Kritiek Aster — Rockjagter

Olivetti 45 — What does a typical night out, let’s say on a Friday, look like for this rockjagter Astertjie?

I admit, I stole that term from the ever-inspiring (to me) Annie Klopper, famous rockjagter and the lady that literally wrote the book on one of my favourite Afrikaans rock bands.

It’s one of those terms you wish you thought of first, right? Her thesis keeps me up at night, I’m literally studying Afrikaans music history from it to qualify myself for selling you this nonsense I’m typing right now.

Just kidding, I read theses vir pret en plesier.

[Damn it, do I have permission to read that thing? I didn’t get it from a proper academic website by logging in … I sort of just hunted it down on the internet. Sôrrie, Annie.]

Anyway, back to Friday night.

It looks like a rough silence, or The Rough Silence, whichever comes first. I don’t know whether I had an awkward silence with my friends first or whether I met the almost-cute duo first. You’d think that journalist Astertjies get to enjoy Friday nights after very, very long weeks simply with friends and good music as a backdrop.

No, every hour is journalist hour, my dear friend reminded me as she introduced me to the two, hoping I could write a profile on her favourite students.

I took a few photographs, gave them my card (ooh!) and quickly wrote down the interview on a napkin before I sent them on their way. The awkward teens left with the biggest smiles on their faces.

Kriek kriek is the best sound I can apply to the moments after. The music faded out. All of a sudden the entire night changed when a somewhat unpopular friend showed up to hang out with me and her gaze met that of an arch enemy of hers [also my friend]. I just wanted to exit to go read that thesis in silence.

However, I kept my cool and ignored their nonsense as we continued conversations about the fact that this crowd seems to get younger and younger, silly tattoos, homosexuality (“imagine if straight people had to come clean about being straight”), Sandton kids, the possibility of Greenside, new talent and typewriters.

An ex-band manager joined the conversation and I saw that as our cue to leave.

No Friday night comes easy … Rockjagters all over, beware.