YOU CAN’T TAME THE BOMBSHELTER BEAST
This is how Bombshelter Beast Describe themselves….” a band like no other – think Black Cat White Cat meets Brenda Fassie – add an opera singer, a polish refugee, a Manchester born kwaito star and SA’s most cunning linguist, and you have half the picture.
They have just released their brand new album ‘Dance Of The Chicken’ which features 2 brand new singles, Taka Takata and Madam Bliss. Bombshelter Beast represents a unique approach to the South African sound – where you will experience a Jozi-mixed grill of old school Kwaito & House, Drum n Bass, Dancehall, Dub, Ska, Balkan, Boeremusiek, Hip Hop, Ghoema, Rock, and the odd sneaky bit of Jazz – all peppered with badass rapping & live improvisations.
This is the kind of band and the kind of music best experienced live. If you hear them on the radio you might not know what to think, but once you’ve danced to one of their sets and experienced their cornucopia cacophony of gypsy madness, you will definitely be hooked.
We asked them a few questions about their imminent performance at MieliePop Fest and just how the hell you travel and perform with 13 band members.
Bomb shelter Beast is a beast of a group. I can imagine it’s tough getting everyone to an event etc. Do you have to hire a van?
Nah that’s actually more expensive. We draw straws to see whose cars will be abused on the next event. Well that’s also not true, but there are a few Beasts with big cars and so far so good! There are those really nice peeps like Woordfees who fly all 13 of us down to the Cape every now and then…
We’re going to go to a scrap yard and buy an old plane ….
Give us a breakdown of how you would survive a festival like MieliePop? What are necessities you take?
Necessities in no particular order:
Petrol / diesel / klipdrift / poitjie pot / ingredients for the pot / tents / instruments / beer / sound engineer / tekkies / cream soda / jumpsuits
I feel like I might have left something out ?
In order to survive this festival we must be on stage at 10pm getting the party jumping! The rest of the survival is optional …
Do you all take your own tents or do you have a communal artist camping area?
Does the band get along well at all times. I can imagine it is stressful organising with a bunch of personalities in the mix?
Tents! I think there is a communal artist camping area – we’ll see when we get there! The band is family, so we have our issues , but we do love each other and there is that wonderful thing where when we’ve worn each other out on weekends such as this, we can at least retire injured to our own houses – just like how you get to give your sister’s baby back after 20 mins . Much more fun that way …
Tell us about one of the funniest moments you’ve had on stage…. accidents, awkward moments, instruments breaking, the general Chaos no one else sees.
Our drummer once fell asleep and wasn’t there when we had to go onstage at a big launch party at a swanky club – it got a little awks playing ‘Spottie’ for 10 minutes without drums!
Touch wood no instruments broken, but the sousaphone player Alex did once lose his house keys for a few days, only for them to turn up inside his giant instrument. Also uncle Speedy – generally whatever he says or does is funny. At Oppikoppi once he sent a late night msg out on the Beast’s whatsapp group that read ‘please help me to find me where I am … my number is …’
then ‘my number is …’ That still kills us !
What can we expect from the performance at Mielie Pop?
Jumpsuits and madness! Epic grooves and booty shaking riffs! Sore feet!
If you haven’t met this Beast, check them out at the Mielie Fest 24 March at 10pm or one of their regular spots at The Orbit in Braamfontein or go find them online and stream the Beast.
https://www.bombshelterbeast.com
