Punk

Live Review: The Flatliners at Valhalla, Wellington

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The Flatliners
w/ Departure Party, No Sector and Dimestore Skanks
Valhalla, Wellington
Thursday 27 February 2025

Departure Party started the night off with his one-man folk punk crusade. His vocals reminded me a lot of Laura Jane Grace from Against Me!, especially the Heart Burns record I have, which is more of a solo affair. Heartfelt, impassioned punk vocals sung/shouted over acoustic guitar. Half way through the set he decided that he didn’t want to be onstage, and stepped down into the audience to continue without microphones. He consulted his notebook for a few moments before belting out his final few tunes under a single spotlight. It was a cool moment to create better intimacy, like when King Brothers had done the same thing at Valhalla a few weeks ago.

Next we had No Sector, the most hectic band of the night. Punk is a varied genre at the best of times. What do the Sex Pistols, Ramones and Clash have in common, sonically? Out of the four bands on the bill tonight, No Sector best fit my perception of what punk sounds like, with breakneck speeds and frantic venomous vocals. Later in the night Flatliners singer Chris Cresswell mentioned that he was surprised to see his old friend Leo in the band, who he’d worked alongside at his very first job and hadn’t seen in about a decade.

Dimestore Skanks always bring the party, and tonight was no exception. All seven members brought plenty of energy, skanking and shouting and generally having a blast. Dimestore have been a staple for many years now, and it was more than evident that they are well seasoned performers. They’d joke about being out of breath and unpracticed and in need of a break, but they sounded fantastic and had everyone dancing throughout their fantastic set.

Canadian punk rockers The Flatliners formed in 2002. This is their first time coming to New Zealand. That said, Cresswell also sings in Hot Water Music, who played here a few weeks ago. They’d been touring along with Hot Water Music in Australia, but I’d heard that seeing how this was their first time coming here, they wanted to come under their own banner to make up for the wait. They’d just played in Hamilton and Auckland, with Wellington being the last night of a long tour.

People were pumped for this show. Valhalla was packed. Looking around, it was mostly guys from late 30s to mid 40s, hairy in face and not so much in scalp. And a decent smattering of Canadians as well. It was mostly what I term the “Chicks That Scream” crowd – named after the promoters who usually bring the Fat Wreck style punk bands to New Zealand year after year. We saw people with shirts emblazoned with bands like Lagwagon, Strung Out, Hot Water Music, NOFX, Menzingers and the like.

The pit was heaving, swollen with sweaty bodies. A few songs in a woman edged past me to enter the fray. I was surprised – she was about armpit height and and entering a space of unspeakable smells and sensations. But she was a trooper, and remained there for the rest of the night, dutifully belting out every lyric along with the band. It was still funny seeing her physically recoil with disgust every time she got slammed into the back of particularly sweaty shirtless guy in front of her. 

The band was lapping it up, welcoming the chaos. Cresswell glistened the entire time, dripping wet like a salamander. He kept calling for the venue to put the heaters on, laughing at how all the bodies jammed into the venue had turned the space into a sauna. I enjoyed his disarming banter, trying to stoke a rivalry between Wellington and Auckland, or encouraging us to grunt “Ooh!” at him throughout the night, to follow our heart. Jon Darbey on bass had a king-teir beard absolutely deserving of remark. Drummer Paul Ramirez had positioned his cymbals comically high, but his playing could not be questioned, transitioning from no-nonsense beats to lighting-fast fills in a flash. And Scott Brigham brought the riffs.

There was plenty of crowd surfing and carry on like that. One punter stormed the stage to hijack a mic and give a speech, publicly thanking the band for coming all this way. It was sweet at first, but got old quickly. You could see the band were too polite (see: Canadian) to kick him off the stage. But they resumed soon enough anyway.

The Flatliners played fourteen songs, drawing more heavily from most recent album, New Ruin, and 2013’s Dead Language, but they touched on material from early in their career too, aware that most people in the audience had never had the opportunities to see those songs played live. Brigham asked everyone to shout requests all at once, obviously a bit. But I think they did stop and alter the planned set list slightly to accommodate. 

