Images & Words by Prog Nick
Sognage – Johannesburg, South Africa – Aug. 24th, 2024
The rivalry between South Africa and Australia is a long-standing and great one, extending to arts, culture, music and of course, sports. (For example South Africa recently comprehensively beat Australia in The Rugby Championship to the Aussies’ great chagrin). But this has always been a healthy and good-natured rivalry, and it tends to bring the best out of all aspects of these two Southern Hemisphere countries. However, no-one would even attempt to make the claim that Australian Prog is not better than the South African version, which is generally buried under mountains of Afro-pop, house, hip-hop and Afro-beats.
It is therefore not often that a recognised name in top-level Progressive Rock makes its way to South Africa. In fact it is a rarity indeed. But Australian Progressive Metal titans Caligula’s Horse did exactly that on 23 and 24 August 2024, courtesy of up-and-coming local concert promoters Turning Tricks Entertainment. With a highly successful Cape Town gig having been performed on Friday 23rd, the band then convened at converted warehouse ‘Sognage’, in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, on Saturday 24th. They were ably supported by South African bands Deity’s Muse, Sunken State and New Earth.
It was mildly annoying (if not downright alarming) that a trance-house event in the downstairs warehouse seemed to be far better attended than the Prog gig. Thankfully, as the evening wore on, the crowd swelled to a decent size (though never completely filling the venue) and the venue was at least bouncing by the time the headliners got on. Encouragingly, the majority of the crowd were comprised of youngsters, several of them wearing Slayer, Metallica and other Metal t-shirts.
New Earth kicked off proceedings on time with a fabulous set of masterful Prog. Led by excellent front-man Matthew Gardner and keyboardist Dean Barrett, who is most definitely South Africa’s premier keyboard talent, a prodigiuos display of long-form Melodic Prog was presented. Heavier than the last time I saw them, this great South African band really made certain that the evening could not have been opened in finer fashion. World class though New Earth’s performance was, the band could have been better lit by the lighting technicians. This notwithstanding, New Earth proved once again that they are, quite simply, South Africa’s best Melodic Prog band – as good as any in Europe or America.
A good crowd gathered in front of the stage before Sunken State emerged. They were lean, mean, loud and heavy, presenting the thrashing brand of Metal that seems to be preferred these days and it did not take long for the moshpit circle to form. Sunken State were performing hot off their victory at the African leg of the ‘Wacken Metal Battle’ which lent them much credence with the audience. I am not a fan of cookie monster vocals, but this notwithstanding, the band certainly commanded my attention. The style was not my personal thing and was nothing really new, but it was a tight and aggressive set nonetheless. The mid-sized audience of metalheads certainly lapped it up.
Deity’s Muse took their time preparing and refining their on-stage sound, but ultimately gave an inspiring set that paved the way for the headliners in admirable fashion. It was weighty and melodic, with tight and excellent instrumentation (though it contained several loops) and a trouser-shaking bottom end. The lengthy sound-check proved to be worth it – a great set.
When the Brisbane/based headliners mounted the stage, the crowd was well and truly primed, though (bizarrely, not much larger in size than that of Deity’s Muse). At last the technicians finally released the full capacity of the venue’s sound and lighting rig, and Caligula’s Horse were in town in a big way.
My first and most immediate impression was that lead vocalist Jim Grey is a force to be reckoned with. His mane of locks was everywhere as he prowled the stage, and his style is one of personal engagement, friendly demeanour, eye-contact and audience involvement at all times. He is a brilliant front-man, effortlessly chatting to the crowd about this and that, on the most human and connected level. He also has one of the finest voices in Prog. Considering that this was the 47th gig out of a 56-concert tour this year, his voice soared effortlessly, with none of the high notes being shirked. On the contrary, at some points he even exceeded the high watermarks set by the album recordings. Grey is a prodigious talent indeed.
As for the rest of the band, Guitarist Sam Vallen drove the complex melodies and riffs with a Fractal Audio guitar sound that is one of the best I have ever heard live. Bassist Dale Prinsse, who looks like an Australian WW1 pilot (handlebar moustache and all) was the anchor that kept all the complex musical arrangements togather. Josh Griffin, a behemoth of a man, smoothly handled all the syncopated drum rhythms with surety and aplomb. He is a powerhouse drummer indeed.
A set of the most elegant and sophisticated Prog-metal ensued. Being Caligula Horse’s first ever show in Johannesburg, the band took every opportunity to win over this new audience (who suddenly did not seem all that new when the time came to sing along – clearly ‘Charcoal’s Grace’ has been on a goodly number of turntables in this town). Dynamic and soaring soundscapes, heavy melodic intricacy and all-round huge live sound and visual presence were the order of the day.
Early on (after the first song) Grey imposed the theme of ‘Time Travel’ on the gig – meaning that the band intended to go back in time to 2015’s ‘Bloom’ and revisit every one of their albums chronologically since then, climaxing in 2024’s ‘Charcoal Grace’. This meant that 2011’s ‘Moments From Ephemeral City’ and 2013’s ‘The Tide, The Thief & River’s End’ did not make the cut on this evening. But every other album did, providing a pleasing mix of older and more recent material. This gave Grey the opportunity to tell anecdotes about each of the band members as they had joined, and to feature each colleague in a song. 2017’s ‘In Contact’ got two airings, as did 2020’s ‘Rise Radiant’. As each album was described, so too were the themes behind them explained, for example ‘Rise Radiant’ was presented as an album with a message of overcoming adversity and positivity, in response to Covid.
A few notable things happened during the concert. For example, during the third song, a young man near the front of the crowd fell to his knees and proposed to his girlfriend directly in front of Grey. She accepted. Despite the lighting in his eyes, Grey picked this up, noting that this was the first time Caligula’s Horse had witnessed a proposal, and made a big deal of it from the stage, greatly pleasing the potential bride and groom and their friends. The whole gig was about that, really – personal connection between the band and the audience, and love. When the ‘last song’ had been performed, Grey jauntily instructed the audience to turn their backs to ‘hide’ the fact that the band were not walking off-stage to require the usual forced ‘encore’ façade, which encore then proceeded as expected. On another occasion, Grey got the audience (who were obviously familiar with the material) to sing Vallen’s complex syncopated guitar riffs (apparently the only other place this had happened was in Latin America). He also noted that instead of South America’s “Ole, ole’, the South Africans were chanting “Ausie, Ausie, oy,oy!’ Grey also stated that this visit was ‘the best we have been taken care of – anywhere’, which the crowd absolutely lapped up. What the fans resonated with most was witnessing that this band is not caught up with the airs and graces of global acclaim. They are regular people, just like us, sharing one common passion – a love of Prog Metal.
As Grey stated at the end of the gig, Caligula’s Horse shows are about good vibes, positivity and above all, love. There was brilliant musicality, syncopated precision, great sound and lighting, crowd dynamics the likes of which I have seldom seen, choice language by Grey, personal interaction, eye contact, singalongs (of words and of music), proposals, dancing and love. Lots of love. It was so filled with love and hugs that at times I though I was at a hippie gathering in the 1960’s (Isn’t Metal supposed to be aggressive? Not, it seems, when Caligula’s Horse are delivering it.)
While the South African Prog Metal scene might be small, it remains alive and, seemingly, mighty. This is something that the band seemed pleasantly surprised to learn, but it is also quite obviously something that they had a hand in achieving. I walked in a mere fan, but I walked out a fully impassioned devotee. I for one really hope that the Australians will be back – South Africa may regularly bash the Australians into submission on the rugby field, but Progressive Rock is a different matter entirely.
