Last Thu eve I checked out the Converse Block Party at The Assembly - which is conveniently within walking distance from my apartment. Another awesome thing about this party? I got a free double ticket through Webtickets! 
Headline acts for the evening included: 340ml, Shadowclub, Niskerone and Sibot and they were joined by New Holland, Lapse, Sedge Warbler, VGA, Funafuji, Haasbroek, Tommy Gun, Kid Fonque, Bteam and more. OK, I’ll admit – I don’t know who most those people are, but it sure does sound impressive, doesn’t it? 
They cordoned off a section of Harrington St outside The Assembly for the event and it was really cool to see how many people came out for the party.
Outdoors they had the 12-metre-long I*> truck – which had it’s own entertainment area including a mobile concept store inside the truck. There was also a few bar areas, a DJ stand and lots of yummy food stalls, including my ultimate: Boerewors rolls!
Mmmmmmm...
At one point the one bar started running out of booze. That made me a bit nervous. But luckily they were still fully stocked up inside. 
You had to go indoors to watch the headline acts in any case. I knew I couldn’t stay too late cause I had a BIG weekend ahead of me (a wedding, my bday, MCQP, xmas shopping, etc) – so I could only stay to watch one band. That band happened to be 340ml:
So who are they exactly? Well the band consists out of 4 dudes who are originally from Maputo, Mozambique: Pedro da Silva Pinto on vocals, Paulo Chibanga on drums, Rui Soeiro on bass and Tiago Paulo on guitar. Now based in JHB, the band mixes quite a lot of elements into their music, including Jazz, Afro-jazz, Reggae and even Dub, thus ensuring for quite an interesting sound. This was the first time I had seen them perform and I thought they were brilliant. It’s always awesome to discover new (well new to me at least) local music…
In the end, I still got home at about 2am – which is later (or should I say earlier) than I had aimed for – but hey, at least it was worth the lack of sleep.
xxx
