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Review of recent show of Fokofpolisiekar & Van Coke Kartel (2011)

7 June 2011

Criminally successful: Fokofpolisiekar and Van Coke Kartel set Bitterzoet on fire!

 

Always dreamt of swearing at the police and going mental with the crazy good-old rock sounds?

Then you shouldn’t have missed that gig! As the tickets were sold out in a minute, it was quite a challenge to get in Bitterzoet and see the gods of the night! And the ones to blame were the best of South-African rock scene themselves: the band with a shocking name Fokofpolisiekar (Fuckoffpolicecar) and their 2011 tour fellows – unstoppable beasts from Van Coke Kartel.

The evening started with a long queue even two hours before the doors were opened. Hundreds of Afrikaans speaking guests (and quite some locals as well) dying to see the long-awaited performance! On arriving everyone was greeted by the Homegrown Events crew and was given a discount coupon to join the next upcoming ‘Prime Circle’ gig on the 12^th of June.

The venue was decorated with the quite controversial red stained-glass windows picturing the demons on them. As both lyrically straightforward bands admit, they accept no religion, no tradition…

Van Coke Kartel, who were opening the night and were partly consisting of the folks from Fokofpolisiekar, absolutely and right-away put the stage on fire. Clear sound, mind-blowing instrumental play, strong vocal and as a result – generous feedback from the audience! Great kick-off, to say the least!  To shed some light, Van Coke Kartel is the recent breakthrough of the Afrikaans rock music with the award-winning albums under their belt, ever-spinning hits on the radios, the top-chart videos and one shared stage with the likes of Muse and 30 Seconds To Mars... Francois Van Coke and Wynand Myburgh (both seen in Fokofpolisiekar as the vocalist and the bass-guitar player) formed this band as their side project. In the last decades the band replenished with the fastest South-African drummer Jason Oosthuizen and the lead guitar virtuoso Jedd Kossew. With such a fresh new stream Van Coke Kartel skyrocketed and it was about time to bring it along for the European comeback tour. Both bands stopped in Amsterdam and London to perform together as well as they did their own separate programs hitting some local venues on the way.

Going back to our gig at Bitterzoet, after Van Coke Katel set the right mood, Fokofpolisiekar had an easy start and yet created an absolute ruckus. The public just merged together as good old friends. The front line next to the stage was absolutely exploding of the emotions. We all remember those true fans there singing along louder than speakers could go and dancing non-stop. The lead singer Francois crowd-surfed like it was his first time! Needless to say, the energy of the night was just above the limits! Fokofpolisiekar are truly the fathers of the punk rock music with the most honest lyrics in the own land. When they started, it was the time no one seriously took Afrikaans singing rock bands. Yet they proved how global can it go, winning the love of the thousands South-Africans home and abroad. Talking about their productions and achievements, we risk stretching this story way too far. The band is so huge they already released their own biography in the shape and form of the book and the video documentary called Fly On The Wall (which btw was screened in Amsterdam last year).

At the end of the explosive performance, the Homegrown Events team went on stage to do the traditional raffle and give away exclusive prizes. South-African wine, biltong (dried meat), tickets to Prime Circle (June, 12 at Bitterzoet) and The Parlotones (this autumn!) and signed CDs from both Van Coke Kartel and Fokofpolisiekar – ain’t that one can dream of?..

To keep you dreams coming true, stay tuned for more details on the upcoming gigs!

 

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