Seb Goldswain live at MiTH

9pm – Seb Goldswain

“The Road Ahead” is the second album from South African guitar-virtuoso and composer Seb Goldswain. Following the positive critical response from the acoustic songs on debut album “Pictures of a Thousand Words”, various high-profile solo acoustic performances (including opening for George Ezra and high-profile South African artists), growing a fan-base across South Africa, and developing a high-energy solo live show more akin to a full band rather than a lone acoustic guitar, Seb has grown to fully embrace the art of acoustic storytelling with “The Road Ahead”.

The core concept of “The Road Ahead” is that of the primacy of storytelling in songwriting. All the songs are personal in nature that relate to experiences and attempt greatly to veer away from titles like “guitar music”, and towards a positive listening experience that the listener can relate to personally. From “A Mother’s Prayer” (written for a four year old boy who struggled with, and eventually beat, leukemia) to “The Big Day” (written for a friend’s wedding) to “You’re Not Alone” (written in light of the difficult topic of depression).

Seb is not afraid to wear his influences proudly, and such can be heard on the Django Reinhardt-influenced “Grim FanDjango”, the undeniably Jackson-5-like “Motown”, an original arrangement of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s “Finlandia”, as well as an Andalusian take on the fingerstyle standard “Avalon”. Unable to maintain the discipline needed to keep the album a purely solo-acoustic offering, the tracklist also features full band arrangements (including Jacob-Collier-style vocal arrangements) on two songs. Namely, the traditional Sotho song “Morokeni” and the American western traditional song “Wayfaring Stranger” which also features Seb’s more familiar electric guitar playing as well as the excellent vocal talents of Gary Nixon.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiWCloS7TGSSu28ytvanFEg

8pm – The Vast Oddity

Using two guitars, two vocals, a loop pedal, stompbox and a fair share of sound experimentation, The Vast Oddity creates a sound that will take you on a journey like no other. Allowing your soul and physical self to be freed. Trippy, surfer, spacey, experimental, thumping, and freeing is how they describe themselves.

The surreal duo formed in 2017. Both members of the band, Cayla J Louw and Chad Thompson Laybacks, have had a great love for music since very young. Both playing guitar for well over a decade, and writing songs in their individual musical paths – even before the band – for almost as long as they can remember. Singing was of course, a natural bi-product and passion. Coming together as The Vast Oddity, many elements influence each member in their inspirations and writing, whether it be space, the ocean, the modern world and crazy society, strange ideas or unusual concepts, they’ll keep your mind and thoughts entertained and wandering.

Since forming, the band has released four singles – ‘Beautifully High’, ‘Can’t Surf’, ‘Swell’ and ‘Squares are People Too’ – on all major online music platforms including iTunes, Apple Music, 7Digital, Spotify and Deezer. They also held their Liquid Sun EP Launch at Railways Cafe on the 28th April 2018, and are looking forward to releasing their EP online in 2019.

Their singles have hit the airwaves on Mix FM, Eden Radio, MegaZone Radio, UCT Radio, Vow FM, Good N Plenty Radio (Cocoa, Florida), Radio Wigwam (UK), Radio Today Johannesburg, SME Fusion Radio, KZN Capital, Youth Today Radio, RA Rock Radio, on which their single ‘Swell’ featured on the Top 40 for more than 3 weeks and reached number 11, and Zone Radio on which their single ‘Squares Are People Too’ reached and stayed at number 1 on the top 40 for 5 weeks.

The Vast Oddity has performed at over 60 different venues across South Africa. They have opened twice for Boo! and have also played alongside acts such as Desmond And The Tutus, The Black Cat Bones and Jasper Dan.

The band wishes to take their music across this galaxy and the next!

7pm – Mythical Mike Tythson

Mythical Mike Tythson is a group made up of musician friends who use any excuse they can find to play music together. Electric and vox are covered by Tim Aldridge, Javid Govender is on drums, Robs Houghting is on keys and Mel Naidoo is an additional voice.

They have been playing together for many years in many different formats. Primarily a cover band, they aim to provide a quality performance of songs that the audience know and love, with a few obscure tracks hidden in the mix to spice it up. Rumor has it that there may even be a few originals in the works.

Tim brings a combo of tasty guitar and steamy vocals, Adrian gives you all the feels with his soundscape skills on the synth, Robyn holds down the melodies and chord progressions on the keys, Mel has a set of pipes on her that will give you goosies, Steve tries to play bass (shame we let him play cause he’s a good ou) and Jav just makes everyone look like a child on their instruments with the way he hits his drums… basically you gotta see it to believe it.

ABOUT MiTH: MiTH is located at The Knoll Historic Guest Farm, Knoll Drive, Hilton. Doors open at 6 pm and the music will kick off at 7 pm. Entrance is R40 at the door.

MiTH is a semi-open mic music club. An opportunity for musicians to share the joy of their music with a friendly audience which includes fellow musicians – who have all “been there” too. (Non-musicians welcome too!) Whether you’re a newbie looking for your first opportunity to perform publicly, or a more experienced / mature musician simply looking for people who are as passionate about music as you are – come along and join us!

Bring your own booze. Food and soft drinks are available for sale. Musicians who want to play at MiTH, please contact mithbookings@gmail.com.

DIRECTIONS TO MiTH: Take the N3 to Hilton, take the Hilton turnoff and go South into the Village (away from Hilton College). Travel 5,2km along Hilton Avenue (past two sets of traffic lights and Crossways Pub) and keep going straight as Hilton Avenue turns into Dennis Shepstone Drive. At the 5,2km mark, Knoll Drive will be on your right – the entrance to MiTH is the *second* entrance on your left into The Knoll Historic Guest Farm.