Clash of Arts ’23 is a combined multi-disciplinary presentation of live music, dance, artworks and merchandise. The evening was devoted to young musicians and included the likes of Skitch Hiker, Edible, Venom Dolls, The Ideas, Melanie and Late to Chelsea.
Skitch Hiker
A power trio of Jonathan Ashwell guitar and vocals, Luke Dickens bass and Chops McWatters drums.
Disciples of yer heavy Rock music in the wake of Cream, and some of the heavier elements of the Beatle sound after they ushered in the Psychedelic era.
They do cover I Want You (She’s So Heavy) in good fashion as it resolves into its melodic middle. The guitar fires out screeching stiletto-sharp riffs.
Big swathes of heavy lugubrious Black Sabbath style guitar. One which could be titled Fawlty borrows from Paranoid and War Pigs. They do it well.
Ashwell looks uncannily like a lean, skinny Frank Zappa.
Of course, classic era heavy Rock contained the influence of Chicago-style electrified Blues. Their concluding song starts with the lyrics in the house of the rising sun.
Venom Dolls
The Dolls have undergone personnel changes and are shifting their musical styles. Punk style remains but there are elements of Metal. I am told that by Lizzie who is the energetic brand-new singer and looks like a Seventies Punk Goth.
Summah on drums is the sole survivor from the start. Myke on guitar and Dallas on bass.
Dead House is a good showcase of this current band’s talent. Dissonant squalling guitar shards like Bryan Gregory from the original line-up of the Cramps.
Similar sound on No One Likes Mary Sue.
ALAB stand for All Lords Are Bastards. It’s rough and ready and the singer shouts with appropriate rage like it’s 1977 again. The drums are on point and the key to the energetic propulsion of the band.
The flying-V guitar is appropriately nasty on a song said to be about a shitty Tinder date. Even if it does have a ponderous start, it fires off like a boy racer with nasty guitar and maximum torque drums.
Last song may indicate their new direction. A cover of Funeralopolis from Electric Wizard. A dominant bass line leads into the guitar firing off into industrial Metal drone riffs. The singer’s voice is lost in the mix.
Edible
Edible are a quartet from Hamilton who play a more traditional garage Power Pop to Punk. Full of raucous energy.
Te Ara Davies is the bass player and backing vocals. He tells me the rest are Jayden Bray lead vocals and guitar, Kevin Ingham guitar and Coleman Strother drums.
Punk is the base that the band works from, and the drummer is authoritative in driving this leam machine.
From there you hear passage of Metal, quirky New Wave and just waves of good abrasive guitar noise.
Not a big crowd in tonight, but they are enthusiastic. Some slam dancing and head-banging.
They finish on a song dedicated to ketamine. They might have called Messy, and it is appropriately that.
They have one available EP I can see called 12 Minutes in a Garage in Ham East.
The Ideas
The Ideas are Max Leask on guitar and vocals, and Josiah Weston on drums.
They make a big noise, like the White Stripes. Guitar pyrotechnics and drums holding down the platform to launch all this from.
You can hear the extreme end of Cramps distorted psychobilly, the guitar like a wrecking ball.
They share some of the distorted manic style of Delaney Davidson. There are rough Voodoo Blues elements on a song with lyrics like I ain’t afraid of noise/ I get paranoid/ I get superstitious.
They really work those elements up to good effect on a song which may be called Jack the Ripper.
One tune begins with a Hendrix-style heaviness but remains primitive and raw.
They end it on a rhythm storm of meshed Cramps Vs White Stripes.
A good Skronk duo.
Melanie
Melanie is a four-piece band from close to home in the Waitakeres. Players are Jamie Dentice lead vocals and guitar, William Dentice bass, Robin Lusk guitar and Joe Gasparich drums.
A good post-Punk thrash band which powers through close to a dozen songs in half an hour.
The songs are bolted through at speed. The vocalist yells, the drummer does a sterling job to hold it all down and provide the necessary solid platform to launch it all from.
Current single Accident, Emergency sounds appropriately urgent.
Maude Street, from their album 42 Losers, starts as old school original punk and morphs into a grunge sound.
One called Beach Community which they say is a cover, is an impressive Surf Punk workout.
Did they just say Coltrane? That song is a fast atonal barrage with the drummer keeping it steady.
Like the closing song although the meshed guitars are now a chiming carpet bombing.
All the bands distinguished themselves and their preferences of style. Covered classic Rock onwards, with Punk and its progression certainly out front.
The evening show of Clash of Arts ’23 was a triumph in that it was carrying some of the spirit of that seminal Punk band.
Rev Orange Peel
Photographs by Rachel Matthews