The band acknowledged that it was late, and it was a school night. But they thanked us for making the night special. I know that every band always says they love the audience, wherever they play. But you also know that Canadians are genuine and nice people, so this carried weight. They stayed back after their set to hand out picks, drumsticks, setlists, sign merch and so on, which was really nice to see in this era of bands charging the earth for VIP meet and great packages.

Thanks so much, turn on the heaters, see you again in another 23 years. Ooh!

 

Written by Joseph James

Thanks to Sticky Fingaz Tour Management

Live Review: King Brothers at Valhalla, Wellington

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King Brothers
w/ Alka Silka and Cindy
Valhalla, Wellington
Thursday 13 February 2025

When it comes to crazy rock music, Japan punches well above its weight.

In recent years I’ve seen the likes of Guitar Wolf, Shonen Knife and Otoboke Beaver, but King Brothers are by far the best I’ve seen.

I saw them when they came with The Vottones in 2018 and honestly, that show made a huge impression on me. They came back to NZ in 2023 but didn’t make it to Wellington, and I was busy touring with a band of my own, so I sadly I couldn’t see them. 

But late last year the legend Austin from Your Enabler Presents put the announcement out. King Brothers were coming back! I made sure to purchase a ticket as soon as possible. It’s already an incredibly stacked year for gigs, but this is the one I’ve most been looking forward to.

I arrived at Valhalla a few songs into Cindy’s set. Scott Brown was in The DHDFDs, who played with King Brothers last time I saw them, and have toured with King Brothers extensively. I guess this is his new band – I couldn’t find too much info about either. Cindy was certainly a great way to start the night, with high energy, unfiltered rock music. Seeing a sweaty, topless, heavily tattooed drummer is a great start. Stubbies also add a special je ne sais quoi to the performance. It was frantic, fast paced music with attitude. My favourite part was when the guitarist climbed up to the storage area on the side of stage just to jump back down. It was like Eddie Vedder behaviour, but with vocals that were marginally easier to understand.

Alka Silka were on next. The first thing to note is that their lead instrument was accordion. This gave an odd folk vibe to otherwise raucous punk/rock music. The punk ethos ran strong, with their activism, music and DIY merch. Two members had prominent patches on their clothes decrying the genocide in Palestine. And they had some great quirky merch, with lots of DIY designed shirts, badges, some 7″ records and the like. I had a great time listening to their music. The accordion was interesting, as was the frequent use of cowbell in the drumming. It was almost like circus music with blastbeats. They shared vocal duties, with lots of chanting and shouting. “Okinawa is a small island with a big voice”, they offered, about their homeland. Well the big voice came through loud and clear.

And then we had King Brothers. They brought the drumkit off the riser to the front of stage to be closer to the audience. Will the soundtech was busy putting all the microphones back in place after the move and I mentioned to him that he needn’t stress too much about it because they wouldn’t be staying put. He laughed and nodded, saying he could tell that King Brothers were pretty restrained during soundcheck and he was expecting more, but he had no idea what the full extent would be.

The trio were all dressed in suits. They started off with drums front and centre, and the two guitarists flanking the drums, each standing atop their amps, riffing away before jumping down to commence their set.

Marya on guitar and screams had gaffer tape around his waist in lieu of a belt and his hair had greyed since I last saw him, but his energy hadn’t dissipated one iota. He screamed into the microphone before throwing it into the audience. He’d beckon and signal that he needed it back, before immediately throwing it back out. It was we were playing fetch with him. Audience members would take turns screaming into the mic as well, but I wonder if they were happy about it when Marya began licking and slobbering on it, putting it into his mouth. He also picked his nose and ate it to continue the gross-out tactics. The other two musicians were just as intense in their playing, but Marya was the star. 

