We’ve had something like 10,000 aftershocks since the first quake hit back in September of 2010. Key sites are still being deemed as unsafe and significant buildings have awaited demolition since February 2011.

On this, the anniversary of the most devastating day in our history, it would seem tacky and lewd to indulge in any shameless self promotion or to capitalize on a community’s misfortune and heartache.

If music happens to be your thing and you’d like to make some small gesture towards helping, there are now a couple of commemorative albums available to you:

The first is Love Christchurch, which features a cool eclectic blend of local Christchurch artists; including Ladi 6, Salmonella Dub, Cairo Knife Fight, Dukes and of course Sleeping Dogs.

Also hot off the press (it’s being released today!) is Sounds for the South; featuring tracks donated by musicians from all over.

Check ‘em out!

Ace

There was some controversy within the van after we picked up Supermodel in Wellington, and I have been waiting until the publishing of this blog to reveal my full responsibility of what occurred on the road between Turangi and Raglan.

It all started two months ago really; I had travelled south from Whangarei with my family, and to avoid the Xmas traffic, we took the western side of Lake Taupo as a route and completely bypassed 100% of the State Highway 1 traffic. And it was a success.
Needless to say, when we embarked on the first leg of the summer tour back in January, I suggested to Rocky that we take this same route when we go to Raglan as I was sure it would cut an hour out of the journey time. The trouble was, when we attempted it last week, it added an hour on to the time.
A comedy of errors was to blame: first, it was night-time when we turned off SH1 onto the windy, country road. Second, we had a large Transit van with an even larger horse float trailer on the back. Third, myself and Rocky, supposed to be navigating, fell asleep, leaving Thomas “navigating” with an iPhone, Google Maps and no reception.
We eventually limped into Raglan at 2am after getting lost, making wrong turns, much hilarity and swearing, and myself not admitting responsibility until now.

The next day dawned bright and beautiful, all of us (except those who are married or with partners of course) appreciating the fine, short-skirted views afforded us by the many surfer chicks wandering the one main street.
It seemed like a paradise; I had never been to Raglan before and I will definitely go back. I even bumped into our very own Sonny Bill Williams at the fish and chip shop getting an ice cream, and as it was the morning after his record knockout of Tillman, it certainly seemed like the town to be in.

Mark, our replacement sound guy, turned out to be a great guy and we all enjoyed having him mix the show. The show itself was awesome, many women were dressed as pirates and ended the night by asking us to accompany them as they jumped naked off the nearby bridge. Unfortunately we had to decline as we had a big night in Tauranga ahead of us. Even the management of the bar were top blokes, offering certain members of our entourage some of their finest green.

We arrived in style at the magnificent Hotel on Devonport, and set up for the show at the Brewer’s Bar, which happened to be in the middle of bogan central. The night was massive. People literally thronging the streets, packed at the doors waiting to get in. I must have counted at least 9 gorgeous women, all topless, waving their shirts above their heads as they rode on the shoulders of their consenting boyfriends. After the craziness of the show, we all went back to the hotel and engaged in our usual end-of-leg game of “empty alllll the mini bars”.

A great tour leg, I had a lot of fun.

See you next week for the final two shows – see you there!

The last week’s leg was as eventful as any of them, with our favourite bands – Sleeping Dogs and Supermodel of course – successfully pulverising the eardrums of nearby punters and dancers. It was good to be able to sample the audiences of the more out-of-the-way areas of the North Island!

Roy at the Cabana in Napier was awesome, ever helpful as usual. I think we all feel sometimes as if making it in the music industry is like winning a hard and passionately-fought battle. So, we were pounding the pavement, at the rock’n'roll coal face – winning hearts and minds – handing out flyers and getting more and more enthusiastic fans all the time. Some fans were so enthusiastic that Mark was forced to take one for the team and have a toke from what turned out to be a joint.
The day before the Napier show, the enigmatic drummer for Sleeping Dogs, Infinite, enjoyed his wine on the high seas so much that by the time he had left the Japanese restaurant in Wellington, he had to be helped back to the hotel…

So, from what we can see here, I feel it was a particularly rock-star sort of trip. I couldn’t make it to the first show as I was busy at my corporate sell-out job – so I was flown the next day direct to Palmerston North at short notice. Guy the sound engineer couldn’t make it until late in the afternoon (after sound check) as he was working on the vineyard tour in Hawke’s Bay, so, naturally, he was helicoptered into Palmerston North – a forty-minute flight, I’m told – and arrived in time to mix the show.
After the Palmy show, some of us went back to the hotel and played the classic game of “see how many mini bars we can get through”. Great stuff. Mostly we were in bed by 4am, which set us up perfectly for a nice long sleep before we got up at 7.30am sharp to drive down to Wellington and then Christchurch.

