ELLA MENTAL REUNION CONCERT. Camel Rock, Scarborough, Cape Town.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
Evenings like last night (Saturday, 10 December 2022) make me love my life and also give me a moment to reflect on how I got here. Three of us drove from town to the Camel Rock in Scarborough for the first of four Ella Mental reunion gigs. We parked and noticed the red, gold and green crocheted pants of an Uber driver and knew we were arriving somewhere where our tribe, our old faithful, grey haired, grungy, kids of the 70s and 80s would be gathering.
And it was so. The weather was wild and windy, then a few raindrops fell, then the sun exploded in the sky, turning everything pink and red and finally purple, as Ella Mental, the originals, took our hearts and bodies and turned them liquid again.
This gig. This gig was like coming home. We sang and danced to See Yourself, Pressure, Magic Mother, Song for Jenny. We sang, and hugged old friends, and boogied, and people got drunk but, in a jolly, Deep South, hippy way, and we had the best time ever. All of us, and the children of all of us, and even some of their babies.
Total trip
Coming back to Ella Mental almost 40 years after I first saw them, as a student at UCT in 1983, was a total trip, especially because Heather Mac transforms her 60-something-year-old-self back to that being from before, and she is as mesmerising, as extraordinary, as magnetic, as powerful. And her chemistry with Tim Parr is electric, familiar, funny, and unique. Drummer Hermann Eugster came from overseas especially for the gig, and both him and bass guitarist Adrian Levi were delicious in making up the rest of the team.
The venue was packed. We had the best time ever. This was the first of several gigs around the peninsula. Book now on Quicket. Don’t miss out.
What: Ella Mental Reunited
Where and when: Die Koelkamers in Paternoster on 16 December, and the Karoo Art Hotel in Montagu on 17 December 2022.
WS
