Koizilla - Space Acadamy - Christchurch - 28th October 2018

About a year ago, I was down in Dunedin for a weekend and managed to catch a gig by the Mermaidens, who were touring in support of their debut album. Supporting the Mermaidens was a young local Dunedin combo called Koizilla. I was very impressed with their set and so was pretty keen to see them playing again, this time supporting their new album that they had just dropped via bandcamp.

  The first band of the night supporting the group were a duo of a couple of young Australian bloked going under the moniker of Bleeding Gums Murphy. Playing Guitar and ukulele, these lads played a kinda comedy folk and were pretty catchy and played some nice lines, not to be taken too seriously but more enjoyable than I anticipated.

  Nervous Jerk, I had seen once before and also had a track on the excellent "Sickest Smashes From Arson City" CD compilation so I was looking forward to seeing then play too and I wasn't disappointed, the sound mixing was pretty damn good and their classic punk was fast n' furious and fairly melodic. The Guitarist/singer was pretty impressive  and ripped out some damn fine rifferage and solo stuff and was well supported buy the rhythm section. A great set.

 Koizilla are obviously pretty well totally unknown here in Christchurch, the audience was pretty much only about 6-8 paying punters with the rest being the members of the other acts who supported. This was a shame as these guys are a fantastic group with a very strong album they just dropped and despite the minuscule crowd, they played with energy and much enthusiasm. The sound was great and it was totally infectious, a great live set and it was interesting to have it fleshed out with the young lady on flute and keys. Their music had a real touch of the progressive but heavier than on the album. I highly recommend checking these guys out.

P J Harvey - Dry - Too Pure - (UK 1992)

The great Polly Harvey's debut album burst onto the music scene in 1992 and in my humble opinion might be one of the best debuts ever. I've had this on CD since it first came out and it was a massive fave back in the day and 26 years later still sounds as awesome as the first time I played it, actually it has grown in stature in the meantime. I surely don't need to describe the music on this by now. If you have not heard it then you need to ASAP.  This a;bum gets a Roddus Rating of 5+/5.

The Beths - Blue Smoke - Christchurch - 21 September 2018

The Beths had just released their first album, Future Me Hates Me" in August and it is already contender for one of the best New Zealand releases of 2018. A beautiful collection of up tempo indi rock with punky overtones and fantastic melodies and great playing, so I was pretty excited to see how it came across live. 

 The wife had also liked their record so this was one of the rare gigs where we could go together.

There were to be two support acts this night, one being a Wellington outfit called Hans Pucket, of whom I knew nothing, and also a singer songwriter called Holly Arrowsmith. I had heard of Holly and was aware she had a vinyl record out. I checked her out on Spotify and liked here Americana tinged minimal folk so was looking forward to hearing her play and picking up a copy of her record.

 Unfortunately Holly had taken sick and was unable to make the gig, so a fella called Jed Parsons stepped in to fill her spot. Jed's name was one I has seen on The Flying out website as he too had a recent record out but I did not know if he was even a Kiwi let alone an actual Christchurch homeboy. So I was going to play closer attention to see if I would be interested in picking up a copy of his record.

 Jed and band duly hit the stage and presented us with several songs from his record, poppy indie stuff that was OK, but really did not overly inspire me to grab the record, although I suspect repeated exposure may present a capable and enjoyable record, financial considerations prevented by just buying the record for the hell of it. I though his set was and music was average but I did tap my toe somewhat, the wife was not so impressed.

 We headed down the back of the venue for the next band as Lynn needed to sit down as her back was sore from work that day so we sat out Hand Pucket and frankly their music was not really of interest to me much at all. Pretty nondescript indie really and I was pleased when they finally finished their set.

