Reid & Ruins - The Piano - Christchurch - 26 November 2020

 

Nadia Reid must be getting pretty popular after needing to put on a second show with Tiny Ruins after the Friday night show sold out rather quickly. This was good for me as I dithered around for ages deciding whether I was going to go or not, especially after already seeing Nadia down in Oamaru earlier in the year. It actually turned out that we got the invite to my wholesalers end of year bash for early on the same evening as the gig and there were still tickets for the Thursday night and my wife indicated she would like to go also, so it all fell into place. 

After scoffing ourselves full to bursting at the work do, we headed off the to The Piano, and duly found some good seats once the doors opened. Nadia and Tiny Ruins (Holly Fullbrook) duly take the stage with just acoustic guitars and with out any introduction, go straight into their first number. After that they then explained the format of the show, and after doing "rock, paper., scissors" Nadia played her solo set first. 

She was a bit slower getting into the groove this show, although the first couple of songs she played were unfamiliar to me even though they maybe on one of her  three records I have, but then she started playing stuff I did know and I thought her performance lifted and my wife though the same. She swapped around between electric and acoustic guitar and again showed just hoe good a songwriter and singer she is. Although not as powerful a set as she did down on Oamaru earlier, it was satill a most enjoyable set.

Tiny Ruins has also been round the tracks for a while now and has a few albums under her belt. I saw her play live with a band about three years previously and wasn't all that impressed on that night with what I heard, so I had not bought any of her music until her last album "Olympic Girls" which had impressed me a lot.  Tiny played a bunch of her songs, some I didn't know but a couple from the aforementioned album I did and they were great. She did a lot of talking between songs but what really impressed was her guitar playing. She is technically, well ahead of Nadia in this department  and really impressed with her skills on her acoustic. The first song had all sorts of cord and tempo changes and almost felt like it could have sat well on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks album with its jazzy feel.  Her singing is almost as good as Nadia but she is not as strong a songwriter. She also played a great set.

The last part of the show was them both preforming together. They are old friends and also flatted together several years ago, so they know each other well and sing together wonderfully. They have a similar singing style and their voices complemented each other well on the several songs they did, including a Dylan cover and a Don McGlashan song. The ending to a very good show.

Mt O'Malley - 22 November 2020

 Uncle Roddus Tramping Dairy: Tramp No. 182

Mt O'Malley - 22 November 2020

Short Report as I have done this trip before back in 2015 and there is another post covering that. A club trip with 12 participants on a not too hot partly sunny day. Typical Arthurs Pass very steep slog up the first 500m of climbing through the bush to our first scrog stop then onto point 1844. Some scrambling along the tops and some sideling round the difficult bits. Myself and one other decided to drop down to the tarn instead of summiting O'Malley, where we relaxed in the sun until the others joined us. Then the downward slog back to the cars. About 7 hours and a bit.

 

Ben Lomond - Queenstown - 13th November 2020

 Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No 181

Ben Lomond 13th November 2020

A long weekend and a trip to Cromwell for the Mother In Laws 90th Birthday. While my Wife spent the day with her mum, I took the opportunity to stretch my legs after the layoff while recovering from my fall on the last trip out. Ben Lomond towers above Queenstown and offers fantastic views of the lake and surrounding mountains. This was my second trip up this hill, the last time being at the start  of 2013.

 The trip is a straight forward 1400 M slog up a very well used track from the waterfront through the pine forest and mountain bike tracks. Rested and ate soon after reaching the bushline and had another rest on the saddle before the more rugged slog up the last 300m to the peak. It was very hot. I was a lot slower on this trip than the last time I did it. took me about 7 hours this time.

The Dead C - Lyttelton Coffee Company - 7 November 2020

 

The Dead C, New Zealand's most famous noise outfit, been together over 30 years, terrorizing receptive audiences the world over with their improvised rock noise. I have been vaguely aware of them over the years and may have even seen them play in 93' when they supported Sonic Youth in Christchurch, although I have no memory of the support band so I may have been late or distracted. 

Since my re immersion into New Zealand music in the last 5 or 6 years, much more of the Dead C has become known to me and I have several of their vinyl releases now in my collection and so it has been about 5 years of wanting to see them live on top of their recording output. Live Dead C appearances are rare, even in New Zealand. There was a gig in Lyttelton(where Bruce Russell lives) in 2014 which just precedes my renewed interest and they played down in Dunedin several months ago, but that is all I am aware of recently. Both of the last two lines of flight festivals in Dunedin I went to, all three members of the band were there and played, just not together. So it was with great excitement that I saw a poster come up on the Dead C Facebook group announcing this gig.

