Salmonella Dub - Speights Ale House - Christchurch 17th February 2017

Salmonella Dub are one of the original bands of the New Zealand Roots Music scene as it is sometimes referred to. That is a music style that encompassed Reggae, dub, drum n' bass and electronica and has been a very productive scene here for the last 20+ years producing some excellent music and makes up a considerable part of my NZ music collection. The Dub formed in Christchurch in about 1992 and after releasing several albums, really hit the big time in NZ with two great No.1 albums around 2001-2004. That was the time that I first saw them live at an old hall in central Christchurch. I remember at that gig that the sound system was up way too loud(as so often happens) and the Bass, (the main driver behind their music) was horribly distorted, which spoilt an otherwise good gig.

  I was still dithering about whether to go see them at this gig when I got a message from a friend asking if I was going and that she wanted to surprise her partner with a ticket, so I said I would be keen and Andy had recently moved to NZ last year and this was to be his first live gig in Aotearoa.

  The Speights Ale House in Ferrymead, Christchurch is another first time venue for me. It is a little larger than the other venues I have been frequenting of late, with a capacity of about 500. We arrived there around 8:30pm while the place was still fairly empty and settled in to listen to the DJ Skew Wiff Mo. who was plying his vinyl at the back of the stage. Soulsystem were on next, a funky dubby/reggae sort of band who were pretty enjoyable and got better as their set went on although their final number was a medley mash of The White Stripes and The Eurythmics that didn't really work for me.

  It was after 11:00pm by the time the Dub hit the stage, a large band with like 7 members on the stage, blasting out their boisterous music to the sold out crowd. Sound quality this time was much better and wasn't as loud as I was expecting, although with so many musicians in the mix, some stuff still gets lost in translation.

 The songs that they played that I did know from their reasonably large catalog, were played quite differently from the recorded versions I am familiar with and I didn't find them quite as enjoyable as I usually do, also the bass, that is so important to their music was not as pronounced as I would have liked. They played some slower grooves that would be fine on a nice summers day at and outdoor gig, but I thought keeping things more uptempo would have been better for this night where the punters looked keen to dance their asses off. The lead singers scatting or what ever you call it also got on my nerves a bit and I did find myself getting a little bored at times during the extended slow jams. Overall the music still had me grooving and was mostly enjoyable but I felt something was missing, there wasn't quite that spark that makes some gigs just so much more memorable. The last song they did was the best of the night with a real motorik bass line that sounded really cool. Andy said he enjoyed it all thoroughly, although he is probably not as much as a fussy bugger as I am. 