Roughly half way through the set they dismantled the drumset and reassembled it in the middle of the audience. They signaled to Will to turn off the stagelights, relying solely on a worklight they’d stuck on a mic stand for illumination. Well that, and a dozen or so phone lights. It was such a spectacle, everyone needed to film some of it. It was almost too wild to believe. Marya beckoned us closer before pouncing, and began to crowd surf around, doing arial donuts around his bandmates who were now performing in the middle of the room.

It was an incredible night. Three amazing acts that all had their own flavour, but delivered memorable sets full of crazed energy. I highly recommend getting along to a show if you get the chance.

King Brothers are playing the following dates in NZ:

Thursday 13th February – Valhalla, Wellington
Friday 14th February – Double Whammy, Auckland
Saturday 15th February – Palace Tavern, Tauranga
Sunday 16th February – Harbour View Hotel, Raglan

Tickets: https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/index.php?task=searchall&q=king+brothers 

 

 

Words and photos by Joseph James

Live Review: Frank Turner at Meow, Wellington

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Frank Turner (show 2745)

w/ DEE
Meow, Wellington
Monday 27 March 2023

This was an unexpected gig. Counting Crows announced a tour late last year. They’re a band that I’m neutral on. I don’t mind them, but wouldn’t choose to listen to them either. But when Frank Turner was announced as the support act I decided I was going immediately. Part of me winced as I dropped $150 on a ticket so I could see someone play a 30 minute support slot, but hey, money comes and goes, my love for Frank Turner is forever.

So imagine my delight today when I hear that Counting Crows have cancelled their show at Michael Fowler Centre, but Frank Turner has arranged a consolation gig at Meow. My condolences to Counting Crows fans, but that wasn’t the band I wanted to see. And this Meow show was free! I would have happily paid, but I won’t complain. This way I got to see a full Frank set!

I made sure to arrive at Meow early, wanting to avoid the risk of missing out if the venue hit capacity. When I got there around 6.30pm, there was already a queue snaking down the alleyway. We were let inside at 7pm and the venue was close to full at that point.

DEE opened the night with sweet, shimmering folky music. She was glowing under the blue light, with a sparkly sheer shirt and glittery make up. Her music was pretty sleepy, but her voice was stunning and carried plenty of personality. She was clearly chuffed that she’d been called in to open last-minute, but if she was nervous it didn’t show.

Frank Turner came onstage to rapturous applause. I think it’s fair to say that many people were like myself, and actually glad about the turn of events that led to this. Nothing against Counting Crows, but this sure beats only getting a short 30 minute opening set.

Always one to please his loyal fanbase, he touched on eight of his nine albums out to date, as well as playing the title track to his forthcoming album, Undefeated, and an obligatory Counting Crows cover, which made perfect sense. He shared how he grew up on metal and punk music, but learnt to play every song on his sister’s Counting Crows record because the guitar playing was easier to learn than Megadeth solos. 

This is the second time I’ve seen Frank play solo. There were times that it seemed as if something was missing – obviously the music sounds better fully fleshed out by a band. But Frank had us help out, humming lines that would usually feature guitar solos, or clapping where a strong drum beat was needed.

He’s clearly a master at what he does. I guess you can’t help but attain excellence after playing 2744 shows. He knew how to play dynamically, where to invite crowd participation, and had great banter.

I’m always surprised by how much of Frank’s music is shouted – as opposed to sung – in a live context. But this is perfect for a fired up crowd wanting to join in. I’ve listened to these songs hundreds of times and I made sure to belt out the words along with everyone else. The energy was contagious. 

I think one of the things I find most appealing about Frank’s music is that he can articulate feelings that I find incredibly relatable. I remember last time I saw him, he started his set with “Don’t Worry”. And as corny as it sounds, it felt like all the stress I’d been carrying just melted away. I love the fired up songs about the power of punk rock, about rejecting Nazis, about but I also love the sincerity of some of his more vulnerable moments. Tonight, “Get Better” and “Haven’t Been Doing So Well” struck a chord. Frank doesn’t know me at all, but I felt seen, and somehow supported, knowing that I’m not always alone in how I feel. It’s powerful.

