Your weekly spot could be your weekly for a bunch of reasons. You love the music that happens there, you vibe with the regulars. Maybe a promoter hosts your favourite party there. Whatever the reason, your spot feels like home. Weekend after weekend. And weekend after weekend, there’s an entire team of people making sure of that. They’re rarely spotted out in the open, but their presence is literally everywhere. They’re the most important people at the party. Because they are the party.
Since taking over part of the hallowed stomping ground that was The Assembly, nightclub District had immense shoes to step into. And while it’s never truly filled the void, it hasn’t quite had to either. Over the past decade, the space has come into its own, carving out a distinct legacy in Cape Town’s underground. Perhaps most significantly, the club has become an essential venue for the city’s live music scene. District has cultivated a community of psych rock, noise, and heavy rock fans through gigs hosted by collectives such as the pioneering Foul Play and the more recent Hogwash, who’ve slowly crawled their way up the stairs from the club’s poster-plastered underbelly — rock and roll bar, Surfa Rosa.
Initially created as a space for electronic music, District’s rise on the live scene has meant collectives and promoters have had to bring in the right people to handle the technicalities behind staging live shows. Behind the noise are Carl Du Toit and Barend van der Walt, two of Cape Town’s hardest-working, and arguably most talented, sound engineers — though they stay humble. “To be honest, I have no idea what I’m doing and I’ve been faking it for the past 10 years,” Du Toit jokes. He found himself falling in love with music fresh out of high school. “I got myself a guitar and let it consume me. I must have been so annoying.” He made his way to Cape Town to study Sound Engineering at Cape Audio College, discovering a job that allowed him to contribute to the scene in a way that felt purposeful.
Van der Walt started making music during his time at Tuks in 2010. “I fell in love with the concept of mixing musical elements to make or change songs,” he says. “I started DJ’ing in Johannesburg and Pretoria, which in turn was quite a hectic lifestyle. I decided to move to Cape Town to pursue a career in live sound.” Stalwarts of the Cape Town streets will no doubt recognise Barend from his time at the beloved East City venue The Raptor Room, a queer-owned bar, eatery, and music venue that shut its doors shortly after lockdown.
“I worked there for three years, which taught me how to work with bands and different personalities,” says van der Walt. “The Raptor Room helped me understand my role as a sound engineer a lot better. Now that I freelance for companies like FSharp Music, those lessons seriously come in handy.” Du Toit got his start at another sorely missed Cape Town institution, Mercury Live. “I spent the formative years of my career running sound there,” he says. “Over weekends, while working a 9-5 during the week, I built my passion and grew my expertise with each show. I realised this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so I quit my 9-5 and went freelance in 2019.”
Their job is no small feat, and it’s done best when it’s at its most discreet. “A sound guy should be neither seen nor heard. The last thing we want is to do something that makes the whole crowd turn around and look at us,” Du Toit says. He and van der Walt are the invisible cogs keeping the machinery of a night operating, making sure those cogs keep turning no matter what. A typical gig day for the duo at District involves setting up a separate sound system, sound-checking each band, running the show, and then packing everything down again.
It’s a full day of work most crowds only see for a few hours, one that typically starts at 10:00 and ends after 03:00. “We’re the last to leave the venue most nights,” Du Toit says. “It’s all about teamwork,” says van der Walt. “Luckily, me and Carl work together extremely well.” Du Toit agrees. “Barend and I are two ends of the same cable,” he says. “Whenever we work the same gig, it honestly feels like a breeze. It’s like working with a clone. He’s just prettier.”
2019 was the year van der Walt found himself working more regularly at District. Du Toit began working more gigs there in 2023. “After Mercury Live shut down, it felt like bands needed somewhere to showcase their work,” Du Toit says. “When I saw what Foul Play was doing at District, and that there was a place where you could see three or four-band lineups every week, I immediately saw its value. I knew I needed to get involved.”
Both sound engineers are doing what they do because of a genuine love for the scene, and a commitment to the people making it happen. “It’s such a rad industry we work in. It’s hard not to feel inspired by all of it,” says van der Walt. “I like to make gigs work,” Du Toit says. “So please come to me with your problems. I like solving them and leaving the bands free to focus on the performance. Technical problems have a big impact on creativity, so there is always a Plan B to Z, or a backup cable and always tape.”
Working behind the scenes of a scene means both Du Toit and van der Walt have watched it grow and evolve in real time, playing a more significant role in the process than most realise. “If I don’t do my job well, bands won’t play at that venue and everyone loses,” says van der Walt, whose hope is for the scene to grow into a more sustainable ecosystem overall. “That helps us achieve fair pay for bands and sound engineers,” he says.
“Even a tambourine man needs to eat,” Du Toit chuckles. He understands that for this to happen, it takes big swings. “People need to buy pre-sold tickets. Or maybe there should be a monthly fee format for individual venues. That way promoters can take bigger risks, leading to higher quality productions, better lineups, and better shows,” he says. “I want more newer bands to emerge. I love mixing a band I’ve never seen before — it’s like collecting a Pokémon. Young people are the future of the scene, so go out and watch new bands. Watch them evolve and grow.”
For those curious enough to take a stab behind the scenes themselves, van der Walt offers a warning: “Good luck,” he chuckles. “No, on a serious note, it’s a brilliant job for someone who doesn’t mind working hard physically, and who doesn’t need praise at the end of it.” “Getting into live music events or sound can always be tough, but my advice is to get involved and contribute to the scene you love in any way,” says Du Toit. “Cape Town isn’t that ‘clicky’, we just don’t know you yet. Book or host your own events, even if they’re small or intimate. We like working with people who contribute or add value to the scene with a fresh perspective.
Du Toit continues, “If you know me or Barend, you’re showing up. If you know why we’re at the jol every weekend looking grumpy and dishevelled, you’re helping grow the scene through your support.” And if you happen to catch either of them in this state in the early hours of the morning, don’t forget to offer to buy them a beer. “You’ll find me just on the perimeter of the mosh pit trying to survive the beautiful chaos,” says Du Toit. Van der Walt chips in, “And you’ll find me at the ‘Bar End.’ Get it?” These guys come with more than cables and jacks, apparently. They come with dad jokes too.
All photographs by Laura McCullagh.
