After watching their show on MNet a month or so ago, there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to watch them live when and if they did eventually come to Cape Town.

So when I got wind of them having a party to release their DVD – Play to Break It – at Opium, I had to see if they were as good as they were on MNet, and boy was I impressed.

From the flyer I received, the show was supposedly to start at 9:15 sharp, and after waiting around for more than 50 minutes, the sound of drumsticks on glass bottles started to echo out of the Opium dance floor…

I was standing about 10 metres from the stage and the drumming energy they produce is truly awesome. There is no way you can just stand there without your body feeling the beat of the drums you getting totally engrossed in the show. From a chicks perspective, I’m guessing there is nothing better than 4 shirtless guys playing some really awesome music.

They played 2 sets on Friday evening. The first set was what is expected of them, pure drumming. The 2nd set however was totally different. DJ Badboy Brett from Joburg had come down with them and was keeping the croud happy with some mellow house before and in between the sets. But for the 2nd set he joined in and while mixing his tunes, 1st Project drummed along. There wasn’t much of the synchronized drumming that had made up the 1st set, but with the DJ playing along, the music was absolutely amazing. It is something completely unexpected and the mix between house beats and drums playing, it had everyone dancing.

I picked up the DVD for R100 that evening, and it really is worth it. Just don’t waste your time playing the DVD without some sort of decent sound system. :-) (Go grab yourself a copy at either Look and Listen, Musica or directly from 1st Project. Watch the DVD teaser here.)

Where was the crowd?

From watching the DVD, I am completely disappointed in the attendance of the Cape Town public at their DVD release. These guys might be South African’s, but they truly are international artists, having toured and played in front of thousands of people all over the world. So you would expect Cape Town to be packed into Opium, but that was quite the contrary. Also, Smirnoff sponsored the evening, so free vodka was the order of the evening, so for drinking sakes, you really didn’t have an excuse not to be there.

We topped the evening off with a boerie roll from the Portuguese guy outside Opium and a turn at Ku de Ta for a close to the evening. (I now have seen what people refer to as the “cult of shitty dancers” that seem to appear in Ku de Ta at the most inopportune moments. Freaky.)

Rocking.