From crooning solo vocals, melancholic riffs and blitz-fingered picking to upbeat clap-and-sing-along indie, there was something for everyone’s ear at the first-ever Battle of the Acoustics finals, organised by the Rhodes University Live Music Society.
From crooning solo vocals, melancholic riffs and blitz-fingered picking to upbeat clap-and-sing-along indie, there was something for everyone’s ear at the first-ever Battle of the Acoustics finals, organised by the Rhodes University Live Music Society.
Such being the scope of the title ‘acoustics’, the third and final round of the newly instated battle was a tight competition between artists performing in vastly different and virtually incomparable styles. It was for this reason that the victorious Bad Hands felt it would be best to split their R1 000 winnings with competitor Matthew de Klerk.
From the first half-hour set to the second, the low-ceilinged Olde 65 felt like a different venue altogether.
In terms of creativity and technical prowess, De Klerk is instantly praise able.
The Bad Hands, however, took the title with their ability to infect the crowd. Their overall performance was also enhanced significantly by the addition of a foot drum, which added a necessary variation and infectious beat to their set.
Juno-esque, with an excellent indie cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy, which showed off vocalist Hannah McDonald’s range, the Bad Hands trio (with Justin Brasher and Clarke Ellis both on guitar) really plays off audience interaction.
In fact, crowd participation is as integral to the success of their sets as the musical performance itself with several covers, re-imagined in as upbeat indie folk, as well as a number of original pieces written mostly by Brasher.
Laughing and joking with the audience – they called for clapping and singing along to well-known pieces like Ho Hey by The Lumineers, as well as one of their better-known originals Clap Your Bad Hands.
Flamenco-rock fusion classical guitarist De Klerk, inspired by the likes of Andy McKee and Rodrigo y Gabriela, combines complex slap harmonics, fingerstyle play and strumming rhythms so quick that the audience barely sees his right hand as it flashes across the strings.
His technique is shown off particularly well in his piece The Spanish Train in which De Klerk pushes his strumming speed to the extreme, much to the thrill of his spellbound audience.
De Klerk’s set was a display of technical skill and innovative, original guitar. Apart from the two covers performers were required to play, he played pieces all of his own composition.
Even the familiar opening notes of Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes were reinvigorated into frenetic flamenco beats. He closed his set with his own Unstoppable – a particularly impressive piece he introduces as “the culmination of all my years on guitar”.
Certainly an immensely impressive event, the Battle of the Acoustics looks sure to become an annual fixture in the local live music calendar. Stay tuned for the Electrics, coming up soon.
