Wednesday, October 21, 2009
We've moved blogs!
We won't post here anymore. Go to littlepicturesmusic.tumblr.com from now on. See you there
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Our first show in Amsterdam/Netherlands
So we've been hanging out here in Amsterdam for 3 weeks now. Looking for job, a place to live, and finishing recording our new EP.
Last night we played our first show in Amsterdam, and it was sweeet! We played at the closing party of a big open air film festival called Pluk De Nacht. It was an extremely well run show, the people who put this on are pretty amazing. The room was packed with about 500 people! Everyone we met was really friendly, and we even managed to bump into a guy that used to work at Mighty Mighty, a bar in Wellington that we played at a bunch of time. Small world. Great night!
Here are some pictures:
Last night we played our first show in Amsterdam, and it was sweeet! We played at the closing party of a big open air film festival called Pluk De Nacht. It was an extremely well run show, the people who put this on are pretty amazing. The room was packed with about 500 people! Everyone we met was really friendly, and we even managed to bump into a guy that used to work at Mighty Mighty, a bar in Wellington that we played at a bunch of time. Small world. Great night!
Here are some pictures:
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Blogotheque
We played Midi Festival in the south of France and it was amazing! Blogotheque were there and asked us to do a little take away show. Here's some of the footage! See if you can spot Piklet, Joe, guys from Dent May, guys from Jeffery Lewis and guys from Jeremy Jay. Epic jams
http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Midi_Festival_Jour_1___Dent_May__Francois_Virot__Little_Pictures____/
http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Midi_Festival_Jour_1___Dent_May__Francois_Virot__Little_Pictures____/
Baby moved to Amsterdam
Yeeeah, we're living here. Sort of. We're in a temporary rental and looking for a permanent place and jobs. But we're here! And we're working on new recordings which are coming up pretty Millhouse.
Will post up tour photos and stories. Needless to say it was awesome, and we'll be touring Germany again in a couple of months.
Will post up tour photos and stories. Needless to say it was awesome, and we'll be touring Germany again in a couple of months.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Woah
Man we suck at updating. We have so many pictures and great stories, all will be revealed soon!
For now, here are some awesome pictures from a garden party we played in Kassel, in the backyard of our excellent booker Volker, how cool are these? (heaps more if you follow the link)
http://longlivethequiet.com/magicgarden.html
For now, here are some awesome pictures from a garden party we played in Kassel, in the backyard of our excellent booker Volker, how cool are these? (heaps more if you follow the link)
http://longlivethequiet.com/magicgarden.html
Friday, July 3, 2009
Berlin show, at the Bread & Butter Vice Party
We'll have blogs and pictures up about our Italian tour (which was amazing!!) as soon as we fix the camera (dropped and broken)! Until then:
We played in Berlin last night. There's a big fashion festival on in Berlin at the moment called Bread and Butter. We were playing at Vice magazine's party for the festival. It was a really crazy event at this big new half constructed hotel. It was an open bar and it was invitation only.
Everything was running really late and we didn't get to sound check, so our set was pretty bad, the worst all tour actually. Heaps of feeding back mics and stuff. The sound guy got mad at us afterwards for some reason too. I didn't quite understand why. Everyone was really loud and drunk. A guy tried to steal my saxophone after we played. People were trying desperately to get into the place, so the organisers had to barricade the door with upturned tables to keep people out.
It was WAY too much for us.
But luckily we met some really nice people, and some very kind people who said they liked our music. Two of these people were from a band we didn't know much about called Eight Legs who it turns out are really good. They'd played a show earlier in the day as part of the Bread and Butter festival and they said it was weird too. I'm glad we weren't the only ones who found it all a bit much. They offered to book some shows for us in England which was very nice of them.
We also met a couple of the other bands that played and they were really nice guys. One of the bands knew New Zealand band The Datsuns, which was weird. They actually sounded quite a bit like The Datsuns too.
Berlin seems like an awesome city! We met up with our lecturer and friend Geoff Stahl who's living there at the moment. It was great walking through the city, it's such a sprawling, massive city!
Anyway, it was a strange night but in the end it was all ok. The guy putting it on was fantastic, and everyone who was helping putting the thing on was friendly and nice. Every show on the tour has been really different, and this one was no exception.
