Been quite a while since I went to see any live music and not through lack of great bands coming through but mainly lack of funds to support my habit. Most spare cash has been used trying to keep up with all the great New Zealand vinyl records being released so far this year and good grief, how did the first half of the year disappear so fast.
The Miltones the Wife and I saw last year at the same venue(a review of which I seemed to have forgotten to post) and most enjoyable they were on that occasion. As well as their wonderful debut record(which won a Tui for debut of the year) which has impressed me no end since getting hold of a copy.
Also Emily Fairlight has her first record out and after having a listen on bandcamp, figured I would score a copy at the gig. She whom must be obeyed and myself duly arrived early enough to get a table near the stage and settled in with drinks in anticipation of of Emily taking the stage at 8:30.
Being a support act I actually expected Emily Fairlight to be flying solo for this gig and so was pleasantly surprised to see a band join her on stage. She mentioned that the band being her southern band, in that they were a group of local musos, collected togeather for this gig. Overall it was a nice set. I was still quite unfamiliar with Emily's music but she has a good voice although her singing did not come through the PA all that clear or her speaking for that matter. There was one piece they did called The Desert, which was an instrumental number and quite experimental and different from the rest of her set and it impressed me the most. Overall both Mrs Roddus and myself enjoyed her set and I did indeed purchase her record.
The break between bands was kept reasonably short and soon the Miltones hit the stage and let rip into their rockin' set. The Miltones record is a combination of 70's Fleetwood Mac and modern Americana with their lead singer sounding a lot like Stevie Nicks sometimes. The last time we saw them at Blue Smoke, it was one of their Sunday Sit Down Gigs and the band was purposely restrained but still impressed me considerably with their well constructed and played music. This time they played with much more energy and it was evident from the first song that this band play together so well. The set consisted of several songs from the album, a couple or three new ones including the one that the tour was supporting and a couple of older songs that were not on the album. All that they played was great and the newer stuff bodes very well for the next album. The keyboard player was really getting into his stuff this night and his long hair was flying all over the place as he let rip with some impressive playing as well as a couple of cool trumpet solos. The Guitarist is also very skilled and on their rockier songs played some pretty cool and rocking solos as well. Another most enjoyable set from the Miltones and although their music is a bit more commercial than a lot of what I usually listen to, I do really like and respect this band and they should be getting much more attention than they appear to be getting at present.
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