I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!

Yep, long after I promised to return and write in this thing more regularily, I've finally followed through on that promise. So what do we have in store for you in this installment. Well, reveiws of all this gigs I've seen this year.

Cairo Knife Fight / True Lovers / The Veils
Sanfrancisco Bath House 13/01/2010

A couple of weeks into the new year and I find myself at the Bath House, on a Wednesday before Big Day Out, to witness the Big Night In, a gig that has been running for a few years now featuring a number of bands performing at the Auckland leg of the BDO.

A large squall of feed back anounced to those present that Cairo Knife Fight, the first band of the night, had taken the stage. Id heard great thing about these guys, especially after their set opening for Gomez late last year, so I was excited to see them. They make a big sound for a 2 piece, a jammy sound built on the band looping themselves live. The drummer in particular plays against multiple loops of his own drumming aa any given time. Very cool stuff. In fact, these guys are quite possibly the best new band I've seen in a long time, tho they have been around for a few years. They have an album out, called Iron, which I've since purchased and am still digesting, and are well worth checking out.

Next up was Dion, ex of Nothing At All and the D4, with his new group, New York based True Lovers. For this band, he has taken the more skelletal elements of the D4s sound, which on paper sounds interesting, but in a live setting, it fell somewhat flat to these ears, tho given that the band hasn't played out much yet, they may still be working out the bugs. I dunno, but I did feel like the one thing missing was the ballance that Jimmy Chrismas provided to the D4 (his group, Luger Boa, from what I've heard has similar issues with their sound, which is a little too anthemic for its own good). The other thing that stood out at this point was the fact that the venue sound wasn't 100% clear. In fact, it bordered on appalling.

This was made clear when the Veils hit the stage. Now, I'm not a big Veils fan, not by a long shot. in fact I think they are rubbish. I lasted one song and had to go home. Not the bands fault however. No, the sound was worse than it has been for True Lovers, all dsitorted and grimey. Now that may be fine for some groups, but it didn't work for the Veils. Plus it was just too loud for the venue. I'm all for ear bleeding volume and all that, but not at the expense of good over all sound.

Overall, a disapointing gig, tho Cairo Knife Fight showed they are a band to watch.

Neko Case
San Francisco Bath House 20/01/2010

After many years of my flatmate raving about her, americana goddess Neko Case finally made her way to Wellington for 2 shows.

Before we go on, I have a confession to make. I almost forgot I had tickets to the first night, instead thinking I'd bought them for the 2nd gig. Thankfully at half past 9 that night, I managed to glance at my tickets that we sitting on a set of shelves in my room, freaked out, put some pants on and hightailed it to thew venue. Thank god I live within 3 blocks, eh? All my forgetfulness meant i missed the support act, which by all accounts wasn't a bad thing.

After an announcement asking us not to take photos during the gig, Neko and her band entered the stage. And Neko has quite a backing band too, with backing vocalist Kelly Hogan and multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhous being quite well known in their own right in Alt-country circles. The gig was very cool, the band sticking mostly to recent material (I recognised a chunk of stuff from her most recent album Middle Cyclone). Neko has an amazing voice, even if she seemed a tad nervous (she apparently loosened up on the 2nd night). And, tho having an amazing voice, she didn't indulge in what I like to call "stunt singing" the kind of singing done by American Idol contestants. No, Neko sang what the songs required her to sing, and then when she really let rip, WOW!!!!!!!

A great and enjoyable show, now I need to check more of stuff out.

Handsome Family
San Fransisco Bath House 28/01/2010

These guys must really love little ol' NZ, now on their 3rd visit in the past 5 years. Maybe it was this, combined with the fact that AC/DC were playing the same night, and Wellington gig goers being spoiled for choice this summer, that led to the crowd being a tad more sparce than at previous Handsome Family shows.

White Swan opened the evening. With one woman and some keyboards, the songs be cool but a bit spare, possibly in need of a band to flesh them out a touch. That said, we did get covers of The Spelling Mistakes "Feel So Good" (last heard advising Export Gold) and the Toy Love tune "Rebel" (last heard being raped by The Checks. Seriously, if you are going to cover a song to go on a tribute album that has been put out to help cover the medical bils of the person who wrote the song, at least go to the trouble of hearing it a couple of times and trying to learn how it goes. I've always hated The Checks, but now I wanna beat the living shit out them and put them out of MY misery).

Husband and wife combo, Brett and Rennie Sparks, as the Handsome Family are a charming proposition live. The songs are just gorgeous and they fill a gaps between their songs with plenty of spirited banter and whatnot, almost to the point you would mind if they didn't play any songs cos they are so amusing. Then the start another song and you don't want that to end. They have a new record to promote, so we got plenty of new songs, along with plenty of old favourites.

Overall, and enjoyable gig, maybe not as good as previous visits, but still pretty cool.

So, that is all for this post. Next time out, more gigs (Yo La Tengo, 3Ds and some unknown band from Australia whose brother was it the Easybeats), some album reviews and the 1st in a series where I reveal my top ten albums from the last decade.

Bye!