We played in Berlin last night. There's a big fashion festival on in Berlin at the moment called Bread and Butter. We were playing at Vice magazine's party for the festival. It was a really crazy event at this big new half constructed hotel. It was an open bar and it was invitation only.
Everything was running really late and we didn't get to sound check, so our set was pretty bad, the worst all tour actually. Heaps of feeding back mics and stuff. The sound guy got mad at us afterwards for some reason too. I didn't quite understand why. Everyone was really loud and drunk. A guy tried to steal my saxophone after we played. People were trying desperately to get into the place, so the organisers had to barricade the door with upturned tables to keep people out.
It was WAY too much for us.
But luckily we met some really nice people, and some very kind people who said they liked our music. Two of these people were from a band we didn't know much about called Eight Legs who it turns out are really good. They'd played a show earlier in the day as part of the Bread and Butter festival and they said it was weird too. I'm glad we weren't the only ones who found it all a bit much. They offered to book some shows for us in England which was very nice of them.
We also met a couple of the other bands that played and they were really nice guys. One of the bands knew New Zealand band The Datsuns, which was weird. They actually sounded quite a bit like The Datsuns too.
Berlin seems like an awesome city! We met up with our lecturer and friend Geoff Stahl who's living there at the moment. It was great walking through the city, it's such a sprawling, massive city!
Anyway, it was a strange night but in the end it was all ok. The guy putting it on was fantastic, and everyone who was helping putting the thing on was friendly and nice. Every show on the tour has been really different, and this one was no exception.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Reutlingen
Yesterday we played in Reutlingen which is a small town in the south of Germany. It was another strange show, this time in a clothes shop. When we heard we were going to be playing in a clothes shop on a Monday night we were a bit worried..
But it actually turned out to be a really good show. The shop is really interesting. It's a store that sells hipster style clothing with a fair trade ethic. They've also set it up as a place for people to hang out in, selling drinks and stuff like that. And people do hang out in it. It's really cool, surprisingly cool for such a tiny little town.
The show itself was an early one, but a good one. The shop is tiny, and was full with the 40 odd people that came along. The promoter wanted us to play two sets, so we gave it ago. It was something we'd never done before. But it actually worked quite well, and we got to talk to people in between the sets. People bought our album, people seemed into it. It was a really good show, and I think the first time we'd ever played on a Monday.
After the show the shop owner, promoter, and host Henrick took us to a local bar. It was this weird Irish pub that was packed full of people, and it was Kareoke night. This was the first time we really experienced any real sort of culture shock. People were singing these English language songs, and putting on their best American or British accents in an attempt to mimic the original performers. So strange.
Afterwards we went back to Henrick's place, and what an amazing host! He had this room set up for us with beds, internet, and a fridge full of beer, fizzy drink and food for us. We were totally blown away. I'm sitting in said room at the moment typing this out. It's 3 in the afternoon, we should really go and do our washing. Next stop is Italy.. Milano I think. See ya there
But it actually turned out to be a really good show. The shop is really interesting. It's a store that sells hipster style clothing with a fair trade ethic. They've also set it up as a place for people to hang out in, selling drinks and stuff like that. And people do hang out in it. It's really cool, surprisingly cool for such a tiny little town.
The show itself was an early one, but a good one. The shop is tiny, and was full with the 40 odd people that came along. The promoter wanted us to play two sets, so we gave it ago. It was something we'd never done before. But it actually worked quite well, and we got to talk to people in between the sets. People bought our album, people seemed into it. It was a really good show, and I think the first time we'd ever played on a Monday.
After the show the shop owner, promoter, and host Henrick took us to a local bar. It was this weird Irish pub that was packed full of people, and it was Kareoke night. This was the first time we really experienced any real sort of culture shock. People were singing these English language songs, and putting on their best American or British accents in an attempt to mimic the original performers. So strange.
Afterwards we went back to Henrick's place, and what an amazing host! He had this room set up for us with beds, internet, and a fridge full of beer, fizzy drink and food for us. We were totally blown away. I'm sitting in said room at the moment typing this out. It's 3 in the afternoon, we should really go and do our washing. Next stop is Italy.. Milano I think. See ya there
Erlangen
We had a few days off in our touring schedule, so our excellent German bookers found us a few shows to fill the gaps. This is one of those shows.
