Blog Roddus

Blog Roddus
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Sunday, June 14, 2020

Carradine Choke - The Embankment Tavern - Christchurch - 13 June 2020



Well, here it is, my first post COVID gig, after New Zealand went down to level 1 alert on Monday, things are almost back to normal for us here except the border is still closed and the ongoing economic effects of the shutdown.

 The Punk scene in Christchurch looks pretty healthy with a pretty much full house for this gig as five bands pummel our senses for this album release gig for Carradine Chokes new album. The door takings for this gig were going to be donated to an anti racism cause in light of the recent world events.

 This was my first visit to The Embankment and I believe my first all punk gig although I had seen a couple of the bands before(Mental Fatal and Nervous Jerk) and Carradine Choke and Zhukov were both names that I had seen mentioned several times over the last couple of years. The stage area was out back of the bar under a semi permanent tent, scaffold type set up so it wasn't the warmest place on this freezing winter night and it seems because it feels semi outside many of the young punks chose to ignore all the no smoking and vaping signs so it wasn't the most pleasant atmosphere in that respect and as management don't seem to want to stop it, it may influence my decision to go there again, my clothes stank when I left.

 The bands played pretty short sets and so between sets I would go hand out in the main(smoke free and warm) bar.

 First band was Ow! My Face. I was not at all familiar and their sound was pretty murky and their music pretty typical thrashy punk,  I enjoyed their set but the least of the night.

 Metal Fatal were next any have a more American Hardcore sound, the female guitarist and singer has a pretty gravelly voice and they rock hard as you would expect and I liked them tonight and last time I saw them, I did think I enjoyed them more the first time.

 Nervous Jerk played next and like Mental Fatal, are a three piece, but their punk leans slightly more toward the more commercial end of the american punk sound, I had seen them before also a couple of times and always enjoyed them, I was waiting for them to play the song off their single that I knew but they did not play it.

 Zhukov were a four piece and I really enjoyed their hardcore type set and the singer looked familiar, so I wonder if I had seen them before. They had some great guitar licks that impressed me.

 Finally Carradine Choke hit the stage, another four piece, and definitely the best band of the night with their Crass Meets Dead Kennedys anarchic punk which had the mosh pit heaving and their sound was really good.

 Overall a very good night with some great punk music all round.

2 comments:

Mario said...

How can I listen or download the posts ?

Roddus said...

These are reviews, there is nothing to download.