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January gig guide

So that was the festive season, then. Jirre! Back at work but at least a paycheque has landed and we still have weekends and a lingering sense of what might be possible. 
Music

If you’re fast enough, you can catch local jazz maestro Hilton Schilder playing a solo gig at Natural Mystic (92 – 94 Station Rd, Obs) tonight, Friday 31 January at 9pm. You have to bring your own wine and glasses but tickets are only R50, and actually, it’s also cheaper to bring your own booze, so it’s wins all round. Also, Natural Mystic is a private smokers’ club, so our nicotine addiction shouldn’t be a problem. Book on webtickets

Now here’s something imaginative (if you look past the constant Heineken marketing which seems very much a thing to be endured given the reference to their “signature activation”). Besides getting to experience Paul Hamner playing his seminal classic jazz album Trains to Taung with Kevin Gibson on drums and Nicholas Williams on bass, it’s a trip by dedicated train from Cape Town station to Muizenberg, with an amble from the station to Axminster House where the main event takes place. This is after you meet at the Athletic Club & Social on Buitengracht Street. There’ll be a train back of course, with the jol continuing at the Athletic. On the train will be “light entertainment”, storytelling, and “cultural highlights”. The train out is at 12pm, and the train back is just before 6pm. The experience happens on 8 February and tickets aren’t too bad, especially if you like Heineken because there’ll be lots of it given away, at R300. Book on Quicket

For a costly throwback to the 90s groove scene, Soul II Soul will be playing at Kirstenbosch on 8 February. We avoided the preen scene back then, but now that all fucks have been lost or misplaced, it could actually be a jol, in a slightly ironic way.  R895 for it though and tickets are through Webtickets.

Jazz guitar guru Keenan Ahrends will be leading his trio at the Chimurenga Factory in Woodstock on 15 February. Details are still scarce but keep a look out on either Webtickets or Quicket.

The home edition of Capetonian born and bred Lauren Manning’s debut album Four Walls (initially launched in her current home city, London) will happen at the Antique Warehouse on Victoria Road, Woodstock (opposite Shoprite and LT Paints, mos) on 8 February at 7.30pm. Lauren is a smooth operator with her vocals (think Sade, like) and plays with five-piece band of top musicians, including a trombonist. It’s going to be mellow. Tickets cost R120 and you can get them via Quicket.

Australian indie-folk bros Hollow Coves take a long-haul flight to play over here at the Old Biscuit Mill just a stone’s throw from where gentrifiers tried to evict the Bromwell Street residents. Anyhow, their golden-sunset-seductive-beach-plink-plonk is being played on 12 February from 6.30pm. Personally, we think the world would’ve been better off if they stuck to civil engineering and carpentry, but that’s just an opinion, millions of people would disagree. Tickets cost R445 on Webtickets.

If you wanna let your hair down, the Glitch Party at Defected Studio in Paarden Eiland should make your conditioner work for its money. On 8 February with a fab lineup of Lucy Kruger and the Lost Boys, Sold Ash, Mouse, Crow Baby, Dangerfields, Club Valley, Playing Dead, with even Felix Laband coming out of retirement. This one’s looks like it’ll be worth dragging yourself through the Monday (and possibly Tuesday depending on your chemical choices) after for. R100 is all it’ll cost to get your electronic catharsis on. Tickets on Quicket.

Movies

If you haven’t seen the classic When Harry Met Sally, you can do so at the Galileo Open Air Cinema and get lessons on orgasm fakery while getting semi-nostalgic about drive-in flicks. The Galileo moves between various outdoor venues and this piece of film history is at Lourensford in Somerset West on 22 February. No, you can’t goggle the screen from your car, but you can have a picnic on the lawn. Standard tickets cost R145, with stages going up to VIP at R400. Some mense just have to feel exclusive, ne? Get your kaartjie at Webtickets.

Less exclusive, but under cover, are movies at one of the last great independent cinemas in the country. The one. The only. The Labia. Nosferatu is playing, amongst others, we believe it is rather good. Support indi.

Theatre

We saw Jamie-Lee Money in that fantastic patriarchy-bashing punk play In Whorefish Bloomers alongside Kei-Ella Loewe and were very sad when Jamie moved on from our little Mother City to the sprawling smoke of London. But she’s coming back, for the duration of her play that she made over there, at least. It’s called Spin Cycles, and got great reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, where even getting a review is a luck. Jamie provides often funny, often dark insights into our inner world, all while she’s in sweatpants pedalling on a stationary bike. It might owe something to Nicola Hanekom’s Hol, which was also a great one-woman play delivered in sweatpants on a treadmill, but, you know, everything is borrowed; nothing is owned. Except property, because: capitalism. Ahem! Go see Jamie while she’s here and while you can, at the Baxter Studio from 19 February to 1 March. Jamie gets on her bike by 8pm and also on Saturdays at 2pm. Tickets are from R150. Book on Webtickets.

Okay, it might be from 1995 which is like, what, 30 years ago. Shit! I just fell into a wormhole there. Bloody Hell! Right. But it was effing awesome then and is probably pretty awesome still. Faustus in Africa! The William Kentridge blockbuster (and we mean that genuinely), with puppetry by Handspring. Lara Foot is associate director of course, and she’s been practising her epics for awhile now, and seems to be getting better.  It’s a return, but it holds so much promise. Also, being part of the South African theatre, and visual arts, canon, it should be seen, because you’re not very likely to get another chance. At Baxter Flipside from 26 February to 22 March. Tickets go from R200 on Webtickets. Go direct, as at present, the link through the Baxter site is wrong; it’ll lead you to Spin Cycles.

If you haven’t watched The Addams Family musical at the Homecoming Centre on Caledon Street (the old The Fugard) yet, you can still do so until 2 March. By this time they should be pretty good at it. It’s billed as a spooky, wickedly-funny show (obviously) that is “perfect” for all ages. Wednesday falls in love with a ‘normal’ boy, Lucas. He and his parents are invited for dinner, at which point there is mayhem and general hilarity as the Gothic brood turn off the lights. The show runs right through until February and tickets cost between R350 and R580, which you can get on Webtickets