In Retrospect: RAMfest 2011

Last year’s RAMFEST had none of the gritty edge that made last weekend the most debaucherous festival yet. The grit could be found in your teeth, as you stumbled back to your tent in a surreal dust storm that blew from the gates of hell. The grit could also be found in the Metal4Africa tent, where some of the hardest, and most talented, metal and hard rock bands of South Africa kicked up their own hellish excess. It was extreme and it was nasty, but it was the best line-up any true-blood metalhead could’ve asked for.

I was amazed at the amount of black-clad bad-asses that made up the audience at the foot of the metal stage. Having been disappointed at the poor show of metal heads at RAMFEST IV, I was glad to see that the tent was overflowing and that the ground was ripped to shreds by many disorderly mosh pits. The organisers had definitely learned a thing or two about South African metal over the last year and I like to imagine them sitting at the bars of Burn, Doors and ROAR, drinking a whole lot of Jack Daniel’s and taking in the scene. Although strongly dominated by Cape Town metal, this stage also had truly spectacular metal by some of Pretoria, Joburg and Durban’s finest. I was blown to smithereens by Contrast the Water, who hadn’t left much of an impression the last time I had seen them in Burn, many years back (but I think that had a lot to do with Burn’s notoriously atrocious acoustics). Mind Assault and A Walk with the Wicked were brutal, but insanely talented. I thoroughly loved the virtuosity of Sabretooth (who had the biggest mosh pit of the whole festival), but wasn’t impressed with Symphonic Schizophrenia, who played their instruments with an abandonment that somehow left out the musical part.

But the bands that really blew me away were the hard rock act called downonthefirst, who manage to produce a somewhat generic form of rock, but which is catchy, moody and tighter than a pair of spandex shorts. I immediately thought of the old SA rock act, Velve, and it turns out that one or two of the members come straight from that very band. The other great standout act was Pretoria’s Haggis and Bong, a somewhat whacky name for a truly great melodic sensation. Think finger-sweeps on a bagpipe and you will come to understand how unique this band is when it comes to the SA scene. They did to those bagpipes what druggies would do to lines of coke; they worked them hard and made me feel high in the process.

I was pretty much a constant at the Metal4Africa stage, although the Main Stage acts had their own gritty power; at least on Saturday. Friday belonged to the same-old indie bands that are being spat out all over the radio airwaves throughout South Africa and I pretty much avoided them. The Zebra and Giraffes of this world just don’t have any of the raw edge of rock and roll, a musical style which dominates the underground scene at the moment, and on which I feasted all of Saturday. The really dirty band of this scene is Cape Town band, The Great Apes. Although lacking commercial viability, like that of the Pretty Blue Guns, which has the same southern rock feel, The Great Apes put on the most insane performances. The frontman is like a distended puppet on stage and I half expected the crazy gluttony of the last gig I saw them perform, where they ended their set by smashing their guitars and kicking over the drum kit.

Saturday’s Main Stage opened with Mr Cat and the Jackal’s usual theatrical performance, but with even more bizarre thrown in for good measure – check out the pictures of the giant heads that they sported for the entire performance. I finally got to watch YourLMG’s darlings, Ree-burth. I wasn’t surprised by how good they are, and considering they are a hard rock act from a poor, black township, the guitarist was insanely talented. No hip hop upbringing is going to give you talent like that, so I am glad of the metal that permeated the shacks of Soweto and produced Ree-burth.

At the end of a full day of emotions, ranging from weird, to heavy, to melancholic (it was The Sleepers’ pen-ultimate performance with frontman, Simon), Saturday ended with a bit of funk, rage and a whole lot of draw-dropping energy. Unfortunately this came more from Not My Dog’s performance than from the headlining acts, Alkaline Trio and Funeral for a Friend. Most of the people I spoke to said that both AT and FFAF did not quite live up to their reputations. Alkaline Trio belongs to the past and, although it hit the nostalgia pretty hard, they failed to give me the energy needed to hit the front row. FFAF had the most dismal sound of any of the bands on the night and came out sounding flat. They were using insanely expensive equipment, which probably hadn’t been sound tested adequately. For international headliners, I really expected more, although I tried not to let certain biases cloud my judgment. For one, these bands, and the genres they represent, belong to a crowd of anguished teenagers, and having just experienced the most brutal metal of my life, I just couldn’t let go of the idea that I had progressed too far in my musical education to be appreciative of either band. Nonetheless, they had a good many people singing their songs back to them and most people there were stoked to have experienced them. I am glad they had such a receptive audience and I hope that more international bands will continue to rock our stages, even if they are only entertaining to a group of misplaced youths.

Music has always been my preferred drug. Standing in the crowd, watching one of my favourite South African acts, Knave, I felt my body transported to that place which they offer unreservedly. It was a raw, emotional ride spurred on by a complete trust in the elation of pure, unadulterated hard rock. There is no unpleasant comedown; I will never awake from the moment feeling less than inspired. I have always hoped that I wouldn’t be the only one, but after seeing how hard most were tripping on various drugs, I felt saddened by the inertia of today’s music fans. Nonetheless, I sense that RAMFEST will slowly return to the festival of old; offering more underground, dirty and untainted alternative music; leaving the indie acts, and their accompanying scenesters, to the more mainstream festivals.

On the whole, each and every band at RAMFEST demonstrated the highly skilled and professional level that South African music is easily reaching these days. From the insane guitar performances of the metal bands to the quirky vocals of bands like Isochronous, there was enough grit to this festival that I buried myself in it. RAMFEST has a kind of melancholic finality to it; bringing to an end the summer of festival psychosis. Really looking forward to what next year brings.

- Claire Martens
claire@musicreview.co.za