The 94.7 Unplugged sessions started beautifully with the great Jack Parow performing acoustically. It was a historic evening for the Afrikaans rapper who flipped music on its head with the release of his debut single, Cooler as Ekke, in 2010.
The idea behind the sessions is to enjoy top South African artists in a sophisticated setting with an unusual twist. They have chosen The Venue in Melrose Arch to showcase bands performing acoustic versions of their music. These sessions happen every second Sunday, with the doors opening at about 7pm.
This is a great concept for many reasons. First, the mega city of Joburg, which is considered the media and entertainment capital of southern Africa, is severely lacking in live music venues. Second, many mainstream South Africans would never consider going to some of the dodgy places that were around in the past.
The 94.7 Unplugged sessions provide bands with an excellent venue with professional stage and lighting so that they may deliver their music in a world-class environment.
Parow did just that on Sunday night. Armed with only an acoustic guitarist and a drummer, he was enchanting and had given much thought to the re-interpretation of his hip hop.
On bigger stages Parow is all machismo and aloof, in true rap fashion. However, for this gig, he showed us his soft side. He smiled throughout every song, clearly enjoying himself. He relayed stories about each track humourously, with one of the highlights being a song he wrote for his newborn daughter, a track called Bevok. It had the women in the audience shrieking with love after every verse, it was that cute.
Adding to the whole show was Louwtjie Rothman, his guitarist, who also worked on his last album, Eksie Ou. This man is a demon on the acoustic guitar and really came to the fore with his flashy style.
He also covered Francois van Coke’s parts in Dans Dans Dans and Hard Partytjie Hou properly. Of course, they ended with Parow’s biggest hit to date, Hosh Tokolosh, to rousing applause from the audience.
Afterwards Parow signed autographs in a meet-and-greet which took more than an hour to complete.
The evening is a sit down candle-lit affair with meals on offer and the show is over by 9.30pm as it is a school night.
Coming up on April 21 is Dan Patlansky who will be launching his first acoustic album, called Wooden Things. The album consists of acoustic originals as well as covers of some of his favourite tracks from artists such as Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin.
The evening is sure to be sold out as South Africa’s top blues artist is enjoying a rebirth in popularity and garnering new fans at every show. He recently wowed the 10 000-strong crowd on Splashy Fen’s main stage with a growling electric performance.
With this show, his manager, Franie Kotze of Clear Entertain- ment, has said that Patlansky is planning an extra special show, ensuring that it will be an iconic performance to be remembered for a long time.
Two Sundays thereafter Elvis Blue will perform, followed by Prime Circle two Sundays later.
Dan Patlansky will be interviewed on Highveld Stereo by Alex Jay at 10.40am today.