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Photos of Mr. Cat and the Jackal and Mama Know Nothing at the Kimberly Hotel

Submitted by Dex

Mr. Cat and the Jackal played at the Kimberly Hotel in Cape Town with Mama Know Nothing. The Kimberly Hotel is an old building in Roeland Street in Cape Town, the place feels like it could tell a thousand stories. I don't know the history of the building but you can almost take yourself back to it's hey day and feel the energy.

Roeland Street from the balcony of the Kimberly Hotel

The gig itself was a totally non flash event, very dim lights and dark music from Mr. Cat and the Jackal, I wasn't surprised to read that they list Tom Waits as their first influence, I like them already! I am glad to have heard them. They play a wide variety of instruments, including a number plate for percussion in at least one number. One of the songs they played is based on the ants go marching one by one which had everyone dancing although the crowd kept bouncing all night. Below is a video clip of them performing Walk The Plank, go to their MySpace profile to hear a recorded version as well as four other tracks which I enjoyed listening to, they're also on Facebook. All of the photos are quite dark but that's a true reflection of what is was like in the venue, it'll give you a much better feel of th enight than colourful photos with a flash.

Please note that the audio quality is really bad as my equipment is crude and doesn't do the band's sound any justice, if you want to hear what these bands sound like, listen to their tracks on MySpace or elsewhere, don't judge their sound by the video.

Walk the Plank

Click here to see more photos of Mr. Cat & the Jackal

As for Mama Know Nothing, they were wonderful as always although in a very different way to their other gigs I've been to, in that the venue was very dark and that took away a lot of the usual visual appeal of these beautiful musicians. It gave me the chance to put down my camera, close my eyes and just enjoy the audio bliss they were creating. Listening to each of the members individually, doing what they each do best, Last night they struggled with the sound, which was dreadful, not that it stopped them from getting everyone rocking but you could see that it took a toll on them. Unfortunately they don't have anything recorded yet but I believe they are working on it. They also shot a music video last weekend which sounds like it'll be something to look out for. I have added a video clip and some photos, check them out, You can visit them on Facebook.