Tuesday, August 16, 2005
I've Got a Home on the Other Side
[Canberra/Music] Tonight the Soweto Gospel Choir played a packed Llewellyn Hall here in Canberra. By now (just after 11pm), the choir should be at the after-show party at Club Mombasa. If the show's anything to go by, they'll be showing everybody there how to party. What an amazingly wonderful performance.
Picking up the last available tickets turned out to be a blessing; they'd filled the space between the normal first row & the stage with seats and the pair I got were in the second row. Awesome. Being so close to the stage, we didn't have anyone blocking our view and we could pick out individual voices. The intimacy was incredible; the eye contact with the performers convinced me that they were all having the best time ever, and that was damn infectious.
Singing in a range of African languages and then English, the choir performed two hour-long sets of mostly African songs that seemed very familiar. Not knowing most of the songs, I guess that that was just a fairly familiar style; primarily vocals with drums in support. That said, there was one I'd heard from Paul Simon's Graceland album whose name escapes me right now, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Bob Marley's One Love and another I'm pretty sure has been used in TV ads for coffee. The tempo really picked up in the second set, with some of the choir taking up instruments & bringing the funk. The show wound up with a rousing version of Swing Down aka Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, the South African national anthem and Oh Happy Day.
The Australian tour continues until the end of the month*. If you're undecided about seeing one of the remaining performances, just go and get tickets; you'll walk away smiling.
Want more? The choir's second CD - Blessed - is now available, and you can listen to an interview and some songs from RN's The Spirit of Things from 14 Aug 05. On a related note, the Harlem Gospel Choir tours in November.
* - Wed 17, Thu 18 Frankston Arts Centre 03 9784 1060
Fri 19, Sat 20 Aug Melbourne Hamer Hall, The Arts Centre 1300 136 166 ticketmaster7.com.au
Tue 23 & Wed 24 Adelaide Town Hall 131 246 bass.net.au
Thur 25-Sat 27 Perth His Majesty’s Theatre 08 9484 1133 bocsticketing.com.au
Tue 30, Wed 31 Bunbury Entertainment Centre 08 9791 1133 bocsticketing.com.au
[Tags: Gospel, Music, Choir, Canberra, Australia]
Labels: Canberra
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