things were definitely feeling more switched the second night we played Indigo. hastananoof warmed the crowd up real well, i was surprised a little to be honest because i'd been hearing these horror stories about how they hadn't jammed in a while and the gig was news to them... but they seemed pretty cool and pretty tight - and I remembered a few tunes from Christmas with the whores in 1998.
its always good to hear songs you remember. Marty (Gavin, bass for hastananoof) and i played together in a hard rock covers band named Stonor in 1995. Dan (Foster, vocals)and i jammed for a while in the garage at Derrilin's. that was a loose pad - hands in the air all those that partied at Wadestown. not many flats have a garage you can have a youthfully loud rock band in. the neighbours got shitty though. its a small scene in Wellington, trust us.
they send gorillas round from the council at a drop of a hat - and they don't look like they even speak english - so theres no talking reason with them. none whatsoever. ah well. paul (thats him over there in the orange) never saw Wadestown. he doesn't know.
well that was a wicked tangent was'nt it. anyway 2nd on the night in question were Ampersand. i love these guys, i always have such warm gooey moments with them after the show. tonight was no exception, i was giving their guy (hey man i'm sorry i'm shit with names) he shall remain anonymous but lets call him Buzz - i was giving Buzz ampersand's share of the loot and he claps me on the arm,
and almost tearfully looks into my eye and he says - with such a golden look of innocence
..."man thats the most money this band has ever made, ever!"
and just for the briefest moment you consider whether this man is sincere, or if he just fed you the biggest slopping of cheesy bullshit he ever heard and got away with it - but then he hugs you and introduces you to his friends and your faith in humanity is restored.
we had that sort of moment. it was intense. so were ampersand, actually. but that was no surprise. they were good last time too - a rocking set and we hope we can play with them some more, they're what we like to hear.
then it was phuego time. we opened with 2 minute pop song - got scott to tape the gig and as it turns out the vocals were to prove tricky to hear all night. took the sound guy a little while to sort things but he got there in the end. i thought we sounded good overall, but i think your average punter judges a band on the vocal. it needs to be clear in order for the tune to be memorable, as a rule of thumb.
the next few songs all kicked ass, then we played the new song "eighteen green oranges" which i think was phuego's best song of the night. as a band it felt pretty good, and listening to the tape i think it rocked - then there was the
traditional big finish and it was over (no push push cover - almost but no! said the fat controller)- we did 9 songs in all. i liked 'penny pray' - everyone likes another new one 'trench' and that went down pretty well. i think the gig overall was a definite improvement in the band - and we're really beginning to turn heads - that was the lasting comment i remember from the audience. "everybody was listening". if you say it the right way - it almost sounds promising.