"Using the 'Kawangware' aesthetic to sell Absolut to a hall full of expats has a pinch of obscene" ~Raph~
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| Smiling white people. |
This past Saturday, my friend Raph and I decided to go for
the ‘UP Live’ event hosted by UP magazine at the Kenya National Theatre. The
event was to celebrate the magazine’s one year anniversary. It was raining quite hard, as it has been this past week, and we weren’t feeling much
like being out, but boredom and curiosity got the best of us. So off we went,
walking from our Kijabe street studio to KNT.
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| JAB's super sax dude. |
We got there and the numbers were good, which was surprising
considering the rain. There was a tent outside the theatre, under which were
two bars, one for Heineken and the other for Absolut Vodka. The two brands were
the main sponsors of the event. People stood around in clusters, chatting,
sipping their drinks and looking generally self-conscious as people often do at
these kinds of things. Raph and I hovered around saying our hellos and trying
to get a feel of what was going on. Then a guy appeared at the Wasanii (The
theatre’s bar) balcony and said something that I didn’t quite get but everyone
started moving into the theatre so I followed suit.
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| A mister Kevin Mbugua. |
I found myself inside a strikingly set up KNT, with graffiti-ed
mabati sheets all over the place. Awesome. The graffiti was mainly random
matatu route numbers and signs like,’tunauza makaa’. I didn’t care much for
that but Raph had rather strong feelings about it. It just seemed like the UP
people, who largely target expats and Blankets&Winers, were using an
aesthetic that they know nothing about. Felt disconnected. So Maia Von Lekow
and Kevin Mbugua played together. Technically good but mostly boring. There
wasn’t any artistic chemistry there and they both came off like they were
playing musicians rather than being actual musicians. Then came Just A Band who
were the reason most people, including us, had come to the event. These boys
are so likeable with their easy, unaffected attitude. They did something off
their last album, 82, with Maia which I actually enjoyed. The sound kept
malfunctioning which seemed to rattle
their vibe for a bit, but their saxophonist,who was simply stellar, kept us
distracted. They played a bunch of crowd favourites which got us all on our
feet. Fun times. Also, Blinky, their lead singer was rocking a really nice
jumper that had a leso motif, with the methali and everything, which I later
found out was done by
Chilli Mango.
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| JAB's Blinky in very nice Chilli Mango jumper. |
The after party was upstairs at Wasanii where DJ Zelalem played all sorts of strange, wonderful
music. He might be Nairobi’s most versatile DJ. He talks way too much during
sets though according to my friend
Reumac, who took all the photos here.
All in all, UP’s first birthday, though nicely produced in
some aspects, lacked truth. You get the sense that UP is trying to sell some “cool”
that stems from nothing at all really, and for me, cool has to have a basis. I
did however like the Heineken pictures. Nice touch J