So we drove back to Germany to a town called Erlangen, to a venue called E-Werk. E-Werk is a giant cultural center with multiple stories, lots of different performance spaces plus community art spaces and stuff like that. A really great space actually.
The space we played in was this weird cafe/venue. It felt like it was lifted straight out of a tv show, like when people go to see a band in The O.C. or Gossip Girl or something like that. It was a seated venue, something we'd never played in before.
We opened for an 'alt rock' band, haha, we've never played with a band like that before. It's so so weird to hear German bands sing in English. Most of the time the people singing can't speak English all that well, and then they sing in a really strong American or British accent. I guess that's kind of like some bands in New Zealand. But it seems stranger here.
We met one of our booker's friends, who was hosting us for the evening. He's a VJ and has VJ'd some really huge parties. I found it all really interesting, VJing is such a new, emerging thing. He was saying he sees it as adding ambiance to a show or party. A sort of creative lighting director, or something. Anyway, check out some of his VJing installations at big parties, really impressive: http://www.myspace.com/schallbild
Anyway, he did some VJing during our set. He used little wirless cameras and some graphics, and it looked really cool :D
All in all, even though we were just tacked on at the last minute, and we were opening for a totally different kind of band, it was still heeaps of fun :)
So we drove back to Germany to a town called Erlangen, to a venue called E-Werk. E-Werk is a giant cultural center with multiple stories, lots of different performance spaces plus community art spaces and stuff like that. A really great space actually.
The space we played in was this weird cafe/venue. It felt like it was lifted straight out of a tv show, like when people go to see a band in The O.C. or Gossip Girl or something like that. It was a seated venue, something we'd never played in before.
We opened for an 'alt rock' band, haha, we've never played with a band like that before. It's so so weird to hear German bands sing in English. Most of the time the people singing can't speak English all that well, and then they sing in a really strong American or British accent. I guess that's kind of like some bands in New Zealand. But it seems stranger here.
We met one of our booker's friends, who was hosting us for the evening. He's a VJ and has VJ'd some really huge parties. I found it all really interesting, VJing is such a new, emerging thing. He was saying he sees it as adding ambiance to a show or party. A sort of creative lighting director, or something. Anyway, check out some of his VJing installations at big parties, really impressive: http://www.myspace.com/schallbild
Anyway, he did some VJing during our set. He used little wirless cameras and some graphics, and it looked really cool :D
All in all, even though we were just tacked on at the last minute, and we were opening for a totally different kind of band, it was still heeaps of fun :)
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Vienna and Austria - OH YEAH
We just played this amazing show in Austria. In Vienna. It's a Tuesday night, the place was full of people. It was a community art space, under the train tracks in this old old building. An amazing space! People were so overwhelmingly friendly too.
And I didn't even know we were playing in Austria until the other day.
Our booker had given us a list of the shows, and this show was billed as 'Wien'. I figured it was another show in Germany. But no, that's my embarrassing lack of worldly knowledge in play there. It is in fact the German word for Vienna. Duh.
So we spent today driving from Germany to Austria. We got to see a lot of the Austrian country side and it's so so beautiful. Rolling hills, little ancient looking villages. All that good stuff.
Also, our host Manuel was amazing. People have been so welcoming to us, giving us their beds and food. So much more than we expected. Manuel gave us his living room, and even set the table for us for breakfast the next day. How nice is that?!
Something weird about some German and Austrian flats though. They're very tight for space, so they sometimes have the shower in the kitchen. Even in a really nice flat like Manuel's. It actually works pretty well, but seems strange to us foreigners.
And I didn't even know we were playing in Austria until the other day.
Our booker had given us a list of the shows, and this show was billed as 'Wien'. I figured it was another show in Germany. But no, that's my embarrassing lack of worldly knowledge in play there. It is in fact the German word for Vienna. Duh.
So we spent today driving from Germany to Austria. We got to see a lot of the Austrian country side and it's so so beautiful. Rolling hills, little ancient looking villages. All that good stuff.
