Traditionally, the week of Hallowe’en is a time for celebrating the souls of the departed. In Mexico, they celebrate El Día de los Muertos – the Day of the Dead. In Western Europe, it’s the Feast of All Souls. And in Wellington? It’s time to celebrate the ressurection of The Cosbys, New Zealand’s greatest blue-eyed soul sextet.
It’s been a year and a half since The Cosbys’ last reunion special. Eighteen bleak months without their foot-tapping, horn-laden, beer-soaked Northern Soul. But for one night only, this Hallowe’en, Auckland’s answer to Dexys Midnight Runners are back from the dead. Make sure you’re at Mighty Mighty on Saturday 31 October for this awesome show. Cosbys reunions are rarer than zombie apocalypses these days.
Wellington, you’ve outdone yourself. Last weekend was fantastic: great sets by Family Cactus, Dictaphone Blues and Sing Songs, catching up with old friends and making new ones, an awesome picnic, and I even got to ride Felicity’s sweet bike. I didn’t think you’d be topping that in a hurry.
But look at all the awesome stuff on offer this week! Sub Pop’s cutest couple, Handsome Furs play the Bathhouse tonight. Door sales are $40 (with a limited number of $20 student tickets, according to UTR). Up the road at Mighty Mighty, Crack Wednesday is back with Tommy Ill, Crackhouse 5, Rap Authoritar, and Crackhouse DJs till late. Crack Wednesday is the most fun you can have in the middle of the week, and the poster has a sweet bear on it:
The Kitchen Sink hosts The Listening Post at Watusi on Thursday. There are board games, giveaways, and a great cocktail menu. Check out the contents of last month’s Listening Post.
Liam Finn, Eliza-Jane Barnes, Lawrence Arabia and Connan Mockasin are Having A Baby at the Opera House on Friday night. Not only are these guys some of NZ’s best young pop songwriters, they’re also some of the most energetic and unpredictable performers you’ll see. Tickets are available from Ticketek.
And it’s back to Mighty Mighty on Saturday, for Disasteradio’s homecoming show. After five months trotting the globe, playing every festival in Europe and a quickie wedding in Las Vegas, D-Rad is back in Wellington and ready to party with Frase (of Frase+Bri) and Signer. Don’t miss it!
You might have seen Family Cactus on TV3’s Nightline. Maybe you heard their live-to-air from Camp A Low Hum ‘09 on National Radio. Perhaps you read the review of their album in the Herald or the Dom Post. They’ve been described as lush, epic, cinematic, and other nice things. So don’t miss your chance to see them live. Wellington’s second-most-popular seven-piece finish their Come Howling release tour this weekend, playing this Friday 21 August at San Francisco Bathhouse with Dictaphone Blues (Akl) and Sing Songs (Wgtn/Ham). Get your tickets from Under The Radar or on the door.
I’ve moved into a flat above an old butchery at the top of Aro Valley. While it isn’t the oldest house I’ve lived in, it’s certainly the best-preserved. There’s a beautifully-carved Arts & Crafts-style fireplace in the parlour, a concrete tub in the scullery, and a wash-house and privy in the back garden. The downstairs windows even have the hooks where William Haines jr. hung his signs in 1914. The whole neighbourhood looks a lot like it did at the turn of last century, when W. H. Haines sr. bought a section of Henry Mitchell’s farm in Polhill Gully and built workmen’s cottages on its wild slopes. So what’s an unemployed photographer/historian/library-nerd to do in a place like this? Scramble up blackberry-clad banks to recreate old photographs, of course!
This was Mitchelltown a century ago. You can spot the tall side windows and verandah of Haines Family Butcher on the right of Holloway Road. And here is the same length of street, taken from Mt Pleasant Road this afternoon:
And then there’s the reserve at the end of our street. The former tip was replanted by PEP-scheme labourers in the 1970s, with whatever native seedlings could be begged or borrowed by community volunteers. As a result, the trees have all grown narrow and spindly, and the locals will all tell you that it’s haunted.
There are tracks from the reserve, either up to the Brooklyn wind turbine or down to Aro Street via the old Mitchelltown School site. Twenty minutes’ walk from downtown Wellington, and you can get lost on a winding goat-track above the gully that time forgot.
I sure picked the wrong week to move to Wellington. Not only is Capital City putting on a spectacular show of its infamously bad weather, I also managed miss just about every touring band in NZ by being at the wrong end of the island two weekends running. Here are some of the highlights around the North Island this weekend:
The Family Cactus play Leigh Sawmill on Friday and Auckland’s Bacco Room on Saturday. Check out the bouncy bassist in their new music video. The Sing Songs are supporting both shows. Expect a night of sweet harmonies and naughty bearded men.
The Puddle team up with The Hollow Grinders at Hamilton’s Ward Lane tonight, and Auckland’s Dogs Bollix on Saturday. Matthew Bannister joins the bill of NZ’s most underrated bands at the Hamilton show. Meanwhile, fellow Dunedin-exile and New Zild’s Sexiest Left-hander, Shayne Carter and Dimmer play Auckland’s Kings Arms tonight and Hamilton’s Flow on Saturday.
And down here, Grand Prix will be wooing Bodega tonight. Tomorrow night Mighty Mighty presents the rarest of creatures, a bfm band that’s actually worth the hype — Panther And The Zoo. Check out the video to their ‘I Know Your Name’. Swoon a little. Join me at Mighty tomorrow night.
Wow, the end of May is almost here, and that means Hamilton’s biggest little music event is on its way. Fifteen bands are about to converge on Flow Bar, and perform three-song mini sets of covers and originals at the Fifth Annual Hamilton Circle Jerk. Dick Dynamite and the Doppelgangers, The Dusk, Sumo Love Machine, The Prime Numbers, Knights of the Dub Table, Sora Shima, Dynamo Go, The Shrugs and more will be showing each other love in the loudest, sweatiest and most intimate celebration of Hamilton music that you’ll see all year. And there will be live music too.
This will quite possibly be your last chance to see Dynamo Go, Sumo Love Machine and The Prime Numbers in their present form. There is also a top-secret, extra special mystery band.
What: Hamilton Circle Jerk When: Saturday 23 May 2009. Bands from 8pm. Where: Flow, Victoria Street How much: $10 for 15 bands
