The secret is out...

The heat stuck to my skin like a thin film of syrup...

There was no wiping it off or escaping its clingy closeness. But it felt good. It slowed me down to a pace proportionate to purposeful interaction and thinking...

Sitting very still was one very clever option, or alternately, walking at a medium speed to muster enough of a freeflow to cool the skin. And if someone touched you, you really felt it - as if a merging, momentary adhesion of sweaty palm to sweaty skin, an Avatar-esque acknowledgement of 'I see you'.

What started as a 'mini pub crawl' on one side of Long Street, ended on a side street called Hout, off the bottom of the famous one-way entertainment street of Cape Town... And into a little blues establishment we did go. Boo Radleys was its name. A long backlit whisky bar greeted us with soft light, away from the garish heat of the town centre which held the memory of Cape Town's 38 degrees in its cement, its tar and its grid of constructedness.

A long cool colonial drink seemed most fitting, yet after a song or two from the little songstress we'd been tipped to come see, I felt transported in time and place. As if sitting somewhere in the US, New Orleans maybe - but definitely not in South Africa...

'Gimme one reason to stay here...' a Tracey Champman cover was the song of choice which our dark-haired blues guitarist chose to croon as her opening track that sticky Wednesday night as she sat on a bar stool, all legs and arms around her electric guitar, and a voice which emanated from her tumble of dark hair. How she stayed cool under there I don't know, and where such a big voice came from in such a tiny package of a person, I'm not sure either.

As Your LMG stated on its January cover, 'Natasha Meister - no longer a secret' - having now seen her for myself, she sure is one of those rare gems. Yet at a tender 20 years old, the secret herself doesn't even seem to quite realise her secret power.

And herein lies one of the most beautiful aspects of discovering up and coming artists - they themselves often don't know just how good they are yet, so what you get in these performances is completely different to the polished shows when you will pay a whole whack more to watch them in years to come!



Thanks to Mike Smith of Your LMG for letting me know that Natasha was playing last night, Boo Radleys for putting on such quality music for free, Natasha for playing - and to everyone who shared the Meister secret last night in that sticky heat: Brendon Rowen (music vid director amongst many other things), Donna McCallum (aka The Fairy Godmother), Peter Lacey (of Musketeer / Seether fame) and Graham Lowndes (guitarist for The Rescu)! Was an awesome bunch of people to have in one room!

So now my secret is also out... get out and see as many up and coming SA bands while they are still in their secret stage - and support our local musicians - cos that's where the real treasure lies! And then you too can say, 'I once saw Natasha Meister at a free gig at a blues bar called Boo Radleys...'

Rock on secret discoveries,
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