Coast Arcade Archives - Will Not Fade

Public Service Broadcasting

w/ Coast Arcade

Meownui, Wellington

Saturday 2 May 2026

It’s only been about three weeks since I last saw Coast Arcade play, but I’m not complaining. These youngsters are fantastic. They have a great pedigree of influences, including Biffy Clyro, Velvet Revolver and I think I spotted that bassist Leo Spykerman had a Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream tattoo on his arm.

Meownui is known for having a decent sound system, and Coast Arcade sounded huge. I loved the segments were they would just jam out in the breakdowns, full of energy.

I find it funny how fashion trends come around, and that it is once again cool to baggy clothing. But maybe I should hold off commenting on things that betray my age – a few days ago I had to wince when I read one of my reviews from 2015 review where I referred to an “older crowd” as aged 30+…

I remember regrettably having to turn down an offer to review Public Service Broadcasting last time they came to New Zealand in 2018. They were playing in Auckland, and I couldn’t feasibly make the trip up because already I had a flight to Belgium scheduled for next day to roadie for the band Ranges on their first European tour.

So I made sure to grab a ticket when I saw Public Service Broadcasting were returning. At first they were booked to play the smaller Meow, but sales were strong enough that they upgraded to this larger venue.

They play interesting mostly-instrumental music that features audio samples drawing from historic archival footage. As their album title Inform-Educate-Entertain would suggest, the audio content often lands within such categories. They cover topics like the space race, and the Welsh mining industry. Their most recent album, The Last Flight, is a concept record inspired by the story of heroic pilot Amelia Earhart.

I’ve always been a sucker for post-rock with vocal samples. Maybeshewill were one of my first loves in that respect. Brave Arrows are another that springs to mind. The new Overhead,the Albatross album is one of the best records to come out in the past few years. My dear friends Ranges have used samples a fair bit earlier in their career – and I even loaned my voice to a recording of a Rudyard Kipling poem that they wrote an album about. One of the standout moments of dunk!USA was The End of the Ocean using a clip from The Walking Dead.

Maybe I shouldn’t lump Public Service Broadcasting in with many of these moody bands, because their music can be so lively and upbeat. But it fits in my mind, so I’ll roll with it.

Clearly missing the baggy clothing memo from Coast Arcade, the members of Public Service Broadcasting looked more like academics. All four bespectacled members wore ties, with lead Willgoose Esq rocking a bowtie. They were arranged in a semicircle onstage, flanked by a video projection screen.

One punter heckled “I love bow ties!”, earning a grinning retort from Willgoose: “congratulations on being a person of distinction and taste.”

I was pleased to see the drums close to the front of the stage, taking me back to Tortoise when they played San Fran, or seeing Maserati at dunk!fest 2023. Wrigglesworth, the drummer, was phenomenal. I was seriously impressed. Some of his playing reminded me of Blink 182’s Travis Barker, the way he used different parts of the kit to create complex beats. But he was subtle about it, completely locked in to the music. He had complete command of his instrument and I was awestruck so many times throughout the set.

Next to Wrigglesworth was JFAbraham, who predominantly played bass, but actually used a variety of instruments throughout the night. He was the person who would work the audience the most, walking out in front of their semicircle arrangement to wave, indicating for us to clap along to sections, or conducting us by lifting the neck of his bass. The best was when he had us chanting “Go!” to the song by the same name.

I had a hard time figuring out what Mr B was playing. He had a laptop and some items with knobs and buttons balanced upon a flat guitar case on a keyboard stand. I gathered that he was doing some visuals because he came out with a camcorder a few times to get live footage of his colleagues for the screen. It’s not until the end of the night, when introduced, that I realised that I was right – he was the visuals guy. A part of the band, but not one of the musicians. He used a mix of archival footage and rendered animation to tie in with the themes of the songs.

And then we had Willgoose, playing the toe-tapping guitar parts. You can tell that he’s a giant nerd, given the topics of his music, and his professorial attire, but he brings such an aire of delight to everything that he could never be accused of being stuffy or boring. Here he was, bringing history to life in such a novel and infectiously exciting way.

