Orientation Festival, University of Canterbury 1998
More from our New Zealand correspondent, SK.
Thursday 26 February: Bike, The Sterobus
It's the first night of orientation and I didn't expect a huge crowd
but a few hundred people gathered in the ballroom to hear a lineup of
New Zealand bands play. Most of the people were obviously there to see
Stereo Bus as many left after they finished, but that may have been
due to the way the lineup was shown in the magazine. The Stereo Bus
have been getting a lot of press attention lately and have been
getting more popular. They played a lot of the favourites from their
debut album: "Shallow", "Like a girl", "Don't open your eyes? and "Lie
in the arms". They also played some new stuff which got a good
response from the crowd. Their performances are improving and they
have become a good band to see live and one of the top bands in New
Zealand at the moment.
Bike is the latest project from Andrew Brough of the Straitjacket
Fits. Brough is well known for his ability to write dreamy pop songs
and his Bike material is no exception. They too played a mixture of
songs from their album and a couple of new ones but unfortunately,
with the well-depleted crowd, they weren't as good tonight as they
usually are, which is a shame as I really like seeing this band live
and i think that The Stereo Bus stole the night from Bike.
Saturday 28 February: Garageland, She's Insane, D-Magnet
Tonight promised to be busy and there was a queue waiting to get in at
8.30. I missed the first band D- Magnet, but I saw bits of She's
Insane, a local band which won a band competition held recently here
in Christchurch. Although different in style of the main band
Garageland, She's Insane managed to get a really good response from a
crowd that wouldn't have known who they were and they got the night
off to a good start.
Garageland have been getting heaps of press attention and hype lately
due to their time spent in London and tours they have done around
Europe and the States. They were always a good band to see live but
they have improved dramatically since they have been away. Throughout
the night they played a variety of their hits such as "Fingerpops" and
"Beelines To Heaven" but they also played a couple from their first
ep, like "Come Back" and "Pop Cigar" as well has a few new ones which
sounded really good. I didn't really know what to expect from
Garageland but they delivered a great live performance and have
probably become more popular in the process.(SK)
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