  The Beths hit in with the title track from the new album and  I was instantly struck with a feeling that this was not going to be a jaw dropping set to stick in my memory for a long time. The band played very well, the sound was very good and the music, which by now was pretty familiar to me, is great, but even though Lynn and I both enjoyed their set, I was still just a but underwhelmed. I understand they had been living and gigging in the States while recording the album so I expected a tighter and more energetic gig perhaps. There is a indescribable and intangible magic that happens with gigs sometimes and not everyone can pull it off every time, some nights are better than others, this night was very good but not great. Still we both enjoyed it enough to be glad we went. Next time I see then, they might totally blow my sox off.

P.H.F/Roy Irwin/Wurld Series - Space Acadamy - Christchurch - 15th September 2018

A big day in the city doing chores, attending a Record Fair, watching a great All Blacks game at a sports bar and finishing off the day with this gig at Space Academy.

 Roy Irwin was who drew me to this gig, I have both his records and thought I would check him out live. It turns out that Roy had just come along for the ride with P.F.H and he preforms his songs solo unlike his records where he has a backing band. It is a pretty difficult task to pull off preforming solo like this. Something special is needed from the performer and strong songs.  I have seen several local artists that I really like on record preform like this and only some of them pull it off. Roy, unfortunately didn't for me, his records patchy affairs but he does have some great songs that I am familiar with but I only recognized one of them during his short set. He finished his set abruptly half way through a song, with the comment "Fuck it! I'm done".

   Previously to Roy, Wurld Series played. A four piece indi band that I really have enjoyed the other times I have seen them, a cross of Flying Nun and Pavement with catchy tunes and plenty of energy. It was interesting after the last gig I went to a couple of nights earlier where the PA was cranked to overload and ear damaging volumes, compared to the sound of these guys this night. It appears that only the vocals were coming through the PA during their set in this small venue and so thew rest of the players we were hearing just their guitar amps direct and the drums naked and it sounded bloody good, pretty clear and well separated sound. It worked really well in this venue. Don't know if this was deliberate. Again really enjoyed their set.

 P.H.F were completely unknown to me, from Auckland, this four piece hit right into some great punky tunes with the singer pretty snotty and often singing on the floor in front of the stage. They were tight and fast and really mixed up their set with some poppy stuff, some slower stuff, some grungy stuff and the best of the lot some cool punk rock. I was most impressed and the small audience was actually asking for more at the end. Just listening to their Bandcamp stuff as I type and they are much better live.