Over and out, more stories by this time next week. And if you’re in Raglan or Tauranga this weekend, come to see us!

Alex

I drove us all in the van from Wellington to Taupo – I forgot how long it takes! I think it must have been my driving, because I’ve never seen such a rush and consequent diaspora from a van in my life. Everyone disappeared in various directions to find some food, wandering aimlessly until we finally settled on a nice waterfront café which I forget the name of. It was a nice affair, with quite a few of us (including me) experimenting with teetotalism.

We set off again for Auckland, this time with Mark of Supermodel driving. We swapped recording techniques and industry yarns, driving through some incredible torrential rain on the Auckland expressway (that’s a posh name for “motorway”) before arriving at our motel in Ponsonby around 2am.

I’d never explored much of Auckland on foot before, so the next morning I leapt energetically out of bed and trotted off down to Westhaven Marina, which was just down the hill. That was cool. I took some obligatory sky tower and harbour bridge shots before returning to the motel, where we left together for the load-in at the Whiskey Bar.

Obligatory harbour bridge shot

The Whiskey Bar. Turned out. To be. Fucking tiny. It’s a great bar for drinking with really nice staff; but if you’re a touring band, and you have a lot of gear, it’s a nightmare!

Now, I often resort to telling driving stories to increase a blog’s comedy factor, and this next incident is no exception!
You see, out of the kindness of my heart, I opted out of backing the transit van and trailer across a seemingly quiet side street off Ponsonby road, in favour of leaving the job to Rocky. No sooner than getting the van and trailer to a point where he was utterly committed (i.e. he couldn’t back out of the situation even if he wanted to), about a hundred cars decided they wanted to divert from the perfectly logical route down Ponsonby road and off onto the tiniest and most illogical side street in existence, which, as it happened, was where Rocky was currently residing, complete with van and trailer firmly ensconced across both sides of the road. There were so many cars, and so many attempts at reversing into the backyard of the Whiskey Bar, that I believe we actually caused a mini traffic jam that continued hundreds of metres down Ponsonby road. Auckland drivers must be used to it, because not one jafa even looked like tooting!
The van finally in place, it was discovered that the rear entrance to the venue was too small to fit even our smallest road cases through (let alone the piano), which meant we had to go all the way back out to Ponsonby road and take up about three car parks in prime shopping land.

Load-in at the Whiskey bar

The load-in itself I’d rather not have to recall.
The gig was packed out, especially for a tiny place like the Whiskey Bar. Some of us operate on this tour a bit like a jack-of-all-trades; my official job – system tech – is to set up the PA and all the audio paraphernalia that go with it, but of course I help lift the heavy things (that’s called being a roadie) and when Guy is indisposed, I mix the bands (sound/mix engineering). Tonight, we were short of a door salesperson, so I reluctantly put on a new hat after my other jobs were done and spent the evening taking money from the interesting perspective of being able to hear the band from the way they were facing (i.e. behind them). Let me explain:

When a band plays live, they usually have wedge-shaped speakers pointing back at their faces, into their already assaulted ear-drums. This is because among all the racket that goes on, they need to hear themselves with a bit of definition so they don’t make mistakes when they play – audience-facing PA speakers aren’t good enough because they have a surprising amount of directionality which means that you can’t hear much of what’s going on if you are behind them – other than the fact that they’re making a lot of noise.
Further making the current audio situation interesting was the fact that Sleeping Dogs don’t even have these wedge-shaped speakers. Instead, they have custom-fitted earpieces called In-Ear Monitors that block out all other sound while exclusively providing what each individual needs and wants to hear. So you can imagine, from my position taking tickets, that the concert sounded very strange indeed; only really being able to hear the drum kit and the distant rumble of the PA, which as I explained earlier, wasn’t facing me. 

