Gig Guide
Friday July 30th
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· Refuel: The Exclamations! and friends
· Captain Cook Tavern: MISTRESS
· Isis Lounge: Oxo Cubans Party Night
· Chicks Hotel: The Puddle
· Cellars Bar -Provincial Hotel: Katharticus in the Cellar
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ORI10 - Health w/ Brains & TFF - Main Common Room - 21/2/10
07 March, 2010Page 1
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Next to play were ex-dunedinites BRAINS. Their set was amazingly awesome, but unfortunately short. The three piece band had won the respect of the audience from the beginning of their set as they launched into their frantic-style of indie rock. The crowd that had grown in size since the first band seemed to enjoy BRAINS’ energetic stage presence and showed their appreciation by dancing along to the music being thrown at them from the tiny stage. Brains lead singer Matthew McAuley managed to hype up the crowd with his between song banter, which is no easy task for even the most accomplished of performers. The band themselves put a lot of energy into their set which the crowd fed off and gave back to the band creating a really good vibe that just made me want to get amongst it. Near the end of the set singer Matthew broke the invisible barrier between audience and band by jumping into the crowd mid song. Everybody loved this as the mob proceeded to lift him into the air and carried him back onto the stage. All in all this was an exciting and energetic set which was very enjoyable to watch and I look forward to seeing more of their shows and hearing some more of their new material.
The third and final band of the night was Californian-indie band Health. The band took to the stage in a fairly anti-climactic manner that saw many of the people who were milling about outside rush into the Main Common Room as soon as the sound of the guitars rang out. From there on in, Health put on a fast and loud show which saw the crowd sweating and pushing each other in pure ecstacy. The band made little attempt at crowd banter during the show, but that didn’t matter- they did all the talking with their instruments which sounded like twisting metal with a deep undercurrent of thudding, tight drums. While on stage, Health looked – and sounded like they had a passion for playing live shows- which was amazing to see as bassist John whirled his hair around to the music. Throughout the set was a seizure-worthy light show which had a little bit too much strobe light and had started to make me feel a little bit agitated, but as the band launched into single ‘Die Slow,’ all thoughts of annoyance were pushed out of my head as the crowd surged forwards with sheer, unadulterated pleasure. It’s rare to see a band who sound as amazing on CD as they do in a live setting and Health didn’t let myself, or the audience down as they played a solid set with an encore, which the crowd was more than happy with.
By Rosa Marden & Jess Drysdale
Posted by scott
