A different rock... Catch my drift?

 A couple of Saturdays evenings ago, ¾ of JetPilot went out to experience a Rock of a different kind in Brakpan.  Francois couldn’t make it – some excuse about Blue Bulls rugby and other stuff --  , but his brother could hence the ¾ .  "The Rock" we were to experience was none other than "The Rock" raceway, site of a “sideways drifting competition”.

 For those of you who don’t  know,  in drifting  being first at the chequered flag  counts about as much as a Bob Mugabe election promise,  Julius Malema’s wood working skills, or warm beer in the Sahara.  Drifting is about making  your car go sideways around corners in an attempt to extract as much smoke and noise out of your tyres as possible, with extra points awarded for smoking and negative points for spinning out of control.

  We made our way up to the grandstand which has been rigged with disco lights, where the only thing lacking was a mirrorball and smoke machine, while around us the smell of rubber, petrol and boerewors lingered in the air. On the race track we where kept informed by a friendly MC  who managed to stay out of the way of the cars, as well as occasionally stop  to sweep the track or retrieve the fender of a car.

After watching the show, I learnt a few things  that may help to enhance some of our coming gigs.   

•  Skyline GTRs are cool, ( not sure how to incorporate that into music.)
•  Beer makes anything entertaining, (Hmm...)
•  Its damn cold in Brakpan.
•  The smell of burning rubber and smoke makes people cheer,
•  Neon lights on the bottom of your car actually look cool when your car is engulfed in a cloud of  smoke, and makes people cheer.
•  Large Flames coming out the back of your car as you drive past the crowd makes people cheer.
•  Beer makes people cheer.
•  I stand and cheer when there’s beer and burning rubber.
•  Beer does not eliminate the need for a cushion.

  I wonder what my Gibson would look like if I had to backlight it with green neon for our shows. I already have the flame part covered cause it’s a flame maple top. Jimmy Hendrix has already done the whole set the guitars alight on stage, but I don’t think anyone’s go their guitar to squirt fire at will. Maybe I could rig a flame thrower to my guitar and make people cheer.

 Showmanship and pyrotechnics aside the album carries on with us currently working on the bass guitar and doing some basic mixes, and in the meantime we have a few gigs coming up so on so it will be good to be putting on our own show. See you there...