Tag: New Zealand band

Review: The Beths – Auckland, New Zealand, 2020

Matching with an accompanying concert film, The Beths‘ Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 captures the band’s performance at Auckland Town Hall during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in one of the few countries that took the pandemic seriously at the time and was still able to hold live music events. The band’s joy at performing in front of a home crowd, and after so long of not being able to do so, is heard in every note – as is the bliss of the crowd.

The cheers before the opener of “I’m Not Getting Excited” are infectious, as is the opening guitar riff from Jonathan Pearce as Elizabeth Stokes actually encourages the audience to get so excited that their heads might explode. “Great No One” rocks and rolls straight into “Whatever” – with the whole crowd yelling / singing the title (and pretty much everything else) along with the band. “It’s not just the dawn that breaks,” Stokes sings on the sizzling “Mars (The God of War)” – a song about wishing she could move beyond a bad break-up.

The live version of “Future Me Hates Me” is as bouncy and loud as you’d hope it would be. “Jump Rope Gazers” is just as lovely live as on the album of the same name, if not more so. “Uptown Girl” blasts by you with some of Tristan Deck‘s fiercest drumming. His beats on “Happy Unhappy” get you dancing.

“Out of Sight” makes the turn toward the final act of the show, with Stokes thanking everyone behind the scenes at the show afterwards. You can hear the emotion in Stokes’ voice as she thanks the crowd before the band launches into “Don’t Go Away.” Benjamin Sinclair‘s bass line on “Little Death” is like a hummingbird zipping around the room. “Dying to Believe” closes the show, with the entire crowd singing along, before the band comes back for an encore of “River Run” that fades into a blissful state.

Not only is this a joyful recording, it’s also a good-sounding one. Stokes points out at one point that the sound crew has to work in a large, echoing chamber – and they do it quite well.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: The D4 – 6Twenty (2003)

Coming in hot and heavy and all the way from New Zealand, The D4 are like a Down Under MC5 (who also are probably the inspiration for the band’s name). Their album, 6Twenty, is full of crunchy guitar riffs, thunderous drums, and horny, wailing vocals.

Take opening track, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Motherfucker,” for example. It bursts through the window like John Shaft swinging into the room with a machine gun and proceeds to lay waste to everything around it. Dion Palmer (AKA Dion Lunadon) and Jimmy Christmas unleash killer vocals and guitars throughout it – and every other track for that matter. “Get Loose” has Christmas craving for action while Daniel “Beaver” Pooley hammers out a snappy beat full of Keith Moon-like fills. He also gets the party started on “Party,” and soon Vaughn Williams is joining him with a wild bass line that inspires you to go nuts. The MC5 influence is clear here, especially in Christmas’ vocal styling.

“Come On!” yanks you out of your chair and tosses you into the crowd to either get sweaty or get the hell out of the way. Their cover of Guitar Wolf‘s “Invader Ace” is a lights-out rocker. Williams and Pooley barely give you time to breathe, and then the guitar solo comes in to clothesline you over the top rope. “Exit to the City” is the slowest track on the record, and I lightly use that term. It’s a swaggering bit of cock rock with cool phaser effects and another sizzling guitar solo.

“Heartbreaker” has Christmas yelling about losing a lover while the rest of the band gives him moral support by flattening any walls around him. “Running on Empty” isn’t a Jackson Browne cover (which would’ve been amazing), but rather a fun garage rock track that has a rock-solid rhythm from Williams and Pooley. “Ladies Man” has the confidence of the Tim Meadows‘ Saturday Night Live and film character, and great organ work from guest Cameron Rowe. Their cover of Johnny Thunders‘ “Pirate Love” is a great tribute to him (and The New York Dolls).

“Little Baby” screams right on by you like a runaway armored truck, “Rebekah” has an undeniable rock groove that catches your attention no matter what you’re doing, their cover of Scavengers‘ “Mysterex” is an ode to “nine to fivers” and “soul survivors.” The album closes with “Outta Blues,” in which Christmas sings, “I’m outta blues, but I’m okay,” making us wonder which part of that statement is correct (and all of the instruments are right-on throughout it).

It’s a great debut record of rock sizzlers beginning to end.

Keep your mind open.

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