Next up were Wellington band, Holiday With Friends who I knew absolutely nothing about. They're an indie type pop band who used to filter The Velvet Underground, The Strokes, Patti Smith, Jonathan Richman and The Ramones according to another blogger. The band feature three females and two males, this ratio is important because there are four singing band members. There were some lovely keyboards, glockenspiels, and handclaps utilized throoughout their set. Their sound to my ears was like Lloyd Cole meeting Nina Hagen while UK Squeeze played in Dr Who's tardis. They managed to get a lot of the audience up and dancing.
Then The Bats came on and played a lot of new songs mixed with old songs. I really enjoyed hearing Boogey Man live and thanks to the wonders of Youtube you can enjoy it at a differing level of enjoyment from mine.
Then they left and came back with an encore which featured Block of Wood and North by North. As I was walking home I heard one young Asian guy who can't have been much more than 20 say to another; "I especially enjoyed those last two songs."
Just thinking that those songs by The Bats are over 20 years old amazes me. The band's audience were a mixture of young and old. I saw people old enough to be my parents and I'm no spring chicken at the wrong side of thirty.