I had wondered if they would play some of their songs that featured more singing, thinking it wouldn’t be the same if it was just backing tracks. They invited Bella Bavin from Coast Arcade onstage to fill those singing roles for a few songs. She seemed a bit shy for “The Fun of It” (possibly not her usual register?), but absolutely hit her stride and nailed it in “Blue Heaven”, clearly enjoying that one and even getting the German language parts down.

The band played a handful of other songs featuring vocals, heavily altered with effects that reminded me of Jakob Collier and his harmoniser. The German electro funk of “People, Let’s Dance” reminded me of Kraftwerk or Daft Punk and was so fun.

Their final song was a fitting tribute to great New Zealander Sir Edmund Hilary, with a song about Mt Everest. JFAbraham played some great flugelhorn in that one.

What a class act! Willgoose shared that this was the biggest crowd they’d played to, for the first time playing any given city. I had such a great time, and have come away feeling more informed, educated, and entertained.

Joseph James

This review goes out to Richard Roden, one of the teachers who made a big impact on me at highschool. We kept in touch for a few years after I’d finished school and I remember him telling me about how he’d been impressed by Public Service Broadcasting at Glastonbury.

Biffy Clyro
w/ Coast Arcade
James Hay Theatre, Christchurch
Monday 13 April 2026

There’s something surreal about seeing a band perform when you’ve listened to them thousands of times. Biffy Clyro have been my favourite band since I was a teenager. The first music magazines I ever bought – which happened to send me down the path of wanting to become a music writer – included a Rock Sound magazine featuring Biffy Clyro on the cover. I’d never heard of them but I did really enjoy the track that was included on the CD sampler that came with a mag. I heard another track on a Kerrang sampler that I acquired later in the year, and that was enough to sell me on wanting to get my hands on the album Puzzle.

I’ve been a Biffy diehard ever since. I’ve got most of their albums on vinyl, and a bunch of pretty rare stuff too. This is the third time they’ve come to NZ, and it’ll be my third time seeing them play.

Image: Bevan Triebels

This is my first time coming to James Hay Theatre. What a fantastic venue! It was nestled in as part of the Christchurch Town Hall complex. Nice and intimate, with a standing section at the bottom and two seated sections above, it appeared that the view of the stage was fantastic no matter where you were situated. The sound was great too.

Image: Bevan Triebels

Young Auckland band Coast Arcade kicked things off. After achieving success with Rockquest during their time at highschool, members of Coast Arcade formed the band in recent years, and are already seeing successes. They released their eponymous debut album on CD and wax last October, and have support slots with Play Lunch and Silversun Pickups coming up. Tonight was a dream come true for their drummer Thom Boynton, having been a huge fan since childhood.

I saw Ben Johnston and Mike Vennart watching and nodding along from side of stage during Coast Arcade’s set, and Ben had great things to say about them later in the night. And rightly so – they had big energy and plenty of head banging moments, following in the footsteps of their anthemic heroes. A cover of Velvet Revolver’s “Slither” also showed how tight they were – they’re asking for tough comparisons when playing the songs of rock royalty.

And then we had Biffy Clyro. It’s eight years since they last played in New Zealand, and they’ve released four studio albums in that time. This tour has been a long time coming. I was positively fizzing.

The precursor to their set was a stop/start electronic percussive ostinato played loudly over the speakers. Dilating tempo signaled something was about to happen, before the lights dimmed and the band came onstage.

Biffy Clyro’s sound has changed over the years, but as soon as I heard the drumming into to their most recent album opener, “A Little Love”, it unleashed some long engrained Pavlovian response. There’s no doubt whatsever that those drums sound like Biffy Clyro. I was moving and grinning from ear to ear.

