Our friend Sidney invited us to his birthday party at Plaasteater (an Afrikaans word for farm theatre) at the Hazendal wine estate last weekend. Plaasteater is a cosy bar (or pub) that hosts live music shows, so Sidney asked These Three Words (who happen to be friends of his) to be the entertainment for the evening. They did a really good job, and I think it's safe to say that everyone had fun. :)

South Africa has a huge number of largely unknown bands playing in pubs all over the major cities (and many small towns) every weekend. Each of these bands has a small following of enthusiastic fans - not large enough to allow them to actually make a living from music, but large enough to encourage them to spend their evenings after work practising their music.

Of course, then there are those like Prime Circle, Seether, and Just Jinjer, who eventually reach critical mass and become full-time musicians, playing with the big boys in Europe and the USA, and making most of their money from live shows and band merchandise.

The question that's being asked these days, as the Internet matures and large record labels lose control over "piracy", is how the local music scene will be affected, and whether the development of the Internet will lead to greater equilibrium between large and small (but still really good) bands.