The Mysterious Tapemen/Boss Christ/The Damned Evangelist at Bar Mode

After going to Hurricanes vs Brumbies Super 14 warm up game in Levin I headed to Palmerston North with the intention of seeing Boss Christ play at Bar Mode then take off and catch up with an old friend.

First up was a guy in a Boy Wonder type mask playing garage rock on a guitar. Pretty cool, really. I believe the guy's stage name is Bad Evil.




Next up was solo performer Boss Christ. This time he sang and played the guitar, snare drum and hi-hat cymbal sometimes all at once. He included a country song and seemed doubtful that the Bar Mode crowd would like the song. It was fine though. His set was too short for my liking and he had played an extra song in exchange for a beer. The Boss is without a doubt one of the best solo acts in the country. It should aso be mentioned that the Wolfman is now rocking a full beard.


The Damned Evangelist played next. They were a band I knew nothing about but they were awesome that nightan d played surf rock. Two of them played in motorcycle helmets and the drummer played wearing a wrestling (?) mask. Both the band's get-up and music reminded me of Man or Astro-Man?. The drummer played standing up and gave the drums a very tribal feel not unlike past Palmerston North bands The Skeptics and Lung.





These three guys walked into the bar wearing white shirts, bow ties with VHS tape wrapped around their heads and then The Mysterious Tapemen proceeded to rock surf style. Some metal bands were due to play afterwards but I didn't stay around for that. I was so impressed with what I saw of The Damned Evangelist and The Mysterious Tapemen that I went and watched them at the San Francisco Bath House in Wellington the next night. The Damned Evangelist didn't seem quite as good but despite breaking a string The Mysterious Tapemen seemed much better. The crowd was bigger and better too.

All photos on this post were not taken at either gig referred to in this post nor were they taken by me. However they were stolen from various places around the inter-web. No thanks to Harvey Norman.