Hot acts, sweaty bods, injuries at Oppi

Published Aug 12, 2015

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I’m sweating through my T-shirt, trying to watch LA Cobra perform ’80s-style rock to a barely-attentive crowd. Girls with crop tops and coochie-cutter shorts are plenty. Boys in super-tight jeans or animal onesies or nothing but shorts also abound. And there’s always someone with a cast on their foot or arm, hobbling from stage to stage. Always.

Here’s a recap of what went down at the 21st annual Oppikoppi music festival which took place over the long weekend.

The Good

Friday – day one to those who forget days and dates once on the Northam (in Limpopo) farm – was chilled. Aside from a chance to see some of the raddest bands all on one farm, Oppikoppi is a great opportunity to watch new acts. Some are interesting, like Cazz, a singer-songwriter who does more covers than original songs, but sounds promising. Manny Walters sounds like a Cody Chestnutt who has been hurt one too many times.

The Parlotones played on the main stage and entertained a crowd that keeps getting younger and younger.

Saturday saw UK band, Livingston – which has two South African members – set the bar for mic control (a struggle sometimes for the bands on the Skellum stage) as well as stage presence. They were a pleasure to watch.

Nonku Phiri’s first solo outing on such a big stage was a success as she, armed with her MacBook and decks, sang and rapped. Her interpretive dancer, clad in a burka-like head- dress, and another girl with an Afro joined her on stage and were distracting to the point of annoyance.

South African rockers, Taxi Violence, reunited as a quintet for an invite-only gig on the Windhoek deck. Because there was no stage, the guys played to their core fans and the media in the front and even got in between them, close to the bar to make everyone feel as though they were really a part of the performance.

The Bad

Oppikoppi’s gift and curse is that there are six music stages, one comedy one and a Bos acoustic stage. So, on one hand, it’s difficult to see everyone on the line-up. But on the other, if the music is annoying you, you can move on to something else. It’s cool to add a comedy stage, but the repetition of gags is wack.

Instead of Loyiso Gola telling us he Uber-ed to Oppikoppi again and again, it would be nice to have the comedians only play one or two sets. Simmi Areff was a major highlight and John Vlismas also killed. Speaking of killing it, the Red Bull stage was also on fire on Saturday and Sunday.

House heavyweights, DJ Zinhle and Black Coffee, played on Sunday, while Saturday was astronomical raps with the awesome Yugen Blakrok (who was joined by Gin Grimes and Fifi) and dance-driven prima-stof vibes with Okmalumkoolkat. Kid X was particularly disappointing because after a string of artists who actually performed live, his DJ played his songs while he basically just ad libbed himself. Mad disrespectful. Then he brought newbie, Yanga, out to rap some songs they did together and some new material. Because they make a similar style of music, it became really boring to watch two people sounding like one when neither of them are singers.

The Dusty

Dust in your nose. Dust in your boots. Dust on your clothes. Dust in your mouth! Everyone goes to Oppikoppi knowing that dust is a part of the package. But when you’re at the dance-heavy Red Bull stage, or mimicking Karen Zoid whip her hair back and forth with a ferocity even Willow couldn’t muster, dust becomes a way of life (for the weekend).

I’m not sure if it was the dust that tried to sabotage Josie Field and Laurie Levine’s much-anticipated performance at the Top Bar on Sunday. They were on at the same time as a collaboration performance staged by Albert Frost, Toya DeLazy and Lee Thomson – which doesn’t work unless they’re only singing Frost’s blues. So I missed the first part when Josie or Laurie might have explained why Josie’s voice was completely hoarse. In the last half of their performance, Josie played the instruments while Laurie sang beautifully. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t experience what the pair had planned. Oppikoppi is loud and hot and advocates to be whatever you want it to be and there’s one thing everyone can agree on: the trek up to the Top Bar on the koppi will make you respect your strength or hate your throbbing thighs the next morning. So rest up till next year.

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