[kj] Auckland & Wellington gig reviews
Rob Moss
rob.moss at gmx.com
Tue Jun 18 09:39:44 EDT 2013
Colesy calls him Wilful Dave.
Met him a couple of times and he is, indeed, a diamond.
Anyone know what his guitar shop is called? Would be interesting.
On 18 Jun 2013, at 06:02, "Brendan Quinn" <bq at soundgardener.co.nz> wrote:
> I think so, he had a tea cosy on his head so I couldn’t tell. Jaz introduced & thanked him at one point…I made a mental note of his name (all I remembered was Diamond so that’s what I called him =) and then had a quick chat with him after the gig, he gave me the setlist and then it was him who invited us downstairs. WINNING!
>
> Photo of the setlist attached, hopefully the file size isn’t too big…
>
> BQ
>
> From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net] On Behalf Of Tabazan
> Sent: Tuesday, 18 June 2013 3:40 a.m.
> To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
> Subject: Re: [kj] Auckland & Wellington gig reviews
>
> >The guy you met was Diamond Dave
>
> Has he still got the topknot?
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 4:34 PM, Chris Williamson <laughingchris at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Brilliant and thank you Brendan. Loved reading that. The guy you met was Diamond Dave by the way. Actually a great guy who owns a guitar shop in Bristol.
>
> LaughingChris
>
> Sent from iPhone
>
>
> On 17 Jun 2013, at 09:35, "Brendan Quinn" <bq at soundgardener.co.nz> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> What can I say. Waiting this long for Killing Joke to play NZ was totally worth it. The experience started with seeing the amazing documentary premiere in Auckland, sitting a few seats down from Jaz and family, then seeing Killing Joke perform in Auckland with my little sister, my fellow stalwart Kiwi Gatherer Johnny and his lovely wife Jo and their friends, then a road trip down to my favourite place in the world Wellington to see Killing Joke again – listening to a CD I made of the tour setlist, and finally unexpectedly getting to hang out with the band for a few hours afterwards.
>
> The documentary and Q&A with Jaz set the tone for everything that followed and provided context and meaning to the whole experience. From that point on I decided to try an experiment – to see if I could do as suggested in the doco, interpret events on a deeper level, and use the experience to provide focus, inspiration, direction, understanding…and I have to say, it worked.
>
> Johnny’s review of the Auckland gig was spot on – tiny venue, packed full of intense but generally good natured people, bit of an odyssey to the bar and back to get a drink, fucking amazing performance, and yes I wore a Soundgarden t shirt to a Killing Joke gig. However it was an original, faded, 1994 Superunknown Screaming Elf t shirt signed by Ben Shepherd – and I guess I must have missed the memo about only wearing a band’s t-shirt to their gig! I also have to point out that when I hugged Johnny’s wife Jo goodbye she exclaimed “God you’re drenched” – by which she really meant “God you rocked out way harder than Johnny” ;p
>
> Anyway yes, the venue was packed to the gills, although not uniformly, cutting across sideways to get a final drink just before it kicked off (Eyes Wide Shut music) required all my years of gig diplomacy and munter management skills - by which I mean I sent my little sister. Haha.
>
> I’ve read a few reviews, one of them mentioned being packed far too tight, poor sound, fights, not being able to see anything, but personally it’s hard for me to comment because I was very close to the front, and being 6’3” I never have a problem seeing anything, in fact I’m usually more concerned that I don’t stonewall the people behind me. I also read some comments in that article about lame old people standing still, so fuck knows…can’t have it both ways. I didn’t see anything in the crowd that you don’t see at pretty much every gig, think it’s a storm in a teacup started by someone who had a bit of a valid point about over-crowding but took it a bit far.
>
> The sound was fine, except too loud, past the sweet spot where extra volume doesn’t add impact, but shit I was having fun either way.
