound pioneered by the likes of Asian Dub Foundation, a bit more variance would have kept the yawns at bay.
Nevertheless it was a storming end to a gig best appreciated for the various interpretations of the lead guitar by the various bands.
The Uprising Festival continues at the Gateway Mall’s Wavehouse on July 26. Bands include The Rudimentals, The Meditators, Sibling Rivalry, New Academics, kidofdoom and the City Bowl Misers from 7pm. Tickets R90. Check out www.uprisingfest.co.za