Opposite Sex - Space Academy - Christchurch - 22 May 2021

 

Gig time again, with Opposite Sex playing again, after I had seen them for the first time only a couple of months earlier in the year. Supporting their new (and maybe last album) album, "High Drama", which maybe their best to date, and being their third, but with the departure of their original drummer, the three of them are now operating under the guise of Wet Specimen and have even released their first album on Bandcamp. So it may well also be a farewell gig, I guess we'll see. 

So I was slightly confused when Lucy Hunter introduces Wet Specimen as the same band but with a different name, although it becomes slightly clearer after she explains the drummer situation. Still, to my ears in the live situation, the do not sound at all much far removed from Opposite Sex, with Reg doing similar guitar pyrotechnics as he does in Opposite Sex but with different songs. So is it Opposite Sex playing different songs for this set or Wet Specimen playing Opposite Sex songs in the later set this night, perhaps the later. Still, it was a good set and the mix sounded excellent..

After their set, I found friend Craig, who had arrived half way into their set and we chatted between bands before heading forward towards the stage for the next band Night Lunch. 

We both had seen Night Lunch before when they came up from Dunedin to support Earth Tongue in late 2019 and we were both impressed with what we had seen that night. A duo of two Liam's being, Hoffman on drums and Dorf on amplified Diddly Bow. They make an excellent dark industrial doomy sound with a lot of force but irreverent humour and it is impressive the sounds Dorf from his two string Diddly. The small crowd was right into their set and again the sound mix was excellent.

And Finally, Opposite Sex(or is it Wet Specimen?) take the stage and take us through a great set across their entire back cataloge , including the songs that first introduced me to their music and then progressed on to the new tracks, especially, what I think are the three best tracks from the new record, finishing their great set with the Epic "Dick On A Throne, which I managed to capture quite well on video(see Below). A great live band and Reg Norris really gets some chaotic sounds from the shredding he does with his guitar over Lucy's wonderful bass lines. Perhaps my second favourite Dunedin band behind Death And The Maiden.