27 March @ Altitude, Hamilton.

A good night of rock all up. Altitude is definitely the venue in Hamilton
for this sort of stuff, and while it wasn't exactly crammed full, it was a
respectible little crowd. Pity that the whole thing had to run to a
Hamilton-Weeknight timetable... which meant a pretty early night, and a
fairly sedate and sober crowd. Hardly the bands' fault though. On with the show:

STADIUM

What was good:
Songs. They kick ass and make me jealous as a song-writer. The arrangements are great and seem tailored for a thumping live show. As they say... when it comes down to it, what makes a band is the songs. Their songs had a depth that the other bands didn't have... doesn't make too much difference at a big messy rock show, but it did make for something a bit more interesting than usual.

Sound. They had the punchiest and tightest sound of the night. It made Bolbox Rex seem a little bit messy and sonically weaker when they first came on...

What was not-so-good:
The new drummer was rushing in places. He pulled off the complexity with no trouble... playing some beats that just made my brain hurt, but could work more on the consistency of tempo. He played solidly enough, and nailed the patterns, but could do with a little bit more Tom Larkin in his approach.

A few moments in the set where the band is obviously not 100% confident of whether they're going to nail the next tricky bit - resulting in some visible hesitancy at times. Probably attributable to the drummer not being with the band for long, and I'm sure will vanish as the band solidifies.

BOLBOX REX
I think I now agree with whoever it was that said that these guys could well be the next big thing in NZ rock. I wasn't convinced before... but now I am. Their sound is current, their show is tight and entertaining, they seem pretty switched on as far as realising what the industry wants, and they dish it up with fries. And they put stickers on the urinal - always a mark of a great band. Some good Mock'n'Roll.

What was good:
Some cracker songs. Great harmonies that lift up every chorus. Basically it was enough to make me want to buy the CD when it comes out. Perhaps not the 'deepest' songs, but they go straight into your brain and lock themselves in. I couldn't get to sleep for an hour while I tried to get rid of one of their songs from my head.

Great performance and stage show. Looking around the bar, everyone was smiling. They're obviously going for the funny-guy angle, and it works. They kept the momentum through the whole set which a lot of NZ bands have trouble with. They managed to get away with saying "rectum" quite a bit too...

Musicianship was top-notch, nothing to fault. If it was a race, the winner
on the day would have to be their drummer. Apart from the fact that he looks a bit too much like one of the actors from Scream, he is a machine. Simple as that. Every musician in the building seemed to agree too... apart from Dave from Stylus who was probably just praying that his drumkit would survive the set.

What was not-so-good:
There were a couple of pop-punk-ish songs in the set that seemed a little bit out of place, and were somehow a bit weaker or less convincing than the rock stuff. Only a matter of taste really... and I love Nik Kershaw... so I should really shut up.

The stage show, while bloody entertaining, was perhaps bordering on being a bit too 'mock'. The mock-rock-moves and attitude are fun to start with, but could perhaps a bit thin after a while. I don't think this country (or the rest of the world) needs another Rubicon. Maybe it's just my short attention span... I dunno... blink 182 seem to pull that sort of thing off just fine... so maybe another moot point.

STYLUS
I didn't see them play but they were apparently good. I've seen them a
number of times and they always put on a good show. Great front man, cool tunes. Pity I missed them. Apologies.