Also, our host Manuel was amazing. People have been so welcoming to us, giving us their beds and food. So much more than we expected. Manuel gave us his living room, and even set the table for us for breakfast the next day. How nice is that?!
Something weird about some German and Austrian flats though. They're very tight for space, so they sometimes have the shower in the kitchen. Even in a really nice flat like Manuel's. It actually works pretty well, but seems strange to us foreigners.
Hanging out in Heidelberg
We drove yesterday from Kassel where we did that rained out festival, to Heidelberg. We're not playing a show here for a few weeks, but it's on the way to our next show in Vienna, and one of our promoters, Santiago, lives here so we're hanging out for a day.
The drive was sweeet, nice and short, we saw a car that looks like a sneaker:
It was cool meeting Santiago finally, after sending him so many emails. And what a nice guy!
Anyway, we met him at his friends place, where a bunch of friends were having a BBQ. Everyone was nice to us, and people even spoke English to each other while we were around to make us feel comfortable. It's been so strange hanging out with people while they speak a foreign language, at first I find it really interesting but after a while it gets really hard to concentrate on what they're saying. Also, I feel like I'm the only person in the world who only speaks one language. What a douchebag. Haha. But the BBQ was great fun. They gave us totums, or power animals. Mine is Seal (fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me) and Johanna's is the disappointingly predictable 'owl'. Booo.
The ex-Dunedin girl we're staying with has been so nice to us. She gave us her bed and even bought us breakfast this morning! Considering we don't know her at all and only met her yesterday, how nice is that?!? Also, she mentioned Fur Patrol's song Lydia, another European Fur Patrol connection. Will this become a reoccurring thing? Is this a stupid thing to be thinking about? Yes and yes.
Our music equipment keeps on breaking. We knew this would happen, because we were only able to get these cheap electronic drum pads. I have to open them up after each show to solder them up. But they've finally started completely dying. But we'll figure something out.
Me fixing the pads after our first show:
And other parts of our gear have started dying. We're going to spend most of today trying to sort it all out. Fingers crossed it'll be ok! My Clarinet has started to squeak a lot too... probably more to do with my terrible technique than anything else.
Our bookers keep on adding new shows to the tour, so exciting! Couple more German ones confirmed, the less days off the better!
When Johanna posted about Wurzburg she didn't have time to upload images, so here are a few from hanging out with Frank and playing in Wurzburg:
The drive was sweeet, nice and short, we saw a car that looks like a sneaker:
It was cool meeting Santiago finally, after sending him so many emails. And what a nice guy!
Anyway, we met him at his friends place, where a bunch of friends were having a BBQ. Everyone was nice to us, and people even spoke English to each other while we were around to make us feel comfortable. It's been so strange hanging out with people while they speak a foreign language, at first I find it really interesting but after a while it gets really hard to concentrate on what they're saying. Also, I feel like I'm the only person in the world who only speaks one language. What a douchebag. Haha. But the BBQ was great fun. They gave us totums, or power animals. Mine is Seal (fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me) and Johanna's is the disappointingly predictable 'owl'. Booo.
The ex-Dunedin girl we're staying with has been so nice to us. She gave us her bed and even bought us breakfast this morning! Considering we don't know her at all and only met her yesterday, how nice is that?!? Also, she mentioned Fur Patrol's song Lydia, another European Fur Patrol connection. Will this become a reoccurring thing? Is this a stupid thing to be thinking about? Yes and yes.
Our music equipment keeps on breaking. We knew this would happen, because we were only able to get these cheap electronic drum pads. I have to open them up after each show to solder them up. But they've finally started completely dying. But we'll figure something out.
Me fixing the pads after our first show:
And other parts of our gear have started dying. We're going to spend most of today trying to sort it all out. Fingers crossed it'll be ok! My Clarinet has started to squeak a lot too... probably more to do with my terrible technique than anything else.
Our bookers keep on adding new shows to the tour, so exciting! Couple more German ones confirmed, the less days off the better!
When Johanna posted about Wurzburg she didn't have time to upload images, so here are a few from hanging out with Frank and playing in Wurzburg:
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Paris
Don't ever try driving in Paris. I managed to almost kill a few people...
