How we experienced Spotify’s MOM Takeover
Image Sourced From @spotifyafrica / Instagram
The city of Cape Town was fortunate enough to experience one of the most exciting events the town had seen in what felt like forever.
For a couple of weeks leading up to the eventful weekend, popular streaming platform, Spotify, unveiled that they’d be landing in the Mother City to host multiple shows, called Mother Of Music, around the city, starting from the popular First Thursday all the way to the Sunday evening.
We at VERVE were fortunate enough to acquire tickets (absolutely free for the public) for the main event, being a small-scale concert hosted at Woodhead & Parking in the District 6 region to witness some of the most exciting names in the Cape Town and international music scene.
Arriving at the scene, we were quite skeptical about how the ticketing system would work (knowing that it was free for everybody, so surely chancers would be lurking around), however, we were impressed to see how organized everything was set up from the get-go. We even got a free cocktail voucher, which was a lovely gesture!
Walking into the venue, we were immediately in awe, viewing the pristine set-up of the whole event, having bright screens behind a wonderfully constructed stage, while hearing the roar of the crowd jamming to Honeymoan.
The second we finished purchasing our beverages (and of course tipping the lovely bar team) we headed straight for the swarm of eager music admirers to prepare ourselves for the set that was awaiting us.
In the midst of awaiting the upcoming acts, we were fortunate enough to bump into many of the talented artists we’ve had the pleasure of featuring in our mag, chatting to the likes of Tae Legolie, Jarry Pitboi, and more. This was possibly our highlight of the night.
Manana kicked off our night, taking on the stage with such a serene demeanor, calmly grabbing the mic and flaunting his glorious catalogue while showcasing his stunning vocal ability. We’ve been long-time fans of his work, but to witness it live for the first time was truly a magical moment.
While talking to some of our old schoolmates, we asked who they were most excited to see, and to no surprise, they responded with Internet Girl. Hands down, the trio’s performance took us by storm, with the band instantly connecting with their raucous fans while blasting their hit tunes that made them such a massive deal in this nation.
However, we honestly arrived at the event to catch Dee Koala’s “4 THE KHALTSHA SHOWCASE” which would have the well-respected lyricist take on the stage, performing her own bangers while incorporating some of the Capetonian acts that helped her on her journey of achieving stardom.
This set was a blast to experience, seeing the likes of GREEK. and Dee perform their “RHULUMENTE Remix”, LOOKATUPS bumping to “Umxhosa Omkhulu”, K.Keed raging to her hit track, “Year 24”, Simulationrxps grooving to “Phez’Kwezinto”, YoungstaCPT blessing us with “Wes-Kaap”, and so much more.
We have to give credit where it’s due, and Dee did a splendid job at constructing this performance. We loved how she gave each artist a moment to shine on their own and perform the tracks the people love by them. It made us realize how much they’ve all been in the same hustle together, striving to reach their dreams.
Ziggy4x was up next, and we all know what that means, absolute carnage. The gifted rapper wasted no time overwhelming the crowd with his menacing tunes. It felt like everyone had been waiting on him to perform his banger, “Honne”, which he wasted no time doing, having the crowd lose their heads.
We were even gifted to the remix he had released the day before which was awesome to see live. It was also cool to see him pull up on stage with Luda G, an artist we think of as a pioneer in that genre.
To calm the storm, TXC pulled up on stage, blasting some amazing Amapiano tunes for the masses to endure, playing some of their own hits, while blending in some heavy-hitting Yano numbers to get the crowd going.
To close off the night, DWSON hopped on stage, setting the vibes with his mellow House numbers like “Forbidden” and “Nobody Else”. Honestly, we were super bleak he had to be the climax of the event because it just had us wanting more good music from the event, but of course, all good things must come to an end.
Leaving the event, we had feelings of joy, exhaustion, and satisfaction. We achieved everything we had hoped for from the event, getting to experience amazing live music, meeting interesting characters, and seeing the city lights of Cape Town being shined upon by such a prestigious event.
The last time we had felt this sort of experience was back when the Observatory community would host their street shows which fell apart shortly, so it was wonderful to have an event give us that feeling again, and we hope it becomes a constant thing in our city.