I arrived rather early as I had about an hours drive to get to Lyttelton and I wanted to get there as doors open just in case it filled up too quick, it wasn't likely but it is a small venue and it was door sales only. Alistair Galbraith was doing his sound check when I arrived so I got a drink and sat at the front table and watched him setting up and playing some stuff, he had another guitarist with him and after they stopped they were joined by a drummer wherein they proceeded to rock out incredibly to a couple of songs from Alistair's vast repertoire, one of which I recognized. Alistair was shredding his guitar, it was almost the highlight of the night, and it was just the soundcheck.

Friend Craig arrived soon after and joined me at the table as we talked and watched all the local underground and some not so underground Christchurch Musos arrive, including Hamish Kilgour, of The Clean, Stephen Cogle of The Terminals and Chris Heazlewood of King Loser fame. Alistair started his set alone using quirky pre recorded samples to back up his mostly short but very quirky and unique songs. After several of these the second guitarist joined him as he picked up his guitar and showed us just how good a guitarist he is on several more songs, again many are very short and finish suddenly. The Drummer, Matt Middelton, joined them for the last couple of raucous songs that really impressed , like the sound check.

The Dead C then set up and rather informally kinda just started in playing as they each got their gear plugged in and adjusted and set upon the first piece of industrial improvised noise. The lights were mostly off, so it was to dark to see much of what the lads were doing but as you would expect it was a pretty unholy wall of noise and feedback and manipulations with Robbie bashing away in the back.

Robbie sort of brought the first piece to a close by leaving his drum kit and coming round to Bruce and got the crowd to sing  Happy Birthday to Bruce who had just turned 60 I believe. They then set into the next piece which to be honest didn't sound a lot different from the first piece but it was just as good, and towards the end of the piece Hamish Kilgour snuck in with Robbie and started in on his drums adding to the chaos. and as the piece ended that was it, they took off their guitars and stopped. Two pieces in probably less then half an hour, which was a little disappointing, I could have handled a lot more.

      

   

Don McGlashan and the Others - Blue Smoke - Christchurch - 29 October 2020

 

The Don was hitting the road again, this time to showcase a whole album worth of new songs that were waiting to be recorded. It was a packed house at Blue Smoke as the support act Ryan Fisherman played a rather uninspiring set that sounded muddy and it was practically the last song he played that illicited any interest  from myself or my friends that I was with.

 Don hit the stage and announced that he and his band, with the impressive Shayne Carter on guitar, were going to play us 13 brand new songs that are most likely going to be on his next album. I was initially disappointed a little with this as myself and I am sure many others there would have liked to hear some of his older songs from his fantastic back catalog. Still, with these new songs, Don proved again what a great songwriter he is with his set showing us a glimpse of what looks like being yet another great McGlashan record.. After the 13 songs, the band then gave us a little bit of that excellent back catalog which really got the audience going wild, especially with the excellent version of "....Marsha....": Which I videoed and is posted below.. So in the end it was yet another excellent Don McGashan gig and I am looking forward to the next album.

Dick Move - Darkroom, Christchurch - 25 October 2020

Last night of the trifecta of gigs on this holiday weekend. Dick Move's first album had just arrived on my doorstep at the start of the week and I was pretty impressed with the trashy melodic punk they played on a well produced but very short album.

 Arrived at Darkroom just a few minutes before the first band, Pretty Dumb, hit the stage. A  very young three piece playing a nice brand of hard rock sort of music, they were very proficient and had some great songs and I really enjoyed their set and their chops.

The next band were called Marsha and their Facebook profile said Post Punk, but I thought they were more indie rock. They also had some nice licks but actually their music didn't much capture my interest, so I took the opportunity to sit down around the corner from the stage area on the comfy sofa until Dick Move came on. 

Dick Move squeezed their five selves onto the tiny stage, but the singer spent quite a lot of the time singing down in the audience. She is another full on lead singer who reminded me of the Contenders singer I saw on Saturday night and also Annabel Liddell from Miss June, they all dress similar and have similar performance attitudes. The band played hard and fast and like the album , the set was over in short time. A five piece creates a lot of noise live and this they certainly did and it was a great set but after the massive build up I got from talking with one of the local punk musicians at Punk fest about Dick Move's set on Friday night, I was somewhat let down, the intensity of their set didn't quite meet my expectations  that had been built right up and they didn't quite reach that magical apex that live performances sometimes exude. Still, a great band and great gig.

