I'm going to Optimius Alive, Lisbon

I'm in the process of planning a work trip to Portugal, and it turns out that the Optimus Alive 2013 music festival is taking place in Lisbon the weekend I arrive. I'm pretty stoked about this, but at the same time I'm not sure whether I went to spend two days at a festival on my own. That said I'm sure to meet fellow festival goers at my hostel, etc., but I'm still a little hesitant.

Friday is out entirely as I'll still be making my way to Lisbon. That said, I am almost certainly going to attend Saturday. I arrive nice and early in the morning, so depending on the schedule I should be able to catch the entire day's line-up. If not, I'm really hoping to at least catch Crystal Castles, Editors and Jurassic5. I'm fairly certain Depeche Mode will perform towards the end of the day as they are Saturday's headliners.

Sunday looks like a good line-up too, with The Bloody Beetroots, Phoenix, Alt-J, and Kings of Leon. Both The Bloody Beetroots and Kings of Leon have previously toured South Africa, although I didn't attend either. From what I've heard from friends, or friends-of-friends, The Bloody Beetroots put on an incredible show, while Kings of Leon left many feeling quite disappointed. It was recently announced that Alt-J (∆) would be the international act at this years In the City (Johannesburg), and Rocking the Daisies (Cape Town). I'd never heard of them before that, so I wont feel to bad if I don't see them in either Portugal or South Africa.

So I've settled on only attending Saturday for now. I also have lectures to attend all day Monday, so attending the festival is probably ill advised, but it'd be very rock 'n roll to arrive at 9:00 AM Monday morning, to meet a bunch of strangers smelling like the burning ruins of a brewery.

I'll still keep an eye as additional artists are announced, but it'll take a massive act like Queens of the Stone Age or How to Destroy Angels to irreversibly convince me to attend Sunday too.

Bloc Party releases new album, Four

Bloc Party's much anticipated fourth studio album, aptly titled 'Four,' was officially released today. 

The album is available to stream both internationally and locally.

If you're in Johannesburg and still haven't gotten tickets to see them live in October, you could stand a chance of winning tickets by purchasing the album, either physical or digitally, and tweeting a picture of the receipt to the organisers. Details here (may have to scroll down). 

In the City - Jhb

A few months back when it was announced that Bloc Party were going to be playing in Cape Town, I was pretty bleak as it was their only performance announced. After some thought, I figured (hoped) that surely if the 'Powers that Be' were flying an act like Bloc Party to South Africa, they would do so for more than just one gig.

Weeks past. Nothing was mentioned about additional Bloc Party gigs. The smug people in Cape Town with concert tickets got smugger. I seriously started considering making the journey back home just to see Bloc Party. I'd missed them a few years back in Edinburgh, as I only found out about the gig months after tickets had sold out. I didn't want to miss them again.

Mid July, it suddenly happened. A Johannesburg friend posted a picture of tickets with the Bloc Party logo on them. At first I thought they were just bragging about getting RTD tickets, but upon further inspection I noticed that the venue was here in Jozi.

Much excitement!

I followed this up, discovering that a new mini festival, In the City, was organised around the gig, and that tickets were affordable. Instead of waiting to hear who the opening act(s) were, I immediately procured two tickets, and began waiting A) for 5 October 2012, and B) to find out who the mystery opening act(s) were. It was later announced that there would be three local opening acts.

Great news! (Despite not actually knowing who they may be)

Today however, the first of these three acts was revealed to be the Johannesburg based group, Shadowclub.

I haven't seen them perform live just yet, but I have seen two of the members performing in other bands. If the sum truly is greater than its parts, then I doubt these guys will disappoint.

Listen to Shadowclub's music here.