Hog Hoggidy Hog and The Rudimentals
The self-proclaimed kings of pork-rock, Hog Hoggidy Hog, got together with Cape-Tonian bred ska band, The Rudimentals to fill Mercury Live with sweat, screams and skanking. The much anticipated event kicked off to a full house with their more hardcore friends, The Summer Underground.
The Summer Underground’s performance can be remembered for one or two winning elements; one deliciously 80s intro, they committed to their energy and were fronted with zeal and they performed another number in a style reminiscent of Motorhead (which is always a good thing to hear). However, this was not the wind-milling crowd, time or place. Not yet anyway. The crowd that later proved to be phenomenally exuberant were unswayed by the performance and clearly had one thing on their minds; Skanking.
The Rudimentals brought their brass ensemble on stage with brass balls. The eight-piece ska/reggae/afro-beat band piled on stage to teach the people life lessons. Politics, social-comment, stereotypes and of coarse, how to dance! Building up and chilling out they led the bobbing, skanking, dancing, singing, hopping, jumping, bumping crowd on the journey through the Rudies set. Teboho Bobo Maidza rocked the mic and got literally everyone hollering back and forth. The rest of his crew joined him with harmonies, and unapologetically fun, African dance moves all while playing their instruments. They’ve got mad skills! They teased the audience with tiny selections of jumpable madness interspersed with their mellow groove sound. The audience, now packed like sardines from the foot of the stage right to the doors, was gagging for a release of this pent-up energy. Knowing that the Hogs were on the way only multiplied the tension.
In true Hog Hoggidy Hog style, the pork-rockers blew the roof off Mercury. Not a single intro was complete before the masses went absolutely mental. From their very first lines to the very last word, the audience sang, screamed and skanked to their tunes… more than the band!
Stage divers took their life into their hands diving (and more frequently drunkenly falling) into the middle of an epic typhoon of thrashing, flailing, falling, maiming, skanking, moshing limbs. Everyone, from the rebel kid that looks like he’s ten to the girls that look like Brenda Star, ladies and gents that haven’t done this in a decade and grey-haireds holding fort for the rockers of ages past, were united in a diabolical tangle of liveliness and sweat.
Beers were spilled, hair was tangled, clothes were ripped and make-up smudged. Heels, nails and ankles were broken. Dignity and faces (and sexy ladies) were busted. All in all, exactly what you’d expect from the Hogs!
What a send-off for Hog Hoggidy Hog who are about to take-on the world on their biggest tour yet.
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