Aldous Harding - Blue Smoke - Christchurch 8th February 2017

Aldous is a young folk singer originally from Lyttelton, just over the hill from Christchurch. Her debut album came out in 2014 but I didn't come across it till last year. It is a solo acoustic record and Aldous(real name Hanna apparently) sings with a different sort of phrasing which makes her singing sound almost Irish. The Album is enjoyable but needs focused listening to appreciate it fully. I certainly had been enjoying her music to a certain extent but after watching some videos of her on YouTube I was starting to get a feel for how intense and committed to her art she is, so the opportunity to see her play live might prove to be a rewarding experience. This was the first night of a short New Zealand tour preceding her forthcoming second album and for the first time ever she was to have a band playing with her.
  Friend Bryce, who attended the Veils Concert with me the previous week, was back on board to check out this singer he had never heard of before, trusting my knowledge and tastes to lead him to something enjoyable. He was not disappointed.
  We arrived just minutes before the support act hit the stage to a mostly full venue. The support act, Oscar Dowling, was a young three piece playing fairly nondescript indie pop or something, they were not particularly tight and the sound was pretty muddy. I thought the guitarist did play some interesting stuff and some tempo/timing changes in a couple of songs impressed but overall they weren't particularly memorable.
  Aldous hit the stage around 10pm, dressed all in white, alone with her acoustic and proceeded to  play us three or four songs, some from her debut album and one I'm not sure. We were someway back in the room and she was sitting down so it was difficult to see her but the sound was really good and she sounded wonderful, her guitar picking is also impressive. The rest of the band soon joined her on stage and she introduced us to a bit of what was going to happen in the show. They played several new songs from the forthcoming album, all of which sounded impressive with her singing voice going to so many different places and sounding pretty powerful at times. Some of the stuff they had never played live in concert before so we were getting a real treat. She also did a Paul McCartney song and towards the end of the show, did something she said they she had never done before, rock out with her song "Hunter" and they pulled it of wonderfully. She was having a great time playing with the band and because they were playing in a subtle and intensely subdued way, the sound was very good.She came back on for an encore and played another solo song and said, as the band came back on, that they would play one more. I had been hoping like hell she would play "Horizon", A song not yet on record but I had seen a video of her performing it live last year, it was a powerful song and her performance of it in that video impressed me greatly. I was thrilled, along with many others in the audience, when she announced that that was the last song of the night, Bryce had no idea of the magic he was about to witness. With the band backing her quietly in the background her vocals on this powerful song erupted to a completely other level and just about blew us out of the room, it was far better even that the video version that I had seen, I had goosebumps and Bryce was just gobsmacked.  Her performance of it was just sublime and absolutely moved me to tears, one of the most outstanding live musical moments I have ever experienced. A gig never to be forgotten.

The video below is the original one i had seen before this gig just to give you an Idea how good this song is.

The Veils - Blue Smoke - Christchurch - 2nd February 2017

Hard to say if The Veils could be called a New Zealand band or an English band. Based in London and the brainchild of Finn Andrew, who was England born but spent some of his growing up time in NZ, the original lineup was formed in the UK but later he did go back to NZ and recruit some locals he had known there earlier. This indie pop/rock band has now released 5 albums since 2002 and I had never heard of them until Chris Walker played one of their recent songs on his NZ radio show/podcast and had mentioned their latest album several times over the past several months. I had seen that they were playing two gigs in Christchurch and I thought about going but hadn't really made up my mind until I saw a short conversation between two hiking friends on Facebook, one of whom I knew was a keen music fan and he expressed a great admiration for The Veils and his disappointment that their gig was sold out. I duly informed him that the earlier gig they were to play still had tickets available and I would go if he did. He duly emailed me the next morning informing me he had two tickets to the Thursday night gig and did I want to come to dinner before the concert.

 I managed to have a quick listen to their latest album on TIDAL before I left home and was quite impressed with the more experimental aspects of their Indie music. We arrived just after doors opened and it was very pleasant to have someone with me to chat with for a change at these concerts and it made the time go faster while waiting for the music to start. One big surprise was I had failed to notice who was the support act for this gig and I was very pleasantly surprised  to see Delaney Davidson's name on the blackboard outside the venue. I had wanted to see him play for a while but had missed his last gigs here

 Delany hit the stage around 9pm with his checked shirt and short brimmed hat and his acoustic guitar which was massively distorted through his effects pedals, singing into a mic that also treated his vocals and proceeded to  give us an intense blues soaked, rocking show of  stunning moanes, loops, bangs on the guitar wood, one man grunge blues show. It was fucking impressive and Bryce, who had no Idea who Delany was was extremely impressed as well. I was ecstatic.

  Finn and the band then hit the stage after the interval and straight away I could see here was a powerful and charismatic front man, with his wide brimmed hat, his unshaven face and his hand movements as he sang with gusto the songs that have made them quite popular. The volume was pretty loud for this gig  and as usual when all hell was breaking loose, it sounded like a wall of squalling noise, but even though I had almost no familiarity with their music I got a pretty good idea of their quality, I have enjoyed unknown bands in a live setting more than this gig but I still really enjoyed their energy and music. I also think that Bono had a bit of an influence on our man Finn. If I had known their music better I think I would have enjoyed this gig as much as Bryce did and now that I have vinyl copies of their two latest albums, next time will be even better.