Superhero comics fans should press their best unitards this week in preparation for Armageddon, and likewise indie and underground comics fans should pull out their copies of Hicksville for signing, as the NZ Comix Weekend is setting up shop on the 19th-20th April at the Southern Cross, Graphic and Spacething.
There are talks, jams, stalls, seminars and exhibitions – providing a homegrown counterpoint to the big budget pulp culture-fest over at the TSB Arena (although some of the Comix Weekend artists are also represented at Armageddon)
Details and links after the jump…
Following on from a tidbit in Mike’s last post, here’s some Thursday night hobo country garage entertainment for you!
Delaney Davidson plays at the Mighty Mighty tonight to release his album ‘Rough Diamond’ (out on local label Stink Magnetic), and unveils his Ghost Orchestra for the very first time … featuring a real live voodoo rhythm section as well as banjo, brass, violin, lap steel and accordian. The band played and talked on National Radio last Saturday, and are doing a small number of shows before Delaney heads off overseas again in April. The Wrongdoings play support, before they (we?) lose bass player Justin to the big wide world, also in April.
The gig kicks off at 8:30 but as a warm-up Issue #4 of local design magazine The National Grid will be launched in fine style by voodoo guru Dr Eric Vornoff and tractor afficionado Boss Christ, from 5:30. #4 and back issues are available at special prices, and there’s talk of a limbo contest that the Wellingtonista’s own Anna Dean has been banned from entering.
Mighty Mighty, Cuba St, 5:30/8:30 tonight
and the gig repeats with extra flair on Friday night too.
Some Wednesday night party good times for you all, in celebration of the new-ish Kitchen Sink event guide site…
Come early (doors are at 7:30pm) for goody bags and a seat!
There’s a lot on in the cultural capital tonight but my completely biased pick for the evening’s entertainment has to be Loudon Wainwright III at the SFBH.
Supported and accompanied by one of his daughters, Lucy Wainwright Roche (half sister to the more famous Rufus and Martha), Wainwright is bringing his singer-songwriter folk-rockin’ guitar to our shores on the back of last year’s album Strange Weirdos: music from and inspired by the film Knocked Up. Yep, not only did Loudon III supply the music for the movie’s creator, Judd Apatow (who made Freaks and Geeks, so he must be cool), but he also acted in the movie – playing a gynecologist.
Wainwright’s most famous for songs like ‘Dead Skunk'(1972) but alongside his musical career his acting has been ticking along for some time; the two strands successfully marrying when LWIII played singing surgeon Capt. Spaulding in M*A*S*H.
Intrigued? I am. And in the interests of full disclosure: my band, the Wrongdoings, will open for Loudon tonight, on the eve of our Auckland debut at Ladyfest ’08.
Doors open at 9, tickets available from Ticketek, Real Groovy or on the door at San Francisco Bathhouse.
CUNNING LINGUISTS: if you can tell me what it’s called when you add a “III” to your name I’ll be dead impressed either at your linguistic knowledge or your mad google skillz – the closest I could get to it is that it’s some form of pronominal suffix. And it’s driving me crazy.
Explosions in the Sky!
The latest instalment in a semi-regular Wellingtonista series on the thriving local touring circuit for international bands sees the instrumental rock goodness of Explosions in the Sky hitting Wellington for the first time tomorrow night, bringing their firecracker of a live set to the San Fran Bathhouse.
Praised for the cinematic grandeur of their albums and the intensity of their live shows, the Texans have come a long way since their inception as a post-rock four-piece in 1999. The band has also been appointed as the curators for the 2008 All Tomorrow’s Parties festival line-up.
Fusing bittersweet guitar melodies with crashing bouts of noise, Explosions in the Sky have garnered a strong following among fans and critics alike, with Tiny Mix Tapes labelling them “the only instrumental post-rock band that mattersâ€. Rolling Stone compared their most recent album, All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone, to the music of the Kronos Quartet, but with “big amps and John Bonham in the backâ€, and internet giant Pitchfork Media touted 2003’s The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place as “the perfect testament to art-rock mastery.â€
Show details after the jump…
I keep meaning to post about all the fantastic international gigs that are about to happen in Wellington as summer kicks in, but what with the 2AWA and Blams fever, the launch of CHOICE magazine, the golden weather and the party season, I’ve been a bit slack.
So it is with some urgency that I draw your attention to two shows coming up in the next week:
Galesburg presents The Gossip and Palomino presents Black Lips
The Gossip play this Saturday night (8th) at the San Fran Bathhouse with locals Cortina, and Black Lips at the same venue next Tuesday the 11th with Knife Fight.
Tickets available from Slowboat Records, Cuba St.
Read more after the jump about both bands and supports…
You’ve got to love the effect a sunny day has on people – I’ve seen more smiles on the streets of Newtown today than I have done the entire 6 months that I’ve lived here.
And speaking of Newtown, time to give props to a local icon,The Adelaide…
Once the infamous Tramways Hotel, and sticking resolutely to the “smalltown pub” vibe and decor, the Adelaide has quietly reinvented itself as one of the best places in town to see bands play for around the $5 mark. Cheap beer, great mirrors in the ladies’, flashing lights behind glass bricks at the counter and under the stage, pool tables, pub meals … one day I’ll devote an entire post to how much I love unpretentious hospitality. But the point of this post is to announce the inaugural Saturday Matinee at the Adelaide – just in time for the return of the golden weather!
Details after the jump…
As the newest member of the glitterati set colloquially known as Los Wellingtonistas, I would like to draw readers’ collective attentions to one of this weekend’s musical highlights:
Lonesome Cowboy Wanderer Delaney Davidson, formerly of Switzerland (via Christchurch), returns to New Zealand to share his primitive rock ‘n roll folk with Wellington.
This Saturday night the Mighty Mighty hosts Delaney, his lapsteel, and his friends the Wrongdoings of Wellington County, and Wairarapa Wolfman Boss Christ.
Delaney was the NZ member of Pan-European cabaret noisenik folksters the Dead Brothers, once described as “more or less what’s left of a symphony orchestra after their car crashed”. The Wrongdoings are a twisted country foursome; and Boss Christ is a spectacular half-man, half-wolf, all-blues, primitive dynamo.
Saturday 26th October, 9pm at the Mighty Mighty
$10 entry
See you there!