Is rocking out the old and rolling in the new on your list of things to do before 2010 is nothing more than a distant collection of live-music memories?
Then, Evolver One, along with Van Coke Kartel and Merseystate are setting course for the Purple Turtle in Long Street on Sunday at 9.30pm to help you do just that.
Over the festive season, music fans keen to take in the best summer has to offer have the choice of intimate club gigs, outdoor festivals and club-thumping nights from the country’s finest.
Evolver One is one of the many bands performing in and around the city before we welcome in 2011.
Lead singer Peter Pote, keyboard player Sean Murphy, bassist James Cohen and drummer Tulsa Pittaway are touring the country in celebration of their third album that’s about to be repackaged and released as a monster-double disc.
Eponymously titled, Evolver One comprises of videos, a bonus track, and dance remixes from some of the biggest names in the business like DJ Hertz and 5fm’s Roger Goode. That said, the band does its best work in front of an appreciative audience. With 500 shows and stages shared with the likes of Staind, 3 Doors Down, Hoobastank, Snow Patrol and Oasis, Evolver One is well rehearsed to play out their new single We Are Listening along with popular hits such as Closer To You, Pretty Thing and perhaps even their biggest, Let’s Get Naked.
“We have done a lot of charity and social responsibility work over the past three years,” Pote said.
“At one point a lot of the gigs we did were around highlighting the HIV/Aids pandemic and it didn’t seem appropriate to play Let’s Get Naked, for obvious reasons. So much so we didn’t include it in any of our shows until very recently, when people started asking for it.
“It doesn’t change our view that people should protect themselves… There’s a point where a song needs to be seen as that and not a literal call to action.”
Since 2006’s debut album Get Up and 2008’s follow-up What’s The Story, the band shifted its focus to a bigger slice of the global rock pie. First off was a slight name change, from Evolver to Evolver One, in order to not be confused with one of the other six bands in the world insistent on using the name.
“It’s become symbolic,” Pote explained.
“Since the name change we seem to be a lot tighter, focused on the same things. We also used the opportunity to clean up our act and even went through an image change.”
The once wild party animals are now taking things a little slower than what they perceived a rock’n’roll lifestyle to be.
“It took me meeting Liam Gallagher from Oasis to make the shift,” Pote recalled.
“He was completely sober and in the moment. I had expected him to be anything but that, especially after everything I had seen and read over the years, but he wasn’t. He was able to give me and other fans an amazing show because he and the rest of the band were there to deliver the best show possible – and they did. If we can do that without any liquid assistance, why wouldn’t anyone?”
Besides the name change and new-found focus, the band took the best of their latest album and added a whole bunch of extra goodies, all of which will be released early in the new year. “When the new album sold out, we decided to repackage and ‘supersize’ the next run of discs,” Pote said.
“Having our music played in clubs is something I’d never have anticipated, but thanks to some lateral thinking from the likes of people like Roger (Goode), it’s happening.”
Next year looks set to be busy for Evolver One, with keen interest and airtime in places as far away as Mexico and the US. “Thanks to a chance meeting between our drummer Tulsa and a visiting Mexican DJ, our music is now being played and enjoyed there.
“We now have a bigger active online fan base in Mexico than we do here…We’re focused on laying a solid foundation, though, before we pack up and head across.
“For now we’re looking to rock out the last few days of the year and with Merseystate and Van Coke Cartel along for the ride we’ll be going out with a right royal bang!”
From rock to all things dance: Catch Goldfish at St Yves in Camps Bay this and every Sunday through February as part of the weekly Submerged Sundays residency. If the trendy set isn’t quite your vibe, slip on something comfortable and go the festival route. For fans of DSTV’s MK, the channel is on tour and bussing its way to Die Kloof, next to Stables restaurant in Stilbaai, on Monday under the banner of ‘Die MK Avontoer’. Prepare for a mixed bag of tricks from Jack Parow, The Pretty Blue Guns, Glaskas and Wrestlerish, among others. The travelling minstrels then move on to Die Skoffelsaal in Hartenbos on Tuesday, and from there it’s on to the Diaz hotel in Mosselbaai on Wednesday, the Sandbaaisaal outside Hermanus on Thursday, with a final curtain at Mykonos outside Langebaan on New Year’s Eve.
l Tickets to see Evolver One at The Purple Turtle are R50 at the door. Tickets for ‘Die MK Avontoer’ are R70 to R100 at Computicket. The cover charge for St Yves’ Goldfish Submerged Sundays is R100 at the door. - Cape Times