Spartacus R at The ParamountThe debut sea­son of Downstage’s Sunday music pro­gramme ‘Sound­stage’ has been a tear­away suc­cess. The for­mid­able line-up of bands includ­ing The Woolshed Ses­sions, Little Bush­man, Sam F Scott and The B.O.P and Rhi­an Shee­han have all thrived in the the­at­ric­al envir­on­ment play­ing to capa­city audi­ences.

We’re now at the last Sound­stage gig for 2009 and Wel­ling­ton six piece psy­che­del­ic psy­chonauts Sparta­cus R are the per­fect band to close out the sea­son. Their the­at­ric­al cre­den­tials are impec­cable hav­ing built a repu­ta­tion for unique and innov­at­ive per­form­ances at the NZ Fringe Fest­iv­al. At the Fringe 07 they presen­ted Sparta­cus R in Octo­phon­ic, and the fol­low­ing year at the Fringe 08 Sparta­cus R in 3D, com­bin­ing live music with 3D visu­als in the Para­mount.

Based on a found­a­tion of blues, rock and funk, Sparta­cus will deliv­er a cap­tiv­at­ing and elec­tri­fy­ing per­form­ance that explores new music­al and visu­al ter­rit­ory. For Sound­stage on 15 Nov Sparta­cus R have craf­ted a com­pletely new show com­bin­ing 100% new music­al mater­i­al with pro­jec­ted visu­als, act­ors and even live poetry.

More about Sparta­cus R and Sound­stage after the jump.

War­ren Max­well (Little Bush­man, Founder Trin­ity Roots) is a fan: “I am com­pletely music­ally ‘turned on’ by Sparta­cus R. Their music is well-craf­ted and intric­ately sin­cere. Fresh, con­tem­por­ary retro, and com­pletely unpre­dict­able… Beau­ti­ful.”

Sound­stage is an exper­i­ment in music present­a­tion aimed at show­cas­ing Wellington’s best artists. Tailored for fans (and artists) that prefer not to do battle with late nights and intox­ic­ated punters, Sunday even­ing Sound­stage gigs are the per­fect chance to sit back with some friends, a glass of wine and enjoy the show.

Audi­ences bene­fit from see­ing their favour­ite acts in an intim­ate, seated ven­ue, alle­vi­at­ing annoy­ing sight­line issues that you often get watch­ing bands in a bar.  Not to men­tion the added bene­fit of a respect­able 7pm start time.