We played Paris last night. It was a long drive from Wurzburg, Germany, along this highway that has toll booths all over it. We paid SO many tolls. The show itself was so so cool though, great crowd and it all sounded great. We played at this venue called 'Regines', which is 50 years old and was originally owned by this lady who 'invented clubbing in Paris'. It was a club night sort of a thing, but it was quite different to the NZ and Australian club nights we've played. For one thing, the people there weren't all really young. We've played in Melbourne and Auckland at these indie club nights where everyone is 18. It makes for a weird vibe. But this was different, a whole bunch of grown hipsters... really friendly crowd.
We played with a British band who were really friendly too. It was a shame we didn't get to see any local Parisian bands play, but we'll be back at the end of July after Midi Festival, so we might find a few.
There was a guy there taking pictures, and it turned out he used to live in Wellington, and play in Fur Patrol. Small world! Gonna go have a coffee with him later
The guys that ran the show put us up in a hotel in the middle of Paris, but we didn't have any time to check the city out. We'd only had 4 hours sleep the night before, and drove 6 hours... I've never felt as tired as I did last night. Between soundcheck and playing the show we went back to the hotel to have a rest and watch a bit of Dexter on the laptop. We fell asleep and when we woke up we were so incredibly tired and cranky that we kept trying to think up reasons not to go play the show. It all seems a bit stupid now. Hopefully I won't fall asleep at the wheel today! Got to drive to Kassel in Germany for another show. I think we've kind of over extended ourselves in these first few days... but it's so much fun!
Even just two shows in and I'm totally blown away with the hospitality we've received. Everyone we've talked to has been helpful and friendly, and the promoters have gone so far beyond what they need to do. And the crowds at both shows have been really great.
One thing I've noticed is that at both shows people clap for a very long time. Like, we finish playing and they clap and they keep going. I wonder if this is what happens all over Europe? A different culture of clapping. It puts my golf clap to shame!
P.S. I really want to move here.
Thanks for the first four pictures, steve wells:
We played Paris last night. It was a long drive from Wurzburg, Germany, along this highway that has toll booths all over it. We paid SO many tolls. The show itself was so so cool though, great crowd and it all sounded great. We played at this venue called 'Regines', which is 50 years old and was originally owned by this lady who 'invented clubbing in Paris'. It was a club night sort of a thing, but it was quite different to the NZ and Australian club nights we've played. For one thing, the people there weren't all really young. We've played in Melbourne and Auckland at these indie club nights where everyone is 18. It makes for a weird vibe. But this was different, a whole bunch of grown hipsters... really friendly crowd.
We played with a British band who were really friendly too. It was a shame we didn't get to see any local Parisian bands play, but we'll be back at the end of July after Midi Festival, so we might find a few.
There was a guy there taking pictures, and it turned out he used to live in Wellington, and play in Fur Patrol. Small world! Gonna go have a coffee with him later
The guys that ran the show put us up in a hotel in the middle of Paris, but we didn't have any time to check the city out. We'd only had 4 hours sleep the night before, and drove 6 hours... I've never felt as tired as I did last night. Between soundcheck and playing the show we went back to the hotel to have a rest and watch a bit of Dexter on the laptop. We fell asleep and when we woke up we were so incredibly tired and cranky that we kept trying to think up reasons not to go play the show. It all seems a bit stupid now. Hopefully I won't fall asleep at the wheel today! Got to drive to Kassel in Germany for another show. I think we've kind of over extended ourselves in these first few days... but it's so much fun!
Even just two shows in and I'm totally blown away with the hospitality we've received. Everyone we've talked to has been helpful and friendly, and the promoters have gone so far beyond what they need to do. And the crowds at both shows have been really great.
One thing I've noticed is that at both shows people clap for a very long time. Like, we finish playing and they clap and they keep going. I wonder if this is what happens all over Europe? A different culture of clapping. It puts my golf clap to shame!
P.S. I really want to move here.
Thanks for the first four pictures, steve wells:
Monday, May 18, 2009
Moving to The Netherlands, and touring Europe
We've got some big news, we're moving from Wellington, New Zealand to the Netherlands! We're actually on our way already, I'm sitting in LAX as I type, hooning their free net.
We're doing a 2 month tour starting tomorrow, about 40 dates in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and France. That'll be the longest tour we've done by a looong way (we did 6 dates in Australia last year?), so it's our first proper tour I guess.
