800 Gondomar spearhead an impressive mid-month mash-up of punk, rock and psych – Texx and the City

I was already two glasses of wine deep when I arrived at District last Friday, after having a little catchup session with Steve McKellar. The Civil Twilight frontman is looking to reintegrate himself within the SA music scene, and what better way to do that than at a gritty AF punk show, right? 

A bunch of people were moaning about Fokof playing at Armchair, which apparently directly impacted attendance, but I was kinda impressed with the amount of people who showed up mid-month to support two Cape Town staples and another two touring bands. 

Cistamatic was up first and I’d be lying if I said every inch of me didn’t want to trash this set. One thing about me, I never forget. I’m an Olympic gold medalist in the grudge-holding division. And their vocalist’s comment on our Kaytranada IG post back in January, about this being the first time they’d “ever encountered something relatively critical on Texx and the City” was a great way to start the year.

And so, here we are. 

It’s pretty epic to see how far Cistamatic has come. The first time I saw Gabbi Le Roux perform was at TATC’s first Band Or Bust competition in 2020, a month pre-pandemic. They were totally green, nothing like the brash singer they are now. Tonight their vocals were strong but way better when they belted any high-pitched notes, and especially resonant when they let out a guttural growl on the line “fear is a weapon”.

As a unit, the punk trio is tight, engaging and energetic live, and that’s where their strength lies. Their debut album was average because it didn’t capture the rawness of their shows, whereas the 4-track live EP they released at the beginning of the year stands as their best offering to-date. 

The last time I saw Shameless, they drank a bottle or two of Jim Beam and broke a table, so naturally I fell head-over-heels. They also didn’t have a trumpeter the last time, which apparently is a new addition. So new in fact, that the band met him the day befire the show. The fact that this guy was mostly improvising on the songs he jumped onstage for, was impressive to say the least. 

An early moshpit laid the foundation for a spirited set led by the prowess and personality of drummer and vocalist, Thabo Masina. Highlights included an epic rendition of “4×4” that ended things off with a bit of a drunken singalong, drunken for me anyway. My tolerance really is not what it used to be.   

Quick side bar: my dad grew up in Brazil and speaks Portuguese with the most gorgeous accent you’ve ever heard, and watching garage punk rock band, 800 Gondomar, I wish some of that had rubbed off on me because I had zero idea what these dudes were on about. But that’s the beauty of good music and a great show, it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.  

800 Gondomar’s riffs were super fast, drumming energetically intense, and I recognised their bassist from The Sunflowers who toured here in 2023. Their guitarist, dressed in blue dungarees ala Mario and Luigi, frequently threw himself on top of and into the crowd, clearly a man of the people–just like the guy walking around offering poppers to everyone

Sisters were equally as loud and fast with a psychedelic twist that really made me long for a good Psych Night jol, but I called it after their third song because nobody needs to see this mess (i.e. me) after 12pm.

See you tomorrow night for round 3.

All pics courtesy of Laura McCullagh.