The Natives Experience to serve up full bouquet
After starving his fans of an intimate and full performance for some time post-COVID-19 lockdowns, multi-award-winning contemporary folk band, Sereetsi & The Natives will finally serve their following - the natives - a full bouquet of songs. Dubbed The Natives Experience (With Friends), the show will be hosted at Maitisong Theatre on May 28.
The show, which promises stellar performances, will see Sereetsi & the Natives serenade patrons with all of the band’s discography during a three-hour set. Explaining to Arts & Culture how the event was conceptualised, the main vocalist, Tomeletso Sereetsi said: “On Thursday I posted on the Sereetsi & The Natives page, ga se gore ke le biletse ha Maitisong for three hours of Sereetsi & The Natives tunes? It’s been a while.”
He stated that the post received an overwhelming response from ‘the natives’, as fans and supporters of the works of Sereetsi & The Natives are usually referred to.
“They popularly demanded that I, as a matter of urgency, furnish them with a date and make tickets available so they can enjoy the experience,” he said. Sereetsi said the show is called The Native Experience (With Friends) because it will afford the natives an opportunity to enjoy
all the discography of the Sereetsi & The Natives in one night, something which has been a rarity ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. He said although he has managed to get gigs here and there, they have not accorded him enough time to engage intimately with his fans.
“This is a rarity. Since the entertainment industry was opened following the COVID-19 shutdown, we have been booked in a handful of festivals and corporate gigs. The standard is that we do not more than 60-minute sets at the events, which leaves out at least two-thirds of our discography,” he added.
According to Sereetsi, the Native Experience (With Friends) will provide the full menu of the Sereetsi & The Natives buffet, which runs through a slew of unreleased numbers and three full-length albums, namely the Four String Confessions (2015), Motoko (2018) and I Am Afrika (2021). Furthermore, he said their longtime venue sponsor, Maitisong came on board to help them put together this show, adding that Maitisong has over the years become their home after hosting some of their best shows there in the past. Sereetsi said the natives have come to expect only the best culturally enriching and entertaining shows from Sereetsi & The Natives in that theatre. He said Maitisong is also a very secure and classy venue purposely designed for performance art, which makes it a joy for both the theatre-goer and the art creator.
On the night, Sereetsi & The Natives will be joined by several artist friends who will all perform in what will be a true celebration of live music. He said the dress theme for the event is Proudly African because all acts on the night will be dishing out rhythms that are rooted in the motherland. Tickets for the show are available at Webtickets outlets across the country. They sell at P200 early bird, which ends on May 5 and regular tickets go for P250.
Meanwhile, Sereetsi said he plans to tour the country in an attempt to push his album, which was dropped late last year. “I am working on new music. God willing, I will put it out later in the year or early next year,” he said. He said the entertainment scene has stormed back to life post-COVID-19 lockdowns, something which is positive. “It’s a good thing for the scene. I hope that it means that our people are getting paid. I am not sure if a good number of them are here to stay or they are just cashing in on the climate right now or whether they are not losing money. It would be great for them to come back year after year. The more the merrier,” he said.