letcher in the forest

so last night was an absolute anomaly in terms of durban social life; there was simply too much on the go and happening to do it all. ridiculous; we bitch and complain that nothing goes on in this town, until it all goes down together, and you're forced to either pick and chose (something im not entirely good at) or you run like a bat out of hell and try to do it all. i chose the latter last night and my god was it worth it. firstly let me explain all the options; an art exhibition opening of the works of a friend at bean bag, a band 'cabins in the forest' playing at the kwasuka (more friends), chris letcher on the final leg of his SA tour before going back to england at thunder road cafe on florida, and the durban launch of familia skate dvd at taco even further up the road (not huge on my list but it was happening and was big). sjoe. so, as i said, i decided to be a complete loony, and with shanna in tow, we did it all. it was a stress at times, we were running around slightly headless at others, but smiling all the way. colwyn thomas is a phenomenally talented artist, and so it was awesome to see his works up at bean bag (among other absolute shite). he's becoming really well known for his light boxes; beautiful drawings and photos enhanced by light features behind. then oddly enough, his brother gary, and friend andy, form cabins in the forest; certainly one of the best acoustic gigs i've seen. what made it great was that the theatre is small and intimate, and the crowd mainly of friends (durbs seem good in supporting their own), so the gig was really relaxed, and fun and intimate in return. those two are fantastic; all in all the evening was a showcase of great talent and skill, and what you can do with it. shan said it perfectly when she called them guitar manipulators; they use that instrument to its fullest potential, and their music blows you away as a result. its kind of along the lines of early decemberists, my morning jacket, early gomez, but totally unique and their own. and damn do they have that smokey, whiskey voice done. so blue grass. the problem with the evening was that the letcher gig was to start half way through the cabins one; hence the serious timetabling and strategizing that went done. if we left a little before the end of cabins, we could catch half way onwards of letcher, but unfortunately miss the opening of the south jersey pom-poms (who are also meant to be really good- its too much im telling you). the area around kwasuka isn't terribly kosher (and we had parked much further away than expected), so Neil got the text that letcher had started, we managed to fit the end of cabins, and bolted like mad things for a lift to the car, a speedy dash up the road, and try to squeeze into a very small venue to catch even just one last song of chris. woohoo for us (but stupid on behalf of the venue) it was so crowded inside, but there were window seats, so we managed to watch quite a few songs of greatness from the pavement. the venue is nice and all, but far too small of a person of his nature, particularly with a large following in durban, so many people were all squashed up on the pavement, trying desperately to see anything. at least the sound was pretty decent, and being small girls, we managed to fit into gaps, so could see and hear just how much more awesome this guy seems to get each time i see him over the years. too rad. so all in all, the evening was too great, too fulled with smiles, amazing music, and fantastic people. wait, there isn't such a thing as too much right. to top this all off, I'm going for sushi tonight for dinner and another great friend is up from cape town for the weekend; can this week get any better?! (thesis is going too dont fear, finished another chapter yesterday! is that light at the end of what tunnel?)