Johanna has a Dutch passport, her mum is Dutch. I've got a working visa. Johanna has a few reletives that we can stay with at first.
We're moving to The Netherlands to try and get a new perspective on everything. I love New Zealand, but I've been finding that lately I've started becoming quite cynical about a lot of stuff, particularly music things. So by dropping ourselves in the deep end I might be able to shake off those cynical feelings and get a new take on it all. Also, how much fun will it be to live in Europe? Lots!
We'll miss all our friends in NZ, and it'll be really sad not to have all the people that have supported us. But maybe that change is just what we need? Who knows!
We're going to update the blog really regularly with a tour diary, so add it to your reader or what have you and see a little bit of what it's like to tour through Europe :)
Oh and check out how LA uses celebrity rape to market themselves. Genius.
We're doing a 2 month tour starting tomorrow, about 40 dates in Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and France. That'll be the longest tour we've done by a looong way (we did 6 dates in Australia last year?), so it's our first proper tour I guess.
Johanna has a Dutch passport, her mum is Dutch. I've got a working visa. Johanna has a few reletives that we can stay with at first.
We're moving to The Netherlands to try and get a new perspective on everything. I love New Zealand, but I've been finding that lately I've started becoming quite cynical about a lot of stuff, particularly music things. So by dropping ourselves in the deep end I might be able to shake off those cynical feelings and get a new take on it all. Also, how much fun will it be to live in Europe? Lots!
We'll miss all our friends in NZ, and it'll be really sad not to have all the people that have supported us. But maybe that change is just what we need? Who knows!
We're going to update the blog really regularly with a tour diary, so add it to your reader or what have you and see a little bit of what it's like to tour through Europe :)
Oh and check out how LA uses celebrity rape to market themselves. Genius.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
We played a hip hop show
Like I was saying in the last post, we pretty much exclusively share bills with rock bands. You know, bands with drums kits and guitars. This show was a bit different. We were invited to play with Tourettes, who's this excellent poet, writer and rapper. Opening the show was Tommy Ill.
There were no drum kits, no guitars. In fact, the other two acts just used their mics and had DJs backing them. And it was lots of fun. There was a solid turnout, people were really into it. And not one person had that look on their face like "WHERE ARE THEIR GUITARS DID THEY EVEN HAVE TO REHEARSE TO PRODUCE THIS MUSIC". Am I getting bitter and twisted about that? I think I am. I really need to relax, haha!
Anyway, the next day Tourettes and his friends who performed with him came over to my place to record a few verses for a mix tape we're putting together. It was a spur of the moment thing, so they did a few verses of their own stuff, which we're putting into some of our reworked stuff for this free mixtape. Anyway, they were a real pleasure to work with, it was interesting and exciting, and we'll do some more stuff with them real soon!
There were no drum kits, no guitars. In fact, the other two acts just used their mics and had DJs backing them. And it was lots of fun. There was a solid turnout, people were really into it. And not one person had that look on their face like "WHERE ARE THEIR GUITARS DID THEY EVEN HAVE TO REHEARSE TO PRODUCE THIS MUSIC". Am I getting bitter and twisted about that? I think I am. I really need to relax, haha!
Anyway, the next day Tourettes and his friends who performed with him came over to my place to record a few verses for a mix tape we're putting together. It was a spur of the moment thing, so they did a few verses of their own stuff, which we're putting into some of our reworked stuff for this free mixtape. Anyway, they were a real pleasure to work with, it was interesting and exciting, and we'll do some more stuff with them real soon!
Us and Connan Mockasin and Liam Finn do Wellington and Auckland
So this is the second half of our little four date New Zealand tour that we did with Connan Mockasin. This time we were joined by Sir Liam Finn, of international Letterman and Jools Holland fame. He played guitar and sang with Connan in the band for both these dates.
The Wellington show was at Happy, which is this tiny little folky bar down a back street. I really like it there. Johanna and I felt for the first time on the tour that we were pretty badly mismatched with Connan at this show.. People were there to see people strum a guitar and sing a harmony. You know, that sort of musicianship. And there we were using laptops and such what. It actually went pretty well for us and we had fun, even though we felt that people weren't too interested. Perhaps we should stop playing with rock bands all the time? Perhaps the expectations of the kind of labor going on onstage are too different. Aaaanway, Connan was of course fantastic. In his Snat suit and all, made by the lovely Thaana!