>
> Killing Joke’s impact on stage, it’s hard to say because I’m such a huge fan and had decades worth of restrained fandom to vent, and I’d be preaching to the choir because it seems that everyone but for us Kiwis had seen Killing Joke before, but holy shit. I don’t think I stopped moving. I was totally exhausted, hoarse, and deaf at the end, with a huge grin on my face, buzzing. I knew the setlist cos I had looked up the Aussie gigs, it was exactly the same as the other gigs on the tour except for the we got 5 songs vs 3 for the encore: Bloodsport-Madness-Change-TDARS-Psycche, the first two being additions. We certainly earned it! Change was amazing, much more powerful live than I’d have thought, one of the stand-outs to me, as was TDARS, MINOG, Beautiful Dead, Pssyche…it’s very hard to pick songs out individually.
>
> My sister and I drove down the next day to the Wellington gig, about a 8-9 hour drive. I was worried that either the band would be tired from the night before, or I wouldn’t have as much energy after blowing my load at the Auckland gig the night before, on top of the road trip, hangover, being hoarse etc. Not a chance – I’d say it was as good as, if not better than the Auckland gig, I was right up front and centre in front of Jaz and even more amped than at Auckland, esp for the encore. Stunningly powerful performance.
>
> We hung around after the gig, as the roadies were packing up I told Jason Bowld the stand-in drummer and Reza that it was an amazing gig and asked them to pass that on to the rest of the band. I sweet-talked the roadies and asked that they pass on my appreciation to the band, in particular one guy who may have been tour manager I’m not sure, anyway I’d found out his name, Diamond something (great guy)– he looked like he was straight of the music video for Come on Eileen. Anyway I asked him for the setlist and got it…then about 10-15 mins after the gig had finished, a few of those people left in the venue were invited downstairs to a private bar to hang out with the band. I like to think it was because they noticed me going nuts at both gigs, but it might have been sheer persistence, brown-nosing, or I might have been standing next to a nice blonde they wanted to get downstairs, who knows =) Anyway we spent the next roughly 3 hours hanging out with Geordie, Youth, Jaz, and other assorted vagabonds. I got my setlist signed by all three, and I managed to have a good chat to each of them and mention something they had done personally that I appreciated.
>
> Memories:
>
> Youth - talking about Ayahusca, DMT, shamanism, druidry, Neil Finn from Crowded House (“he’s just so CATHOLIC”), BPF’s tendonitis (elbows), Robert Anton Wilson, Steven Wilson and other producers, electronic music, New Zealand weed (great stuff – Geordie agreed but said he smokes hash), Paul McCartney, trying to type in something for him on his iPhone…magic.
>
> Geordie – early on in the night he walked up to the couches where some of us fans were hanging out with Youth and Jaz, and with no greeting, introduction, context or anything, he sits down right next to me and says “it took until age 47 to find the love of my life – she licks my ass while I’m drinking tea” –so fucking funny! I almost didn’t want to write that but the impression I got was that he gets a kick out of walking up to a bunch of random megafans and blowing their minds with an outrageous, surreal comment. Aah who knows, anyway I struggle to think of anything funnier I’ve ever heard. I was trying to imagine what I’d text to Johnny to try to get him to believe what Geordie just said but I wasn’t going to sit there texting. Anyway sharing a bottle of Jager with Geordie, passing it around, snorting some kind of tobacco or snuff – magic. No one told me how funny Geordie is! He was really animated…I told him I really dug his 2008 demos, asked him all sorts like whether that story from back in the day about when he played with Faith No More was true (him deleting the tapes and walking out saying “you’re too suburban”) – can’t remember what he said about that but he said he likes Mike Patton, he said “that guy with dreadlocks skips bands quick”, talking about Mike Bordin I think…said he likes Jimmy Chamberlain’s drumming.
>
> I had a chat with Jaz, he asked what I thought about the Death & Resurrection Show documentary, we talked about NZ Politics (he reckons the green party need to aspire to getting 50% of the vote)…I got him and the others to sign my set list…I mentioned that Jason the drummer did a good job and he walked off stony faced =) Hell of an intense guy.