Bailterspace with Wax chattels - Blue Smoke - Christchutch - 13th September 2018

It's been an undeveloped relationship with Bailterspace for me over the years, mostly me ignoring them and their music, not for any particular reason apart from never actually getting round to exploring it, but mostly because they are NOT The Gordons. Bailterpapce(although not originally), consists of the three original members of Christchurch's legendary post punk, pre grunge alt band The Gordons. The Gordons are unquestionably my all time favourite New Zealand band and even better is that they hailed from my hometown of Christchurch. Their first Album is just the greatesr NZ record ever and although many fans don't rate their second record as much, I love it almost as much and both were big records in my youth. So after they split and went on to form Bailterspace, my attitude was they'll be anywhere as good as The Gordons, and in my opinion they are not.
 Recently though I have bought both of Bailterspaces recent albums and did also score some of their early CD's and discovered that they had indeed produced some NZ classics I was familiar with.
  Hearing that the original three Gordons were doing a rare tour as Bailterspace(they have never played under The Gordons Moniker since the mid 80's), I thought I had better go.
  It was an added bonus that the support act was Wax Chattels, a band from Wellington that I had recently become familiar with after procuring their excellent self titled debut album a couple of months back.
 The place was pretty near full, I even had to que a bit to get in, which was a first at Blue Smoke. I was admiring the massive PA speaker stacks and the monster Marshall amps on the stage before Wax Chattels started their set. I had been warned that Bailterspace play it loud and they certainly had the rig to do so. I was prepared with those little foam ear plugs and got them in pretty quick when Wax Chattels started to play. I though, although very loud, the rig sounded bloody good, one of the best I have heard in a while and I find it frustrating that I had to use the ear plugs as they do muffle the sound somewhat while protecting our hearing, I did pull them out a bit just to hear better and Wax Chattels did sound bloody good. They played pretty much the stuff off their new album and I recognized some songs but the record is still new to me so not all was familiar or perhaps just sounded different live. They put on a great show and really threw themselves into their music, the drummer played especially wildly. This three piece consists of bass. drums and electronics and sometimes remind me of their fellow Wellingtonians, All Seeing Hand. A great and pretty wild set from this excellent alternative band.
  I was a long wait between sets but Bailterspace finally made it onto the stage. Loud! Yes it was fucking loud.. Even with such a good rig, they feel they have to crank the thing into overload, the bass was so loud that the place fairly shook and you could certainly feel it through the body, I think they just pushed it too far and with it distorting and vibrating the speakers and almost drowning out the guitar. Bailterspace are considered a noise rock band but on record it is easier to hear the subtleties inside the dirge they produce but live it all ends up being just a wall of noise. Alister Parkers singing sounds a lot different live also, a lot more snotty sounding. The drummer varied very little the beats he played, each song having a relentless but not flashy beat that rarely varied and just motored along, quite a contrast to the wild drumming of Wax Chattels. Highlight of the set was the playing of The Gordons Machine song and at least one or two of the classic songs I kinda knew from their rather large back catalog. I did have to remove my ear plugs for the Gordons song and also loosened them later to try and get a better appreciation of the noised they were making on the stage but I am now paying for it 24 hours later even from the short unprotected exposure I did have. I did enjoy moments of their set but it did get a little monotonous in the end and when the band finally finished, I did not stick around for the encore, especially as it was a weeknight and I still had the usual hours drive home.

Death & The Maiden - Space Acadamy - Christchurch - 7th September 2018

One of the Fishrider Records stable out of Dunedin, Death & The Maiden are definitely my favourite band from a very strong roster, with both their albums being very strong and the latest, "Wisteria", is perhaps my favourite NZ record of 2018. So I was pretty keen to go see them live.

 They had enlisted 3 other bands to support them, a couple of Christchurch groups and one from Wellington.

 First up was not actually a band but local artist, Motte, whom I have seen several times lately and who released a great LP last year,. that I really like. Motte first played one of her newer pieces where she uses some heavy deep electronic pulses to back her looped violin pieces. I was pleased to see she had got her voice back, after, I believe, she was not able to sing for a period due to health reasons and she preformed my favourite song from her album.

 Next Motte, also played in the next act, The Ben Woods Group, where she played keys and violin. I had seen The Ben Woods Group recently at one of the Melted Ice Cream gigs a couple of weeks earlier, their lofi droney shoegaze is ok but not not overall really inspiring, but I don't mind watching their set. Their best song is the one they have on the Melted Ice Cream sampler CD and is much more poppy and brighter than the rest of their music, I really like it.

 Plains are from Wellington and I had never heard of this three piece band. They played a sort of post rock kind of music with vocals and they sounded cleaner and clearer through the Space Academy PA and they got off to a great start with a great song that had stops and timing changes and I really was impressed and their next song was quite strong also, although the rest of their set did plod on a bit with their songs sounding all similar. They did not have a very strong singer either which is a common occurrence with many of the local amateur bands.

  Death & The Maiden are also a three peice with guitar, bass and electronics and the bass player on lead vocals. I thought the soundman struggled to get the sound right for this band as the bass was massively distorted and the guitar slightly lower in the mix than perhaps it should have been and it was bloody loud, also the vocals were a little hard to make out. The band on record are subtle and dark and beautiful but live is quite different but just as good. Sound issued apart, I thought they were fantastic, and knowing most of the songs they played as well as I do, I was almost dancing to the groove and just totally enjoyed their set as much ans anything I had seen recently, and there was some tough competition. The young lady on guitar was very impressive and I thought her playing was even better than on the records and it is really nice on them. A most impressive gig.