My inner teenager was positively giddy. Hell, old man me was giddy. It doesn’t get much better than this. The irresistible bounce of “Who’s Got A Match?” took me right back to being 16 again, listening to Puzzle on my cheap CD walkman and marveling at these weirdly complex songs that the Scottish trio had written. I felt the same sheer awe and joy watching them play those songs in the present moment, right in front of me.

Image: Bevan Triebels

It was a two tiered stage. Ben Johnston was at the back with his enormous drum kit. Singer and lead guitarist Simon Neil stood to his side, belting out the vocals. Simon was topless, both Scots were heavily tattooed, and soon to be covered in a glistening sheen of sweat. The stage lighting was fantastic, with red and white blinders pulsing and flashing.

I mentioned Mike Vennart earlier. He and Richard “Gambler” Ingram have been part of Biffy Clyro’s live act for many years, both having also been in legendary prog band Oceansize back in the day. (Vennart also has a metal side project along with Simon Neil entitled Empire State Bastard.) Vennart was on left-handed guitar, Ingram on keys.

I was hoping that they’d play a range of material spanning their back catalog, and maybe even a few special additions for NZ audiences, seeing how they’d never played here when releasing most of their albums. However, they have a fill-in bassist, Naomi MacLeod, stepping in while usual bass player James Johnston addresses some mental health and addiction issues. I imagined that Naomi had only learnt and rehearsed the songs that they’d selected for the standard set list of the tour so would have understood if they didn’t deviate from that.

Image: Bevan Triebels

Looking at Setlist.fm, I see that they did play the same songs they’ve been playing this far on tour. But it was still a great selection and I wasn’t left wanting. Nothing from their early albums when they were signed to Beggar’s Banquet, but I have no complaints.

Biffy Clyro have been around for a long time now, so have become veterans of the stage. We still got tastes of the human element though. It seemed like they got excited and sped up during “That Golden Rule” and “Bubbles”. And the Simon’s tortured scream during “Goodbye” had his voice breaking slightly in a way that I just love.

Image: Bevan Triebels

One criticism is that the backing tracks were too loud and borderline ostentatious at times. Yes, lovely string sections make ballads feel more emotional, but they stood out too much in the mix and took me out of the moment at times. I thought this made “Space” feel a bit like bad karaoke. But that didn’t stop half the crowd singing along with their arms in the air.

And Biffy Clyro know how to do ballads. “Machines” was the perfect antithesis to the garish rendition of “Space” – just Simon and an acoustic guitar, later joined by Ben on backing vocals. No need for backing tracks there, just pure magic. And who could deny the power of “Mountains”? Or “Many of Horror”? The unifying power of the ‘woahs’ in “Biblical”? Truly transcendent.

But my heart lies with the riffs, with the songs that compel us to move and thrash about. There is few things in life that make my heart sing quite like the riff in the later half of “Different People”. The frenzied, acerbic riffing of “That Golden Rule” leaves me breathless. “Bubbles” had the crowd bouncing with effervescence. The bombastic intros of “The Captain” and “Wolves of Winter” take no prisoners.

One moment that stood out was the outro of “Two People in Love”. I hadn’t paid that song much attention until now, but I really loved how the band sat on the motifs, building beautifully, first with twinkling piano, then adding fresh layers of guitar and crashing cymbals as the song grows and grows with captivating wonder. It sounded huge, ready to engulf us all.

Image: Bevan Triebels

This is a band that isn’t afraid to mess with us, to show off a little. Just listen to “Living is a Problem…” A few minutes of seemingly random stabbing that launches into choral harmonising and erupts into big choruses. As if it wasn’t technical enough, Simon derailed it during the bridge, the mad conductor holding the band hostage as they entered a passage that was somehow even more chaotic than the recorded song that we all know. He paused, slowed it down, sped it up, added weird distortion and just enough tension, before finally letting it resolve, the band following along flawlessly.

If I had to describe Biffy Clyro in one word it would be: anthemic. They know how to write a song that rouses you and makes you feel. Big riffs, big choruses, big energy, big singalongs. Plenty of dynamics and loads of fun. This gig was everything I’d hoped for and more.

Mon the Biff!