>
> Anyway after a few amazingly fun and laid back hours it was all over, however I was left with what I thought was a bit of a holy relic, which I intended to share with Johnny –towards the end of the night my little sister handed me something and said “hey this is one of Youth’s joints - he dropped it and didn’t want it when I handed it to him!” – I kept it protected overnight and only noticed about 24 hours later that it was a nicotine patch rolled up into a cylinder. Rock n Roll!
>
> I have the signed setlist which I had to untangle because it stuck to itself, and lo and behold I have an even more holy relic – a ball of what I think looks like Jaz-hair that it picked up while it was on the floor by him! Oh the possibilities…of course I have started immediately on the occult path, I don’t know what a magickal relic of this nature is capable of, but I’m sure that’s a story for another day.
>
> Anyway, I have decided to renounce the industry I was working in, move back to my hometown and spiritual home Wellington, and become a druid. Although a part of me is wondering whether I should try to find myself a girl like Geordie’s got…that’s got to be a hell of a cup of tea!
>
> Hahahaha!
>
> Brendan
>
>
> From: gathering-bounces at misera.net [mailto:gathering-bounces at misera.net] On Behalf Of bongo
> Sent: Saturday, 15 June 2013 5:23 p.m.
> To: A list about all things Killing Joke, (the band!)
> Subject: Re: [kj] Auckland gig: FYI
>
> ok, tried to put some words together, not an unbiased rock critic review, but how my night went..
>
>
> me and jo (wife) drove down after work.. whangarei to auckland is a two hour drive, so made it to the venue when the doors opened... had car issues, but wont get into that - we made it there..
> found jase and chars, then found a cheap piss shop and downed a few 8%ers.. found brendon & sister, talked shit outside for a bit and bumped into a few other friends... the support band i found out was a new mix of old bands - flotsam and jetsam of yesteryear, missed every note..
> walked into the studio after support act finished. it was a bit packed, but all our group made it up the front stage right without much struggle, tho it was crowded we had space..
> the few minutes before the band came on were filled with drug like ecstasy! my plan was to stay with jo and co for most of the time, and thrash out a bit for my fav songs..... as soon as requiem started tho - i was off! glasses off, serious time...
> i have no idea of the setlist, but of course i knew every goddamn fucking song and every fucking one was a fucking favourite that night!!! pssyche i knew would be good - it was... but as i said before TDARS had me near fainting/vomiting the most!!! did i hold back? fuck no! if you were up front, you knew i was there.. rough? a bit... was i a dick? maybe... did i care? no. i kept an eye on the midget and watched myself around the guy in the wheelchair (near stage side), but apart from that, i was not standing still.
> most others up front seemed pleased for the enthusiasm and when the guy up front stated blindly elbowing anything that touched him, me and a tall skinhead exchanged many sentences without words, and removed him from his treasured position simply by 'dancing' HA!
> i think there was a small fight, didn't see what started it but i was shunted near them when they left the front... nothing major - just dumb.
> i'd really like to see a setlist to jog my memory... i have many memories, but they are all disjointed.. bloodsport (not change - dont think they played that??!), was joyous - geordie and youth facing off, playing off each other, and jaz in between yelling and screaming and smiling!!
> three old mates simply rocking out together, they were loving it and we were loving it!
> every song was great, altho i'm sure others complained of the sound. it was a bit loud!
> went to the sidelines after a few songs, no jase or brendon in sight, but there was my wife, rockin by herself and looking at ease, comfortable in the chaos, and a bit sexy! stayed with her for about half of MINOG then something else started and i had to go back into the middle, which was only about 4m away..
>
> all in all, my night was great, and Killing Joke done what i had hoped they would.
>
> never saw any of the band apart from onstage, youth was dj-ing an after party somewhere, but we left after saying goodbyes to everyone...
>
>
> cheers.
>
>
> (now if you want a review with real goods punctuation n shit, ask that fucker who wore a soundgarden tshirt to a KJ gig!!!)
>
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