All The Glory to Mi Casa

First Published on www.samusicscene.co.za

By : Andy Leve

Pictures : Lauren VD Vyver

 

It’s a stunning Sunday afternoon, music lovers are out in their numbers. With picnic baskets, camping chairs, drinks in hand and wearing sunglasses at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens.

You wouldn’t say it was the middle of winter in Johannesburg. I doubt that a little bit of cold would have stopped this crowd from coming out to see the biggest house music  group in the country.

For months, I had been going on and on about how I just wanted to see Mi Casa live and it finally happened. I, along with the hoards of fans at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, was in the mood to dance my feet off and sing my lungs out.

Mi Casa has taken the music scene by storm! The trio has only been together for just over a year and already their debut self entitled offering saw them walk away with 3 South African Music Awards.

For the last while all I have heard is how amazing they are, and it’s not that I did not believe the hype around them (trust me, I have the CD, have trolled the net for every live gig that they have online) I just wanted to be part of it!

To captivate an audience is one thing but to hold that attention throughout a near 2 hour set is quite something, and Mi Casa has that special “something”.

It is this something that they all have that made the crowd go wild. At one point I had little kids no older than 5, pushing up against my legs and squirming to get right to the edge of the stage.

When I turned around I just saw a sea of very happy faces, some were imitating Mo T’s trumpet solos while others were singing and swaying their arms and heads from side to side as Dr Duda and members of the band kept the beats pumping.

The man with the golden voice, and the killer moves – J’Something … well what can I say, except that it seems that everyone wants a piece of this man. I had hardly been at the gig for 5 minutes and people were swooning over him quite unashamedly. One super fan, even called herself “Mrs J’Something”, and told me about 10 times throughout their performance, that she had flown to Maputo a few weeks ago especially, just to go see them live.

J Something nails his vocals and creates a brilliant connection with the audience throughout. So much so that every single lady (myself included) totally believes that he is singing to them.He really gets into it, doing his signature feet shuffle and has such a good time on stage that you just want to jump up on stage with him, and well that’s exactly what happened… You know you’re good when a fan jumps on stage and starts gyrating madly.

Not only did they perform some of their own songs including change in my life and La Vida, but they also mixes these with songs from artists like Usher and David Guetta’s without you and Adele’s rolling in the deep, Avicii and even a little Stevie Wonder to name but a few.

The lady next to me, (the one who flew to Maputo to see them), was on the verge of crying, … ”I love these guys” she screamed in my ear. Yip… myself included.