Ōtautahi Never Mind the Punkfest 2020 - Saturday Night session 24th October 2020

 

My noisy holiday weekend continues with my attendance of the Saturday night session of the Nevermind The Punkfest gig.  26 bands spread over 4 sessions across three days at Christchurch's punk HQ, The Embankment  Tavern. I had attended my first  local punk gig earlier in the year soon after the ending of the first COVID lock down , that gig was mostly Christchurch bands, this festival drew bands from all over the country, especially the North Island. Like the last gig the place was pretty much a full house and many of the young ones were in full 80's punk regalia and hairsets.

First up was Nervous Jerk, who I have seen several times over the last few years, they turn up at many of these multi band gigs locally. Their fast paced melodic American style punk is great live and I loved their set again, familiar with several of their songs now especially from the record they released.

Next up was a bit of a surprise. Unruly, from Wellington, I was familiar with in a slight way, but didn't register their name until I checked online after their set. They had a record out that I had very briefly checked out and quickly dismissed and forgotten about. This three piece played a super slow doomy sludge rock that really blurs the boundary between Punk and Metal. It was really low end heavy and so slow, I thought the notes were gonna drop to the floor. I was rather impressed and went and bought a copy of their album.

Things went in the opposite direction with the next band, Pop OD. Very fast melodic punk again in the American Hardcore style, they even played a Husker Du song. Apparently only their second gig. Really good.

Next was one of the two bands that I had really come to see this night. Contenders from Hamilton. I had heard a couple of their songs on The Counting The Beat podcast a while back and was so  impressed that I bought a copy of the 7 inch record they released( I don't usually go for 7 inch records). They actually looked pretty straight as they hit the stage and ripped into their HI- NRG Rock N' Roll. Their female singer was probably the best vocalist of the night and she really makes her present felt by getting really close to the audience and standing on the rail in front of the stage and hanging from the scaffold while singing. They appeared to stretch the songs out a bit more in the live setting than on the record but I recognized several of their songs and they played a blistering set.

Rodgernomix were the next band that I was particularly interested in seeing, Not too familiar with their music but I had heard some on Counting the Beat and they were a favorite of Chris, the Counting The Beat DJ. Another four piece with the Bass player from Unruly and another band with a female singer. This Wellington band have been around now for over a decade and they played a full on thrashy screamy brand of  punk. another enjoyable set.

Finally, for me, was Carradine Choke, who appear to be the leading band in the Christchurch punk scene, and it certainly showed with the mosh pit heaving more than for any other band of the night. They played Crass meets Dead Kennedys punk. There was another band on the bill for the night but I had had my fill by 11:30 when Carradine Choke finished and I still had an hours drive home. Overall a great night with every band I saw impressing 

Spook The Horses - Arcadia - Christchurch - 23 October 2020

 

The first night of a trifecta of gigs for the labour weekend holiday, and first up we have Wellington's Spook The Horses with, I believe, a delayed tour in support of their fourth album. This album sees the return to the heavier music and screaming vocals of their second album after the more subtle record"People Use To Live Here"

This was my first visit to Arcadia, a  retro gaming parlor with bar and stage for live events. I got to play my first game of pinball in over 30 years between the first and second bands. Talking of the bands, first up was Troika, a local three piece that plays atmospheric  heavy post rock. I had seen them before and have one of their CDs which I enjoy. Tonight their set was enjoyable juxtaposition of light and heavy as they ripped through their set. The lead guitar was a bit drowned out by the bass and drums, I would have liked to hear a bit more of what he was playing as he is a good guitarist had they have some good tunes.

So after my game of pinball, I settled in to watch the next band. Blindfolded And Lead To The Woods are another local band, a  five piece with twin guitar, bass and drums with the inevitable growled/screamed vocals for this Death Metal outfit. I wasn't aware of them until this evening although they have two CDs out and appear to have been playing since at least 2011. Probably my first experience of this type of music live and it certainly was bloody heavy. They started their set with an almost Floydian piece of noise/drone with their backs to the audience and I thought this could be rather interesting, but then they turned around and plunged in to their relentless wall of heavy noise, shredding their guitars and appropriating the required stances. I didn't mind the wall of noise they produced but if course it wasn't easy to make out too much of what they were playing and so the songs all tended to sound similar, they had great energy. I think I prefer this music live than recorded.