And as soppy as it sounds, I think it is because Frank genuinely cares. He’d spent the day working on his pronunciation so that he could say “Aotearoa”. He played the song “Miranda” at special request from a 6 year old fan in attendance. And also mentioned how this song was topical, in light of the recent protests around Nazi anti-feminist figure Posie Parker visiting New Zealand to spread a message of hate.

And he put on this free show for us tonight.

Because he cares about his fans.

I came out of that show feeling revived. I was energised and refreshed and willing to take on the world. Now who’d have thought that after all, something as simple as rock ‘n’ roll would save us all?

 

Joseph James

Live Review: The D4 at San Fran, Wellington

The D4 tour poster
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The D4

w/ Dartz
San Fran, Wellington
Saturday 4 March 2023

It’s awesome to see the rise of Wellington punks Dartz. They’re fast gaining momentum as a band to be reckoned with, especially with the recent release of their debut album, The Band from Wellington, New Zealand.

They are fast witted and forthcoming with the banter, and their songs are relatable, capturing a slice of NZ life. Drinking beers, driving crap cars, living in substandard housing, struggling with the cost of living… These are things that almost everyone in our country has experienced. Somehow they ride the line between being both silly and fun, and authentic.

I especially enjoyed their cover of Deja Voodoo’s “Beers”, which proved fitting within their repertoire. “Dominion Road (Dumpling House)”, a reworking of The Mutton Birds song, also proved endearingly nostalgic, with a breath of fresh life breathed into it.

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The press release for this tour details how The D4 created a world of recklessness and high octane energy, touring the world relentlessly with incredible rock and roll bands. Their big album 6Twenty came out in 2002, so they’ve re-released it as 6Twenty One and given it the vinyl treatment for the twenty-first anniversary, along with this tour.

My first exposure to The D4 was the song “Sake Bomb”, on a CD sampler. I know that I’m showing my age here, but I didn’t have a have clue what Sake Bomb actually was. I thought it may have something to do with warfare. My exposure to alcohol at that stage was limited to the scrumpy, Speights and awful RTDs that we drank at highschool parties. It certainly didn’t extend to Japanese spirits.

I guess that I’m just slightly too young to have known The D4 when they were big. I do remember Jimmy Christmas’ next band Lugar Boa having a strong presence on The Rock radio station and at many gigs during my later teenage years.

I have actually seen them play before, at this same venue in 2018 with The Datsuns. But in all honesty, the only memories I have of that night are reduced to remembering that it was extremely hot, and of being concerned for my friend Conor, who got knocked out during The Datsuns’ set.

Well it’s a shame, but nothing felt especially knockout about tonight’s set. The musicians were all clearly weathered players, but it lacked that feeling of danger or excitement that I’d want from a band who writes so many songs about partying and drinking. They have a history of sharing the stage with Guitar Wolf – one of the most exciting rock bands I can think of. But this just felt pedestrian.

Dion Palmer appeared to put the most into the performance, with a bit more movement and plenty of guitar solos. He really should have been centrestage. “Out of my Head” had a bit more oomph, and the aforementioned “Sake Bomb” was fun – possibly because it was a lot faster and more energetic than many of the other songs.

They finished up with the encore of “Exit to the City”, “Feel Like It” and “Invader Ace”.

All in all it was fine, but lacking the energy that I expected from a band of their reputation. Many bands do anniversary tours these days. One punter was wearing a tour t-shirt from when Shihad played Killjoy and The General Electric albums in full. I remember those being killer gigs. In recent years I’ve seen David Dallas play The Rose Tint, and Jakob play Solace. Both were incredible nights. But sometimes these anniversary tours just feel like stale cash grabs and tarnish treasured memories about music that used to feel vital.

