…Thursday Night, ‘Round Ten

You Am I have been around the Australian music scene for decades. Somehow, I have six of their albums…I think I bought the first one from a bargain bin because I vaguely recognised the name. It turned out to be You Am I’s #4 Record (that’s what it’s called) and contains, amongst other gems, the seminal Heavy Heart. They’ve never really hit the big time, but they’ve always been part of the background. They announced their tour of New Zealand in 2020, so you can imagine how that went. Yes, after two postponements, they managed to finally get to play at the San Fran in Cuba Street on Thursday.

The San Fran is one of those trendy places frequented by young people – you know, the ones who stay up past 10 o’clock. Doors opened at 8pm, so we decided to go for dinner at Floriditas first. We’ve not been there in a while, so thought we’d give it a go. The food was good, but not great. The price, however, was great, but not good. Yes, I know we’ve all been suffering from inflation, but frankly, we could dine at Capitol or Logan Brown for that…and the quality definitely wasn’t up to that level. They’re good for daytime café stuff, but won’t be going there again in the evening in a hurry.

We were amongst the first in at San Fran, so managed to secure that rarity – a table! The support band came on at around 9 o’clock, a local outfit called Voodoo Bloo, who play a kind of alternative rock/punk style, with a bass player whose energy, frankly, was exhausting just to watch. I googled whilst they were playing, and found out that their singer was called Rory. When they finished, they headed back out to the audience, so I introduced myself to him…us Rorys have to stick together! We had a brief chat, then he went to join the rest of the band. 

Voodoo Bloo

At around 10 o’clock, You Am I came on. They played a long set, maybe 90 minutes, of which I knew about a third. They’ve been busy releasing albums since my last purchase, which was Convicts in 2008. Guess I’ll have to go shopping again – their latest, The Lives Of Others, came out in 2021. They played a good mix of old and new, and generally rocked the house. I was a little surprised at the size of the audience – they’re an established band, but even playing a small venue like San Fran, the crowd was only about 200 or so (the capacity is 500)…this despite Wellington being the birthplace of bassist Andy Kent. Last time we were there was for The Muttonbirds, and the place was packed. 

Tim Rogers

They didn’t play an encore – as Tim Rogers explained, he considers them condescending. Around 1130 they finished up, and we headed home.

 

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the title of this post: ...Saturday Night, 'Round Ten

That's All, Folks!

It may surprise you to know that New Zealand is still operating under the Orange traffic light setting for Covid 19. Where nearly all other countries have dropped any kind of restrictions – as was evident on our recent trip to the UK and Europe, where there was very little, if any, mask-wearing in evidence – New Zealand still has restrictions on people entering the country, and requirements for testing upon entry. 

At least, up until yesterday. At the stroke of midnight, all restrictions for people in New Zealand, and those entering, were dropped. This brings us into line with…er…most of the rest of the world. There are some exceptions (medical facilities and aged care in particular), but we are now free from requirements to wear masks on buses, planes etc, and can come and go as we please from other countries. The government, rather than moving to the Green setting on the traffic light system, has scrapped the system completely. So poor Green never saw the light of day, it was only a theoretical setting.

So that’s it, until the next one.

 

Midnight Oil

Spring has sprung, so naturally the night we went to see Midnight Oil was the coldest night of the year. So far this winter has been warm and wet – the wettest on record – in New Zealand. Why am I telling you this? It’s a matter of gig logistics. Going to any kind of performance is easier in the summer, you just rock up in your t-shirt and shorts. In winter, you’re going from an extremely cold environment to one that gets extremely warm very quickly, as the heat thrown off by thousands of bodies, and also the lighting rig, heat up the interior. How to dress for that? Fortunately we were seated so could put our coats under the seat, but many people were sitting in thick outdoors coats throughout, and as for those downstairs in the mosh pit, what did they do?

This gig has been rescheduled twice. Originally planned for September 2021, then for May this year, it has been affected by the country’s Covid response. Also, fortunately, the venue has changed to the Michael Fowler Centre, which has much more comfortable seating than the Opera House. Just as a reminder, New Zealand is still officially in Orange traffic light setting, so we were supposed to wear masks throughout the performance. Ha ha, didn’t happen. We arrived in plenty of time, queued to buy a new t-shirt, grabbed a drink then found our seats in the upper gallery.

First on was support act Liz Stringer, who also sings as backing vocalist to the band. She’s released 6 albums in Australia, but only broken through with her most recent, First Time Really Feeling. She does a lot of explaining her songs, and the songs are quite long, so she only played four. And that was quite enough for me.

Liz Stringer

At 9 o’clock, the lights dimmed a second time, and the Oils came out fighting with King Of The Mountain, to get the crowd going. The set list contains a lot of new material, as they’ve released two works over the last couple of years: The Makarrata Project, a mini-album featuring collaborations with First Nations artists; and Resist, their final(?) album, released earlier this year. They also played some obscure album tracks from earlier in their career, so the set was very different from last time we saw them for the Great Circle tour in 2017, where it was all pretty much Greatest Hits. Also, we had a much better view of the stage this time, and were able to fully appreciate Peter Garrett’s trademark manic, spasmodic dancing style. Halfway through the set, Rob Hirst came out from behind his drum kit when they slowed down for a couple of acoustic guitar songs – In The Valley and Luritja Way – and the band performed from the front of the stage. We had a little dramedy for Blue Sky Mine, as MOGP* Dan was pulled up on stage…he’d been holding a sign that said “I’m a drummer, can I come and play drums on Blue Sky Mine?” They didn’t let him drum, but they gave him a tambourine and gave him strict instructions to stay in time!

The main set finished with Beds Are Burning and Forgotten Years, then a three-song encore ensued, starting with We Are Not Afraid, from the latest album, then Read About It and Hercules.

We finished up and re-donned our outdoor clothing for the walk to the car, and got home about 11:30. Is this the last time we’ll see them? They’ve packed it in twice before, and come back twice, so maybe not?

 

* Member Of (the) General Public