 Spook the Horses took the stage around 11 PM, also a five piece but with three guitarists including the singer. I was thinking how much more of a wall of noise this was going to be but was quite surprised when they ripped into their first track how much more I could hear what they were playing. The first two tracks were relentlessly stunning and had me moving and nodding to the energy as much as  my battered body allowed. The screaming vocals were better than I expected and the singer is very good at that style. The middle of the short set was intense but seem to loose a little of the clarity of the first couple of numbers, but the last couple of numbers really lifted it back up, I believe one of the songs was "Inheritance" which is the closing track in the new record and it is brilliant. I do find this sort of music a little difficult to recognize the songs from the record but that one stood out. This band far exceeded my expectation of them live and really took it to the next level on several songs. Great gig. 

The Rome Ridge Disaster - 19 October 2020

 Uncle Roddus Tramping Diary: Tramp No.180

Rome Ridge 19 October 2020

After 20 years of tramping mostly in the South Island, Uncle Roddus finally had a fairly serious accident.

15 Trampers gathered at the start of Coral Track, just north of Arthurs Pass on a mild Sunday morning sometime past 10am. The weather forecast wasn't promising, but the actual conditions turned out to be pretty good for a day in the hills, there was a possibility of winds and rain later in the day but all looked good as we started the rather steep slog up Coral track through the stunning bush of the Arthers Pass area.

The pace was fast with this group and I soon found myself at the back as I stopped to shed cloths and take photos of the awesome views. It didn't take long to get past the bush line and after a quick stop it was on wards and upwards.through the low scrub and rocks. The ridge gets a bit more rugged near the tops with loose rock and a sharp ridge and more care was needed as we ascended. There had been some snow a few days earlier and we started to hit patches still left on the tops and when we reached about three quarters of the way to the top, the leader assessed the situation and decided there was still too much soft snow on the ridge and the avalanche risk and slipping risk was too much. 

We turned around and it was intended to to drop down a scree into the Bealy River. Unfortunately Uncle Roddus had other unplanned plans to throw a spanner in the works as he stupidly ignored advise from the vastly experienced person in front of him and decided in a moment of brain explosion to carry on and step onto the dodgy looking snow that was only a couple of short steps wide. Instantly his feet slide out from underneath him and he is sliding down the snow gathering speed. Not to worry, he thinks, self arresting is second nature nowadays and duly sets himself and his ice axe  into the correct position. This, though is quite ineffectual, as the snow is very slushy and no real purchase is found by the ice axe and control evaporates and downward speed increases. Free fall ensures as things become a bit of a blur, but it has become obvious that any control is totally gone and a loud scream of frustration and anger escapes his lips in the form of the famous expletive that starts with the letter F.

The next thought to go through his mine was, "This is it, I'm dead.!" The rocks were racing past and some sort of fatal impact seemed immanent, body seemed to even be air born for a moment but there was an almost calmness to the prospect of impact. And yet, it didn't come. Somehow, Uncle Roddus ended up in a gut, almost buried to the waist in snow in some semblance of an upright position. As some snow started coming down on top of him, he tried to extract himself from the snow and get out of the way but he was buried deep and couldn't move. Luckily the snow coming down the chute was of little amount and soon stopped.  Assessing things quickly as realization dawned that he was actually relatively unhurt, he still had his ice axe and used it to dig out of the snow and gingerly crawl over to bare rock picking up the nearby walking poles that had dislodged from the side of his pack. Blood was pouring from a cut on his hand but all limbs and extremities were functioning correctly without extreme pain. 

Other members of the party were seen at the top of the chute and arms were waved and loud vocal affirmations were made to attract their attention to the fact that someone was still alive down here, then it was a case of just sitting down and shaking until some of the party arrived to check on the situation. Uncle Roddus was beginning to realize how fortunate things had turned out, even to the fact that he was still wearing his hat, glasses and his cell phone in his shorts pocket was undamaged. 

Some of the team arrived and comforted the injured party until the rescue helicopter arrived and winched  Uncle Roddus into the chopper(perhaps the scariest part of the adventure so far(until he had to confront his wife with what had happened))

Next day he went back to work.