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Words and photos by Joseph James

Scattering The Rats: An Interview with Donita Sparks of L7

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Mina Perniskie (lead signer of Wellington’s own Secrets of the Sun) chats on the phone with the indomitable DONITA SPARKS of LA band L7. Mina is a longtime fan of L7, first hearing them as a teenager. Her 14 year old self was fan-girling hard during this interview.

Having formed in 1985 with raucous genre defying blend of metal, punk and pop, L7 are back with new album Scatter The Rats. L7 are in their element as a live band, and have a tour of Australia and New Zealand lined up for May. Make sure to get along to one of the shows to get your face ripped off.

Mina Perniskie: I was really excited to see that L7 were coming to NZ, and I believe this is your first time coming to NZ with L7 is that correct?? I know you have been to Australia in the past.

Donita Sparks: I think we were in NZ in either 1992 or 1993, we’ve been there once.

It’s been a while obviously, are you excited to be coming here?

We’re very excited to be coming to NZ.  We were really disappointed that last time we went to Australia, we did not come to NZ, and we thought you guys hated us! We were like, why aren’t we playing Auckland at least? So we’re happy to be playing there now.

And you have two shows, Wellington and Auckland! After a long hiatus you’ve been playing together again now for about 6 years?

I think we reformed in 2016, yeah those were our first reunion shows so this will be our fifth year back, which is crazy!

You are obviously a very influential band, so how does it feel over the last couple of years in particular to be able to write new music, get out a new album Scatter the Rats and tour again after kind of a long hiatus?  Do you feel that this is a great climate for a comeback if you will? With your legacy as well?

Well, it’s been amazing.  There’s a documentary on us that’s out called Pretend We’re Dead.  That was coming out, and then we were thinking about doing some reunion shows, and then that kind of happened. And then we were thinking about well let’s do some new music, because if we want to keep touring, none of us wanted to be like an ‘oldies band’ or something, you know what I mean?  You can’t just keep on doing a reunion tour forever, you know! So that’s why last year we put out Scatter the Rats and we’re super happy about the way it came out.  And it’s great, because we’re still touring that record, and there are spots in the world that we haven’t hit yet with it. It’s exciting again.

You can probably find new fans as well as reminding your older fans that you’re around as well with new music, so that’s great.  Your music has always been great and to me really aggressive but in a fun way. It’s soo heavy hitting and I think in the current political and general climate of the world it’s great to have L7 back out there and touring.

We’ve always been heavy hitting and we’ve always had melody in our heavy hitting as well so we’re not just a metal band, we’re not just a punk band and we’re not just a pop band, we’re like all three combined you know? (laughs).  We like a good catchy melody, and we also like aggression and we also like to slow it down every now and then too and play something a bit more introspective maybe.

Absolutely. It’s quite hard to pin down L7 down to one genre, it covers multitudes. Do you like talking about genre, or is it kind of annoying?  I personally hate talking genre, it’s like people have to pin you down to one box. Alternative rock kind of covers it but people want something more specific.

Well I suppose it’s important if your readership or your listening audience has never heard the band.  Most bands that I love are sort of genre defying. You might think “oh you may think they’re this, but then argh there’s this curveball and I never expected them to do this  kind of a song”! Those are the most interesting bands to me. So we’re cool if people wanna talk about it. Listen some people think we’re a heavy metal band you know? But we’re actually from the art punk scene in mid 80s Los Angeles. So we are not even from a metal scene  So we’re cool discussing genre and all that stuff. It’s a valid train of thought I suppose

With having multiple style and taste and influence as a band, you’re quite a collaborative band with all of you contributing to the music.  Is that kind of fun, do you all have different tastes and things that that you bring into the music?

What brings us together is the music, and I think that we all like the different corners and pockets of our band musically.  So any one of us can bring in a song that’s gonna sound like L7. As long as we’ve got Dee playing drums, and us with distortion.. just the way we play is very L7.  It’s almost like anything that comes in is gonna sound like an L7  song. So it works you know. And If we have to make some additions or changes to it we’ll do that too.   But we’re not afraid to play any genre of music. We’ve played songs that just have reverb guitar, no distortion at all.  I’m a sucker for hand claps, and for bongos! Some people think we’re just metal but it’s like what are bongos then? I like surf music. So..there’s that.

