Shake Some Action is a monthly music event hosted by Mercury Lounge in Cape Town by Liam Revenge and Rockin' Rael Futerman on the last Saturday of every month. They've made it their mission to counter act 'unrelated 90s rap/rock type stuff' on venue playlists. Rolling Stone met up with the DJ's to chat about their project, which will feature prominently at Rolling Stone Weekend in Cape Town on September 14 and 15.
How long has Shake Some Action been going?
Liam Revenge: Myself and Rael had been discussing the concept of starting a rock'n'roll club night in Cape Town for some time. I ran a monthly night in Manchester called 'Back From The Grave' for a couple of years and wanted to do something similar over here, so we put our heads together and in January of this year and Shake Some Action started taking shape. Our first party was in March at The Kimberly Hotel and the place was absolutely packed. We were totally overwhelmed by the success of the first night and from there the night has gone from strength to strength, incorporating live bands and burlesque, and culminating in the move to Mercury in August.
Is there any connection to the Flamin' Groovies' album "Shake Some Action"?
Rael Futerman: You got it! It's an album we all love. We were thinking of names for the party and my wife Amy suggested the name Shake Some Action. We thought it fit perfectly, it's what the party is all about. Dancing and having a blast to good music. There is always a lot of shaking and a lot of action!
Did you folks just become fed up with the bad taste in music being played at venues or what was the reason for starting Shake Some Action?
Rael Futerman: I would go see great local bands, and yet they are only on for about an hour or so. The rest of time a venue often plays totally unrelated 90's rap/rock type stuff. Despite the fact that there are great local DJ's, the spaces between bands are often filled with drivel.
Liam Revenge: We both had experience of DJing and organising clubnights, so the idea was to organise a party that we would want to go to ourselves, and just hoped that other Capetonians would dig it as well!
Rael Futerman: We now host a local band or two per event, and we make sure we play music they like and the audience likes. It's about the whole package. We make sure the bands and the audience have a good time!
Shake Some Action has a show on Assembly Radio, can you tell me a bit more about that?
Liam Revenge: We are on every Friday from 12pm till 2pm. It's nice, because we have a little more scope of the sort of stuff we can play on the radio; obviously during a live DJ set in a club the emphasis has to be on high-energy, danceable music, however on the radio we can play pretty much whatever we want, within reason!
You can experience Shake Some Action at the Mercury and Shack complex at Rolling Stone Weekend between 14 and 16 September in Cape Town. Here's 4 of the other acts, another 4, 4 more and the DJ's that will also be performing at Rolling Stone Weekend.