I was informed mid-week by my good anarchistic friend Justin that there would be a hardcore gig on at the Youthzone on Friday night. Seeing as how my other alternatives were (a) irritating people by sending them e-males that are far too long; or (b) watching Space and visualising myself graphically maiming Dominic Bowden, I thought I may as well check it out. So, I assembled my Droogs (Robert and Tonamu) and we set off on our merry adventure to the Youthzone. Hear about it here…
Webber’s review of the Day One gig
We arrived about nine o’clock despite Justin’s advice to turn up at about 8:30. When we got there, the first band were almost finished. I can’t remember the name of the band, but apparently they played at lunchtime on the uni open day this year. Remember that band that seemed completely out of place on a summer’s day playing death metal when most people wanted to chat? Well, that was this band. I didn’t get a chance to see them that day, but I saw them tonight, in their element. I thought they were quite good. They are a comparatively tiny band, comprising of only three members: A drummer, a bassist and a vocalist/guitarist. Interestingly this is the first hardcore band I have seen where the vocalist plays an instrument as well. He had a strong, menacing voice too, so he was truly multi-talented.
After they finished we decided to cruise around the block to the Star Mart in order to get some money out. A whole chain events followed which I won’t get into (I might tell you about it sometime – suffice to say Robert is poor), and by the time we got back the second band had started. I’m reliably informed they were Holdfast, and they played the same kind of upbeat breezy punk as Pugface (sorta). As a result I thought they looked completely out of place between all of the hardcore bands. The midget punks liked it though. (Notice how almost all punks are midgets? I’m not talkin short – I mean like a metre tall. There’s something I don’t get, but I digress). I remember one of their songs wasn’t too bad, it had quite good catchy melodies. However, it was the sort of thing Pugface do, only Pugface do it far better (and they do it for the LORD!!!1). They kind of ruined the good thing they had going by pulling out the trumpets though – that was poor (flashback to the Advocate days… Shudder).
Righto, on to the fourth band on the line-up: Misled By Lies. This was the only band so far that I had seen previously, and they have always been consistently good. The other time I saw this band was at a straightedge concert a couple of months ago. I believe the band isn’t straightedge – although a few of the members might be. That reminds me, getting a bit off topic, but there weren’t any straightedge people there. I was both surprised and disappointed, as they make the concerts just that little bit more frenetic and exciting. And you gotta love those ground-punching antics. Anyway, getting back to the band, I thought they were just as good here as they were last time. This time they had a cool echo effect on both the vocals and guitar – which was used to very good effect on my personal favorite track, ‘Televangelist’. They seem to be quite respected by the regular gig-going punters, and it wasn’t hard to see why.
After that display came the main act; the ones I came to see, the ones I had been waiting all night to get a glimpse of. They were Auckland band Day One. I had seen them twice before - at the BDO (where they were the victims of a bizarre meat-throwing incident) and at the straightedge concert previously mentioned – and they had quickly become a band that must be seen. They were there to promote their debut self-titled album, released on Kog off-shoot label Midium. As soon as they came on, I noticed that something was different – there were four members, rather than the regular five. As the vocalist explained later on, they were missing guitarist Evan Short, as he was travelling to London as one-half of drum’n’bass terrorists Concord Dawn. That was kinda disappointing, cos Evan is one of my heroes, but Day One got on just fine without them.
The vocalist (can’t remember his name for the life of me) has been compared to Steve Buscemi, and I thought that was very fitting. All through the performance he kept ranting about being “one step away from hell” and made up several little poems while his eyes bulged out crazily. Apparently he suffers from “sore throat-itis” and so he wasn’t able to scream for all of the songs. His solution? Give the audience the mic. One track he had not thought of lyrics yet, so he gave up the mic and stood in the crowd while punters passed it around and screamed their heads off. This is the best case of audience participation I have ever seen, and it is a testament to how relaxed the bands are, that they can blur the lines between audience and performer so much that it gets to the point where audience members jump on their backs and lie on top of them (don’t ask). Anyway, the band was really very good, and showed signs of a great band getting even better. I particularly liked the track ‘All Seeing Eye’, which is an intelligent (!) piece of noise to say the least.
So they concert performers signed off around 11:45pm, and the crowd, all wanting more, slowly dispersed. All in all, it was a very good gig, especially considering the price was only $6. I am surprised more people don’t come along to these things: What else can you do with $6? Maybe one lap of town? People should really go down to the Youth Zone next time something like this is on, you support local artists and (heaven forbid) you might actually have a good time.
P.S. If you wanna hear the sounds of Day One, Tonamu’s got the album. Go pester him.