True. I was listening to one of your songs and noticed it has a surf element, I think it was “Mr Integrity”.

Yeah and that has bongos! And hand claps. And surf guitar. So it’s like you know (laughs).. and it rocks.

I think that’s what makes L7 fun.  Because you do all these things and it’s surprising and interesting, you know?

I think we feel pretty free to kind of just throw in whatever elements.  I think maybe some bands are afraid to do that, because they are in a very tight narrow genre.  And my God if they fucking break that genre well they’re fucked! Because their fans will not forgive them. But with us it’s like ‘OK whatever, you’re not gonna forgive us you don’t have to be our fan anymore’.  OK fine, you don’t dig it? Go listen to…whatever’.

 

There’s plenty of stuff out there and they don’t listen to you …but hopefully they do! My next question.. so this is around the whole gender issue and you guys probably get sick of talking about this to a point, but I’m gonna ask the question. And quoting from the documentary as well,  you said you ‘wished the whole gender thing would go away’ and ‘please recognise us for our rock’. Do you feel that you’ve achieved this on the whole or is this still an issue today? I feel as women in rock we have achieved some measure of respect now, it’s not as bad as it used to be. But I still think it’s a thing.  What’s your view on that?

Well, we had respect from the get go, from our peers and from rock audiences.  Pretty much. It was sort of the guys with the power, the money guys, the business suit guys who were really kind of for whatever reason afraid to let go of the power.  I think we’ve always transcended our gender. I don’t think anybody really fucking cares.

My objective with the band when we started out, I didn’t want a name that revealed our gender. I was like ‘L7’.  I didn’t want The ‘blah blah blah Girls’ or anything like that. I was just like No. I want people to hear our music and not be able to tell what gender we are. And we definitely achieved that. So yeah I feel great.  Listen, if you were a Doctor 100 years ago, you were a ‘Lady Doctor’..it didn’t matter if you were the best doctor on the fucking planet. So you know, it’s all growing pains and its all you know, somebody’s gotta be the fucking avant garde, in terms of you’re out there first, or second, or third..whatever.  I think in the rock circles we hold our own, and yeah.

I definitely think so.  I’m really looking forward to the show.  When I heard that you were coming and there were tickets  I was like, I’m in there! Done! It’ll be a great show. I’m sure you rock just as hard as ever.  Watching the documentary I was just like…the raw power, the fun..it’s soo rock. So I’m really looking forward to seeing that in person, with my own eyeballs and my own ears!

I feel and I think the whole band feels this way too, that we’re a better live band than on record. We’ve had producers and engineers spend like a month on one of our records and then they go see us live and they say ‘What the fuck have we been doing for the last month!?’.  Because there is this connectivity when we’re on stage together and you feel the power of the band that you just can’t capture sometimes in a recording studio.  So if you want to see us in our element, come see us live.

See you live.  Absolutely. Excellent. Well I think that’s about our time up isn’t it?

Hey, I do wanna tell you one thing though.  We did a collaboration with Joan Jett. We did a cover of her song ‘Fake Friends’ and she’s on our version, singing and playing guitar. We’re going to be releasing that just for the Australia & NZ tour.  So that’s gonna be available just in that market as a single. So you can throw that out there!

Oh wow! Awesome, I will definitely be throwing that out there.  That’s a little tidbit just for Kiwis, I guess. And Australians. That’s awesome news!

That’s exactly right.  Cool!

Was great to speak with you, thank you so much.  I’m really really looking forward to the show when you’re here!

Thanks! We will see you in NZ, finally!

 

Here’s a playlist of Mina’s favourite L7 songs:

Ticket link for L7’s upcoming Australia and New Zealand tour: https://sbmpresents.com/tour/l7/

L7 Poster