Die Antwoord Paints the Town ‘Zef’ at Paramount Theatre: September 22

Posted on September 18, 2014, 9:30 pm
2 mins

Slide

Before there was ironic hipsterdom, there was ‘zef’, South Africa’s tongue-in-cheek take on kitsch culture. There can be nothing ‘zeffer’ on this planet than hip-hop/rapper/rave duo Die Antwoord. Die Antwoord (pronounced “dee ont-voo-uhrd” and meaning “The Answer”) consists of Yo-Landi Vi$$er and Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones), a kooky pair of conceptual artists whose music videos and short films have garnered millions of views on YouTube.

Particularly successful tracks include “Enter the Ninja” off the EP 5 (2010), “Evil Boy,” “Rich Bitch” and “Beat Boy” off the album $O$ (2009) and “I Fink U Freeky,” “Baby’s on Fire” and “Fatty Boom Boom” off the album Ten$ion (2012). Die Antwoord recently released the non-album single “XP€N$IV $H1T” and their latest album, 2013’s Donker Mag (Dark Might).

Die Antwoord are known to play at outdoor festivals where their songs—poking fun at everything from the remnants of Afrikaner Apartheid-era conservatism, religion, social structures and, most of all, political correctness—have been a great hit. Their particular brand of rebellion has proved immensely popular around the world, and the group is no stranger to controversy. The music video for “Fatty Boom Boom,” for example, featured a Lady Gaga impersonator giving birth to a Parktown prawn in a back-alley Johannesburg clinic, sparking a Twitter-feud with the ‘Mother of Monsters’ herself, and the band lost their contract with Interscope records after DJ Hi-Tek, an openly gay DJ, repeated the word “faggot” on the track “Fok Julle Naaiers.”

The evening promises an ‘exaggerated experience,’ a surreal escape from reality into the minds of two of the music world’s most original, innovative and controversial artists. Tickets can be purchased online from Seattle Theatre Group.

Seattle Theatre Group presents Die Antwoord

When: Monday, September 22, 7 PM

Where: The Paramount Theatre (911 Pine Street)

General admission tickets are still available through www.stgpresents.org

Check out a rather surreal short film from the duo (directed by Harmony Korine, so NSFW) posted on VICE.

Johann Van Niekerk is a writer, conductor and collaborative artist based in Seattle, WA. He holds a Doctorate in Music from the University of Washington where his research focused on the role that music has played throughout history in effecting social change. Van Niekerk covers performing arts events in and around Seattle.