Last month, prior to going on our Aruban adventure, Adam’s friend Dima convinced us to go see Die Antwoord down in Williamsburg that Sunday night.
Apparently I’ve been living under a rock for the better part of a year (or I don’t follow Boing Boing which, no I don’t) and have never heard of them. Before going, I watched their “Zef Side” video on YouTube and didn’t really pay attention. I wish I had because I had a killer (not to mention HILARIOUS) time at the show on July 25th.
The night started off desperately slow. Whoever was the tech did a horrible job because the amps were turned up way too high for the venue and I did something I’ve never done before… bought ear plugs! It was Williamsburg, so obviously the place was crawling with 30 year olds or older hipsters which just made the experience annoying.
The first act was ridiculous, and not in a good way. Three very plain white guys were on the stage. Two on mics and one on a MacBook computer. Really, I would have been better off being at home watching the two slackers from down the street running head first into each other than wasting my time watching these dude jump around the stage lip-syching to their “awesome beats” occasionally screaming into the microphone about how awesome everything is.
It was a gift from God when they were finally done. I was in search of ear plugs and found some by the bar which made the rest of the night much more bearable.
The second act wasn’t much better and the booze at the bar didn’t dull the pain. Do they just pick these guys off the streets? It looked like a bunch of homeless scenesters on drugs floating around the stage. The sound was just noise, but I’m sure they had some sort of important thing to say about world peace, capitalism… or puppies… I dunno, I wasn’t paying much attention.
I’m glad I decided to stay because nothing could have prepared me for the next set coming up.
While the group set up a face of a man with progeria was projected on-screen as a screen saver. His name is Leon Botha who I later learned is a performance artist from South Africa who has become somewhat of an auxiliary member of Die Antwoord. He has appeared in a few of their promotional materials as well as their music video for “Enter the Ninja”
Soon Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones) and Yo-Landi Vi$$er appeared on stage and began their set. The hipsters of Williamsburg loved it. It was so campy but at the same time were very valid rhymes, beats and electric sounds. Both of them wore matching white sweatsuits adorned with random graffiti. Later during “Rich Bitch,” Yo-Landi would don a heavy winter jacket and break away from the sweatpants to show off skin-tight gold leggings that she would display to the front row and offer her rear for them to smack. Ninja would also get into the wardrobe changing game and show off his iconic “Dark Side of the Moon” boxers made popular by the “Zef Side” YouTube video.
All in all a good night was had by all and afterwards I ended up downloading their EP available from iTunes. It was just announced recently that they have signed with Interscope Records and plan to release a full CD sometime soon. Hopefully, we’ll get to hear more of the stuff released from “$O$” record that was distributed for free earlier this year.
You can find more pictures at Brooklyn Vegan’s website as well as more about how Die Antwoord totally are more awesome than M.I.A. who was pretty disgusting and sucked at her set the night before.
