Cape music pick: March 11 2011

Hip-hop, reggae and rock come together this weekend.

• Kudos to the curators of this year’s Night Vision festival for showing that the Cape Town Festival’s ‘One City, Many Cultures” mantra needn’t be wishful marketing spin. After a three-year hiatus, the Mother City’s free-to-the-public street festival returns with an impressively representative live music line-up. High Voltage Collective’s f-emcee EJ Von Lyrik, ragga toastmaster Theba Shumba and rapper D.Form surf through a frenetically funky mix of dancehall, hip hop, roots reggae and rock in the warm up slot. Mozambican dub rockers 340ml then perform subversive joints off their Sama-winning album, Sorry for the Delay, followed by indie rock darlings The Dirty Skirts. But the big news for kwaito fans is that Big Nuz’s Mampintsha, Danger and R Mashesha romp through minimal-techno and kwaai-house rapped hits off their SAMA-winning album, Undisputed in the headline slot. Added attractions include a vibrant carnival atmosphere complete with street parade, market, roving buskers, stilt-walkers, mimes, jugglers and more.
  
  Night Vision, Cape Town Station Forecourt & Adderley Street, March 12, 6pm. Entrance is free.

• After the ‘next big thing’ rhapsodies subside. After the SAMA snubs. After the international breakthrough never comes. What happens to a hip young Bellville indie rock band whose ‘Dutch Courage” becomes ‘Against All Odds” alienation? When supporting adult contemporary rockers Just Jinger starts making sense? If you’re aKING, you go back to basics. You hire a new guitarist, let your bassist play keyboards and start de-and-reconstructing what set your sound apart in the first place. ‘Even though the lyrics are still cynical in places, we really wanted to get back to a feel-good vibe,” says lead singer Laudo Liebenberg about their new album, The Red Blooded Years. ‘The title refers to our experience of growing up….. I suppose it’s the themes of youth which sort of chronicles our coming of age, as a band and as individuals,” explains drummer Snakehead Venter.

  Fugard Theatre, Caledon Street, District Six, March 11, 9pm. Entrance is R130 to R150 (including CD). Book at the Theatre’s Box Office on 021 461 4554 or at Computicket. Website: www.computicket.com.