On 4 April 2022 the world was irradiated by the music and poetry at the 3rd edition of this year’s Radioactive Poetry Café.
For those of us who didn’t have the chance to experience the live musical enchantment, technology came to the rescue, as we watched on Facebook live.
The evening’s line up included the fervent singer Bokang, as well as B.O.M, and Ms Faith who anthralled the audience with spoken word.
The evening was lit into a radioactive flare, of what could confused as sonic thaumaturgy, by guest artists; PG13. A band that comprises: poet Angela Mthembu, bassist Wanda Boyce, percussionist Siphiwe Mgidi, guitarists Zelizwe Mthembu and Harry Thibedi, vocalists Bongiwe Mkobi and Towela Tembo
Listing band members names like this is a practical example of the whole being the sum of its parts; and when the whole PG13 comes together you can’t tell the parts apart.
Terry Pratchett’s words boomerang their relatability when this group of wizards take the stage: “But this didn’t feel like magic. It felt a lot older than that. It felt like music.”
Their first song of the evening “To the Ones That Came Before Us” set the tone of their performance that evening. Mgidi’s percussion summoned those who came before; with ancient precision, while the guitars and bass provide contemporary spellbinding riffs, bridging the old and the new.
Mkobi and Tembo’s voices cohered to the instruments with transfixing euphony, while Mthembu’s poetry completed the sonorous divination.
If you want to witness the magic of PG13s performance at the Radioactive Poetry Café, you can watch it on Facebook.
The Blue Skhaftin 