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
