Southern Gypsy Queen Open Wide

For me, pop sensibility. translates into a head ablaze with peroxide-blonde hair and a couple of them loophole earrings. A skewed schoolboy tie and some serious “how’re ya doin’s” from a four-piece blues band with a tumbler of showmanship and a keg of friendly approachable live music. Yep, Southern Gypsy Queen shure know howta put on summa yo momma’s hospitali-tay…

Southern Gypsy Queen would have put the Katrina-flooded conservatives of New Orleans in an indecisive spin about which way to roll in their graves at the final V&A Waterfront gig in Cape Town on Sunday. I mean, come on. Soul and solid hair replacement therapy are about as popular a combination as doghair and cheeseburgers. Get with the program.

Southern Gypsy Queen: we don’t know what they’re up to backstage either… More Vids

Uh, hang on a minute, Lwanele Jacobs…what program? This is South Africa, remember, and the only thing in our first-to-third-world entertainment ’scene’ fresher about the unlikely pairing of the band’s upfront image and the blues-rock-soul affections that they released upon the semi-circle of horns-high rockers was the swathe of rain that put a stop to the show half way through one of their opening numbers. And, of course, their latest tour-barreling album, Be The Lion.

The heavens opened. It was beautiful. Even more beautiful than lead singer Gareth “Billy Corgan” Wilson’s face.

After a few minutes, the heavens closed, and a mammoth drum solo by brother Paul Wilson followed. Shaizer. Insultingly powerful. Give him a Manhattan and it may even have been glam rock. A number of numbers followed, closing with Thunderstruck (or something), a little number by some little band called AC/DC or whatever.

But where did that leave us? Standing on the sidelines of a band that played the…the…the blues. The Fat Freddy Drop, The Band, Black Crowes bluuuuuues, baby. The mother of all music, that’s where. And standing under the backstage tunnel taking photos and sipping complimentary ice teas because, hey, it’s still Christmas.

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Email the ed for more: john@overtone.co.za