Anyway, Sleeping Dogs played well, and Thomas’ voice was sounding great.

Next up were Supermodel. I was quite excited as it was my first time seeing them, and they certainly delivered. It was – apart from the joy of hearing their album which I love, live, for the first time – the strangest concert I have ever seen. Because of the minuscule size of the venue (I wasn’t on the door anymore), customers had to walk through the “stage”, past Mark on the guitar and Rose on the piano, and down through a seething mass of punters to the back of the bar where they would purchase drinks.

The temperament of a road-crew member is a fickle thing. A sweaty, high-energy set later, we were packing up the gear again; through tears of frustration as we pulled pianos, sub-woofer bins, amp-stacks and various road cases through a teeming crowd which had spilled onto the street. Normally there is a section out the back of a venue which is provided to load gear into the van, but readers will recall my story (above) about the Side Street Incident. At one point I remember struggling with a particularly heavy speaker and telling someone who was blocking my way to “GO!”, I looked up later and realised with glee that it was the newly-wedded Tamati Coffey of the Breakfast Show on channel One, surrounded by a gaggle of excited women.

We tumbled into bed after a quick trip to McDonald’s, and the next day left the lovely city of Auckland for the equally nice city of Hamilton.

 Upon our arrival there, we noticed straight away that the motel we were staying in was not fit for two bands and crew as it was in the middle of what appeared to be a ghetto and looked like it was about to fall over. So, instead, we made a rushed booking at the significantly nicer Novotel. I challenge anyone to find a place with more sumptuously comfortable beds!

A decidedly more comfortable load-in occurred, and we moseyed back over to the venue (the Flow Bar) to begin sound check after having some dinner. Guy really has the mix of these two bands sounding brilliant!
I noticed straight away that in the North Island, people seem to come to gigs a bit more. It was nice this night in particular that a lot of Supermodel’s friends came to the show, they seem to have quite a dedicated fan base.

Sleeping Dogs at the Flow Bar, Hamilton

Sleeping Dogs started off the night with a tight set, their newer material (which is going to be on the new album when it’s recorded) is coming together really nicely, and sounds as if it’s been part of their repertoire for years. Thomas’ voice continues to improve and I particularly noticed some virtuosic performances from all of the others – Ace on the guitar, Rocky on the bass and Infinite on the drums.

Supermodel impressed me again; what I thought had been played well in the previous evening’s cramped space once again bowled me over when I saw how much better they were when they didn’t have punters walking through their stage set-up! They closed the set with what I think is a perfect “last song”, their epic We All Will Love As One. It’s a really moving track, and I think the end of the night is definitely the place to hear it best. Earlier in the day, Thomas had asked if they could play a Queen number, so for their encore they did a note-perfect rendition of Freddy Mercury’s party piece, Don’t Stop Me Now. It was amazing.

Supermodel at the Flow Bar, Hamilton

All in all a great gig! We stumbled, tired and happy, back to the hotel where we left the next morning for Wellington and Christchurch. I really enjoyed this leg of the tour, and can’t wait to go on the next one. Thanks guys!

Alex

Tory Channel

Stay tuned for the lowdown of our North Island legs from roadie Alex; in his upcoming blogs…

Yours in music
Ace

Supermodel are fresh off the release and promotional run for their successful debut album To The Mountains, and are a highly experienced live outfit. They have supported some of our country’s finest musical exports including Midnight Youth and Gin Wigmore, and are right at home playing to a packed out pub or to a crowd of 15,000. The focus of their music is on melody, harmony and a rocking tune; the juxtaposition of having a brother and a sister fronting the band makes for an excellent live dynamic that should not be missed.

Sleeping Dogs are currently writing their next album in Christchurch, and are keen for more adventure since concluding the 2011 leg of their tour for their most recent album, Myth Reducer; recorded with legendary producers Greg Haver and mixing guru Clint Murphy. A recent foray to the North Island whetted the interest of both themselves and their audiences, and they are now back to deliver their musical message in full. Their music has been described as “unavoidable, deep and unapologetic”, so if you are a fan of highly original rock music… you must see this band.

Supermodel and Sleeping Dogs will be wending their way through the winding roads of the North Island in 2012. Join them, and you will be entertained.