I’m with the band – Cape Town post-punkers Tough Guy travel north for a weekend of mayhem

Words and photos by Nathan Levinrad.

It’s Friday evening, at the Irish Club in Linden. I am painfully early, and the lads are still setting up. TOUGH GUY singer and bassist Sihle Mkhize and tour manager Richard Liefeldt (of Retro Dizzy and solo project Dr. Lovefield) are there setting up for the show. 

This is the warm-up show for That 70s Fest and it’s a collaboration between Sihle and Richard’s Revival Co. and Boogy Central. The rest of the band are still recovering from a boozy afternoon at Brian Lara. Guitarist and back-up belter Desmond Kannemayer later tells me that going to the bar is a tour ritual.

There is excitement in the air, and no one seems too phased when the sound guy tells us the show will be delayed because the mics have been forgotten at his place in Pretoria.  The opening act The Klubs will bring them through. Nothing can damper the energy of a couple of lads on tour.

TOUGH GUY are a post-punk group from Cape Town. The line-up is Sihle, Desmond and guitarist Christopher “Cobra” Bolton and drummer Ryan Oliver. Sihle and Desmond played together in Runaway Nuns, the first time I saw a show of theirs in Stellenbosch all I could do for the next couple of weeks was sing their praises. The Nuns had an energy that made it feel like you weren’t at a show, so much as you were amongst mates singing drinking songs. 

The band carries this same comradery. Despite being just under a year old, the bond is strong, and it comes through in the music. The band aren’t wasting any time getting out there either. They haven’t released any music at the time of writing, yet here they are playing two shows in Johannesburg. The Irish and That 70s Fest the next night.

Desmond, Ryan, Sihle and Chris, Tough Guy band. Photo Nathan Levinrad.

TOUGH GUY’s sound is, unsurprisingly, hard as nails. The band is made up of members of the grittiest rock n roll bands in the country. Aside from the former Nuns, they have Cobra on guitar – of legendary surf rock Johannesburg band The Moths – and Ryan on drums – previously on the cans for Cape Town fuzz rockers The Murms.

The machine is well oiled, every show I’ve seen of these guys has built on the expectations set by the one before it. The show at the Irish is no exception. The lads go through the setlist before the show, only Des seems to know what the order is. There is excitement in the air, and no one seems too phased when the sound guy tells us the show will be delayed because the mics have been forgotten at his place in Pretoria.  The opening act The Klubs will bring them through. Nothing can damper the energy of a couple of lads on tour.

The show was so chaotic that at some point Sihle rolled his ankle only to discover the next day. Late into the night my oral motor skills failed me earning me the nickname Subtitles. We make it back to our lodging for the night at someone known to me only as Party Pete.

After phenomenal sets from Sold Ash and The Klubs, TOUGH GUY went full force into the opening track ‘Interceptor’. In no time the crowd is rearing and a mosh pit envelops me. The show was so chaotic that at some point Sihle rolled his ankle only to discover the next day. Late into the night my oral motor skills failed me earning me the nickname Subtitles. We make it back to our lodging for the night at someone known to me only as Party Pete.

Groggy and fed up with one specific person’s loud snoring (sorry guys) the band wakes up and starts to gear up to go to That 70s Fest. After all the equipment is loaded into the uber van, and a quick stop for festival provisions has been made, we’re on the way. Desmond requests ‘More than a Woman’ by Bee Gees and from there Richard in the passenger seat takes us on a trip of DJ Dick’s favourite bangers.

Tough Guys on tour. Photo Nathan Levinrad.

We arrive at the festival grounds, it’s early afternoon but already there are guys walking around with walking sticks engineered out of all the beer cans they’ve drunk so far taped together (I’m told that “you always run out of tape”. It’s something of a fest tradition). A cold wind picks up but even the nip in the air can’t put a damper on the lad’s excitement. Sihle’s ankle, still swollen from the night before, was medicated in TOUGH GUY fashion… whiskey. The level of talent on the line-up does not go unnoticed. The dudes share old tour stories about drawing straws to see who must play the headlining slot on a bill of heavy hitters.

TOUGH GUY had an intimidating slot – sandwiched between Soweto Zulu-punk rockers Shameless and the ferociously loud Black Math from Durban. However, these guys don’t back down. As soon as they jumped on stage, plugged in and struck that first chord, the crowd was in the palms of their hands. Midway through the set, the crowd is a mass of moshing bodies and Richard, equipped with coat, cowboy hat and whiskey-filled teacup joins the band on stage for ‘Sugar’.

The power that propels their music is the fuck you attitude with which the songs are delivered. ‘Sugar’ – the band’s soon to be released debut single – is a perfect example of this. Sihle and Desmond scream the chorus, “Say I got nothing? I got nothing but time!” 

There are at least two demons and several stoned people in this pic. They all love Tough Guys. Photo Nathan Levinrad.

The power that propels their music is the fuck you attitude with which the songs are delivered. ‘Sugar’ – the band’s soon to be released debut single – is a perfect example of this. Sihle and Desmond scream the chorus, “Say I got nothing? I got nothing but time!” 

It is a middle finger to the haters and testament to punk rock self-belief in the face of the bleak state of modern society.

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