Photo: The Transistors by me.
I turned up to this show a little after 9pm. I had bought batteries for my camera as I wanted to film some of this show but I'd left the SIM card at home. I never had that problem with film cameras. The batteries I bought turned out to be rubbish for digital cameras.
Anyway Christchuch band The Transistors were already playing when I got there. They reminded me of The Replacements and/or Superstar Car Wash/Hold Me Up era Goo Goo Dolls. Pretty cool young trio who are really good musicians who unfortunately played to just a few people due to the early starting time.
US band The Dirtbombs played next. Until a week ago I'd never heard of them but familiarized myseself with their recent album, We Have You Surrounded . The album took a while to grow on me however The Dirtbombs live show was instantly enjoyed. Their mix of garage rock, punk and soul with two drummers and two bassists went down a treat. I later discovered that I am in fact in familiar with two of bassist, Troy Gregory's former bands(Prong and he was Jason Newsted's replacement in Flotsam and Jetsam)
Above pics: The Dirtbombs Below pics: The Datsuns All pics: By me.
After what seemed like quite some time Waikato band The Datsuns came out and played. I'd never seen them before and they were an enjoyable live act with a singer who heavily borrows stage moves from T.Rex's Mark Bolan. I knew a lot of The Datsuns material because I've owned their debut album for a few years now. There videos were sometimes shown on MTV in Taiwan. It seemed that most of the crowd was at this show to see The Datsuns because of their familiarity with their music.
The Datsuns seemed to play forever and lengthened forever by playing about four encore songs including one with a few members of The Dirtbombs. It seems weird to me that a New Zealand band would play on their hometurf after a US band and people would stay to see them but now days it happens.
