Show: Jeremy Loops
Date: 10 October 18:00
Venue: Jan Marais Park
Jeremy Loops has a gift for turning an audience into a choir, and on Saturday night, Stellenbosch was happy to sing.
Loops brought Jan Marais Park to life with a lively, engaging performance as the sun set behind the Stellenbosch mountains.
The Woordfees crowd spanned across all generations, and Loops gave them all exactly what they came to see.
He walked onto the stage in his familiar look: A messy bun, his guitar and harmonica, and his famous loop pedal completing the outfit. Opening with Mortal Man from 2020, he set a feel-good, nostalgic tone that carried through the evening – before long he had the crowd jumping and singing every word back to him.
“I come here to sing songs with you and not at you,” Loops told the crowd, which proved to be true.
Jeremy Loops got the Woordfees crowd singing at Jan Marais Park on Saturday, 10 October with a nostalgic, feel-good performance. PHOTO: Supplied
Halfway through the evening, Loops shared a story about his loop pedal that started it all. He was messing around with it while having to study for a test during his student years at the University of Cape Town. Somewhere between the procrastination, he accidentally wrote Down South. The song became his breakout single from his 2014 debut album, Trading Change, and made him a star across South Africa before taking him around the world.
“You never know when these beautiful mistakes are going to be the thing that changes your life,” he said.
When the first high notes of Down South rang out, the Woordfees crowd erupted.
Loops did not carry the night on his own. His band was superb, and Hiram Koopman, switching between keyboard and saxophone, was a standout. His saxophone solos were among the highlights of the night.
The artist’s most recently released song is the band’s version of Tina Turner’s Simply the best in collaboration with Salt Tree, and was sung as the show drew to a close. A wave of cellphone lights from the crowd accompanied the melody of the iconic song.
Loops left the crowd wanting more, and came back to sing See, I Wrote It For You, sending everyone home still singing.