We arrived to find the street full of the usual assortment of Nelson skanks and bogans to found at anywell promoted Nelson all ages gig, and as a group of the aforementioned folk started to place their bums and beer bottles on the bonnet of my car almost as soon as I turned the engine off my dread increased a 1000 fold.
This feeling was not helped by the doors opening 1/2 hour later than advertised and finding in addition to the expected line up we had the 2nd place getters from rockquest (Cynapz) playing covers from bands I personally have no liking for.
As you may imagine the pugs went very quickly into my ears and I retreated to the foyer to write some notes on my impression of the venue itself.
Well the place has been stripped bare, and the smell of new paint did not mask it's lack of character and style that I have come to expect at here, but not to harsh it will take time to create a reputation and atmosphere and time we will give it.
I later found is still under reconstruction and was only given a bit of a spit and polish for this gig, and has not yet been handed over to the new management team,....so when I return in the future I will be able to have my expected cup of tea, as the cafe will be open next time.
Anyway back to the gig itself....
I must admit I did find this one very hard to get into, my grumpiness compounded by a very badly placed strobe light and a extremely bad harmonic coming from the walls of the building due to removal of baffling ... or was it lack of bodies that made the room resonate?
Not even Mother Guru's Rock and Roll Super Hero could lift me from my funk.
I really was thinking of leaving at this point, was it the curiosity about Orkid because of (1) the nzm connection and (2) liking the tracks I had heard on home-grown or was it the group of kids beside me lighting up some of Nelson's own home grown that made my mood soften, I ended up staying..
Well Orkid, I was quite taken with most of the set, and generally it was a well presented, and at times I found my self thinking this is quite sophisticated with a most a jazz undertone, but at other times when they got a bit "heavier" I found myself withdrawing again, on the whole for my tastes, the bits they got right they got very right indeed, and the bits that I didn't like too much were still ok, if in some places a bit thin.
I went out side at the change over and got gossiping so missed a goodly portion of Clown Dog. In the past this is a band I have not had much time for, but sticking to my rule of giving a band a go once a year, (and ever mindful of the work that Spanky the lead singer of Clown Dog does for the Nelson music community) it was time to listen to them with an open mind.
They seem to have become a much tighter unit over the years, gone Is the half apologetic ramblings between songs, and I think I will give these guys a closer look next time they are on and not find an excuse to stay out of the room.
Then it was Somerset's turn on stage, I have liked heardin the past... a few tracks and seen clips of these guys and was not let down, they are good tight polished band giving up no nonsense music ..... but why dear god the need for party games? At one point the lead singer tried to get the group of about 150 moshers to divide in two girls on one side of the room guys on the other......

Ok normally I would not have posted on a gig that I really did not really enjoy but this is one persons opinion on an important event in the life of "The Venue Formerly Know As The Artery", and I look forward to the gig to celibrate the opening.
And hopefully the venue will return to it's former ALL AGES self, not the underage venue / skankfest it was this evening

I wish we had one of them.

now i'm all curious to find out the new name.

its called "the hub"

ahem

oh man, theres something wrong with that name!!