Small crowd welcomes major artist

MBOMBELA – It was a jam-packed weekend on the local social calendar. Perhaps that was the reason for the poor turnout at Jock Pub & Grill when Arno Carstens and his band made their long-awaited appearance on Friday.

When the multi-award winning artist started his set, the crowd was slow to its feet. It was only when the band played older, familiar Springbok Nude Girls hits that the dance floor started to fill up.

As the crowd warmed up, however, shouts of “oh, oh, with a little bit of money, yeah, yeah in a little bit of hurry” could be heard all over the venue. As the spirit picked up, the atmosphere became more electric and dancers and headbangers flocked to the stage in the hopes of singing along to more of their familiar favourites.

They were not disappointed. Carstens treated them with hits like “Blue Eyes”, “Little” and “Genie” in-between his songs as a solo artist.

The group delivered a flawless performance. Although it cannot be doubted that all Carstens’ band members are extraordinary musicians, two of them have to be mentioned.

Lebogang Moalusi showed off her remarkable set of pipes as she climbed to notes unreachable by many experienced singers.

The man on the keys, David Watkyns, demonstrated why he deserved a place on this star-studded stage when he played the trumpet with one hand and keyboard with the other. Amid the instruments he was also a well-balanced and harmonious back-up vocalist.

“I’m so surprised that there weren’t more people at tonight’s show,” one crowd member told Lowvelder.

“On the other hand, I’m relieved that we had space to dance and the queues at the bar were not bad at all.”