Sorry Sorry are Rockers from Tauranga, and together with local acts Bad For Education and Lorenzo Hazelwood, they put out fierce performances and raucous good times.
The Wine Cellar fills up quickly, in front of the stage and in the bar area. Alcohol fuelled merriment and a very genial and well-behaved young audience.
Sorry Sorry
That might be because lead singer and guitarist Robbie Evison tells us his parents have come up from Tauranga to see them. Feels like it puts myself and them in the role of chaperones.
But then the music they play reaches back firmly to classic Sixties, so boundaries don’t really exist.
It takes them a few songs to wind things up and get into high gear. Old School classic four- piece Rock with a clattering Punk accent and a little messy. The singer has a low- key delivery.
They are getting their shit together by third song, Drano. The tone of American Sixties Garage Rock and the tasty electric twang of the lead guitarist raises the energy level.
Publicity blurb states that they have been a power trio in the past. This is a new line-up of musicians so I can’t name them. A quartet now with bass, drums and lead guitar.
More Than Ever is where you can hear shades of the bratty whining vocal styles of the Shadows of Knight, the Barbarians or even Keith Relf of the Yardbirds.
That song comes off their EP Rude Awakening. An interesting point for obsessive’s is that the cover features a crotch shot of a guy in brief white undies with what appears to be a blurred fist about to deliver the rude awakening.
This must refer to the famous female crotch shot which adorns the cover of the Black Crowes classic Amorica album. The panties design is the American flag. That band also rejuvenated classic Rock.
All of that will explain the complete change of pace with But I Do. A Blues guitar intro followed by classic R’n’B rhythm riffs, in a less-is-more minimalist style of an Albert King or a Herbert Sumlin. The singer changes style completely and lays out a nice gravelly tone. A real Chicago Blues.
Ragg Doll follows, slows that tempo down and is a straight electrified Blues around a monolithic lumbering riff.
The band is hitting its stride over the latter half of their set.
They deconstruct Katrina and the Waves Walking on Sunshine. It gets a little beat on the brat with a baseball bat treatment and comes out possibly better for it. Rock with some Punk.
Love Song, also off the EP, revs it up with a nasty Link Wray motorcycle guitar buzz. It winds into the home stretch with the surge and fade of Led Zeppelin’s Rock’n’Roll.
Messy start, great finish.
Bad For Education
Bad For Education is primarily the vehicle for William Walker, lead singer and guitar. I first saw them two years ago at this same venue.
Walker’s father managed the Gluepot back in the days when it was the top iconic music venue in Auckland. He has absorbed a lot of that immersion therapy. As well as playing with the likes of Dave Dobbyn and Dance Exponents, his music has numerous echoes of those bands.
Like the Sorrys, the band reaches back to the classic Sixties sounds.
This band is different to when I first saw them. Tonight, it’s Mark Tohovaka Jr on drums and Asher Pirini bass.
As before, they make a false start with Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire. It is very good, and if they work on it, they will have a sound like Rank and File’s Train Conductor Wore Black. (Which is a lot like Johnny Cash as it happens).
From there it is energetic Power Pop from start to finish. Fast and economical, tight and disciplined. The three players energy is infectious and there is some controlled moshing and slam dancing.
Tom Peep is melodic Power Pop with the rowdiness of Sixties garage bands.
Stupid Feelings sounds like the best of late Seventies Kiwi pub rock. The style of the Mockers nails it.
Always good to hear the Bo Diddley Shave and a haircut/ Two bits classic rhythm, as on Family Man.
Cindy Wastetime and the singer phrases like Lou Reed. Funny lyrics and the drive of the tribal drumming elevates it.
The drummer also stands out on Pulling Punches. The song is described as a two-step, but the artillery percussion is much faster.
Kid the Moon borrows a little from early Velvet Undergound riffs, let’s say There She Goes Again. Which is also a steal from Marvin Gaye’s Hitch Hike.
That’s the way it goes.
Lorenzo Hazelwood
Lorenzo Hazelwood may be better-known in his other artistic incarnation as leader of Silcrow, a Rock band blending multiple genres including metal.
I have not seen that band, but judging from the performance tonight, I can see the Metal connection.
This is his parallel world as a solo artist, and he is playing with fellow Silcrow member Oscar Miller.
Both play acoustic guitars, and the interplay creates a large, monumental sound. The do have a Richard Thompson sonic folk sensibility.
Hazelwoods voice is a big and passionate baritone and easily cuts through. The influence of Eddie Vedder is to the fore. Shadows emphasise this.
Pharos is a stand-out. This is the sound of Folk Rock as is heard on side two of Led Zeppelin Three. Drone melodies and Eastern cadences.
A song which may be titled What I Am, has apocalyptic messages as it switches between light and dark tones. It is also a Silcrow song, so I can sense the Metal background.
Turn Me Grey is a Grunge ballad and a great vocal, the closest to Vedder’s style.
A cover of Audioslave’s I Am the Highway is perfect inside this setting.
Hazelwood if off soon to Europe to further travel down his artistic pathway.
A night of wide-ranging music. Classic Rock, Rock’n’roll, Blues, R’n’B and lots of Power Pop. Informed by Folk and Punk. There was even some Country, done as a throwaway. No wonder the audience was jacked up.
That was Sorry Sorry, accompanied by Bad For Education and Lorenzo Hazelwood.
Rev Orange Peel