A week later the local University magazine published a review that SLAMMED us mercilessly. This is just one in a series of really rough reviews from that magazine. At one point the reviewer expresses surprise and disgust over hearing us layer an acapella from one song over our own song. Which comes back to that whole expectations thing (as if a mashup is something remarkable??). Anyway, Johanna saw that reviewer in the street a while later and the girl looked away awkwardly. So.. there. Hmm
The Auckland show was the weekend after. We drove up to Auckland with Thaana, with all the other guys up there already or flying or something. When we got there we went around to Liam Finn's parent's house where people were hanging out. I'd never been there before, and it's really really impressive. Liam's dad is of course Niel Finn (of similar Letterman and Jools Holland fame), and he's turned their inner city house into this big recording complex. It's amazing. The guys from Wellington band Family Cactus were up there recording something or other at the studio, so we hung out with them and killed time surrounded by Crowded House labeled flight cases, Wurlitzers, Paul Mcartney's old bass guitar, sensual studio mood lighting and more things like that. Even the studio's kitchen sounded lovely.
For this Auckland show Lawrence Arabia was joining in Connan's band, along with Elroy Finn (Liam's brother). Opening the show was The Family Cactus, and Bear Cat played too. It was a cool show, there was an appreciative crowd there and everyone had fun. Connan's set was a huge party on stage, partly due to the fact that the stage is teensie tiny. But also because the combination of Liam Finn, Lawrence Arabia and Connan Mockasin along the front of the stage is dynomiiite!
So that's our little tour with Connan. It was great to get to know those guys, and to see Connan play a whole bunch. Keep an eye on him, next thing you know he too will be of Letterman and Jools Holland fame. I kind of miss him already..
The Wellington show was at Happy, which is this tiny little folky bar down a back street. I really like it there. Johanna and I felt for the first time on the tour that we were pretty badly mismatched with Connan at this show.. People were there to see people strum a guitar and sing a harmony. You know, that sort of musicianship. And there we were using laptops and such what. It actually went pretty well for us and we had fun, even though we felt that people weren't too interested. Perhaps we should stop playing with rock bands all the time? Perhaps the expectations of the kind of labor going on onstage are too different. Aaaanway, Connan was of course fantastic. In his Snat suit and all, made by the lovely Thaana!
A week later the local University magazine published a review that SLAMMED us mercilessly. This is just one in a series of really rough reviews from that magazine. At one point the reviewer expresses surprise and disgust over hearing us layer an acapella from one song over our own song. Which comes back to that whole expectations thing (as if a mashup is something remarkable??). Anyway, Johanna saw that reviewer in the street a while later and the girl looked away awkwardly. So.. there. Hmm
The Auckland show was the weekend after. We drove up to Auckland with Thaana, with all the other guys up there already or flying or something. When we got there we went around to Liam Finn's parent's house where people were hanging out. I'd never been there before, and it's really really impressive. Liam's dad is of course Niel Finn (of similar Letterman and Jools Holland fame), and he's turned their inner city house into this big recording complex. It's amazing. The guys from Wellington band Family Cactus were up there recording something or other at the studio, so we hung out with them and killed time surrounded by Crowded House labeled flight cases, Wurlitzers, Paul Mcartney's old bass guitar, sensual studio mood lighting and more things like that. Even the studio's kitchen sounded lovely.
For this Auckland show Lawrence Arabia was joining in Connan's band, along with Elroy Finn (Liam's brother). Opening the show was The Family Cactus, and Bear Cat played too. It was a cool show, there was an appreciative crowd there and everyone had fun. Connan's set was a huge party on stage, partly due to the fact that the stage is teensie tiny. But also because the combination of Liam Finn, Lawrence Arabia and Connan Mockasin along the front of the stage is dynomiiite!
So that's our little tour with Connan. It was great to get to know those guys, and to see Connan play a whole bunch. Keep an eye on him, next thing you know he too will be of Letterman and Jools Holland fame. I kind of miss him already..
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