The Others Way is an orgy of great music. 42 musical acts over 10 venues in 6 and a half hours. You can try wallowing in it all like a pig on speed. Or you can meander sedately.
So, this is one Terminator’s camera lens eye recording sound and vision. Alternating between brisk and slow, as the mood and energy levels dictate.
We pick up our tickets at the Flying Out record store on the corner of K Rd and Pitt St. Plenty of vinyl here and some tasty stuff. More a boutique shop than a record warehouse. (Warning, there may be further subliminal product placement ads).
I amble over to the Pitt St Church, because it’s the closest venue, and take a pew in the great building.
Close to 160 years old and a New Zealand treasure. A wooden structure and a medium size church. Magnificent stained-glass windows and it is a peaceful haven from the lively street crowd (which will get much busier).
Since I feel so relaxed and mildly mesmerised, I watch Molly Lewis take the stage. There is no stage, just a front area for sermons.
Slim and sexy in a sheer red dress and a beatific smile. Bathed in a soft red light and standing next to a big harp. She wafts slowly to low backing music.
This is straight out of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.
The first song has oriental background music and whistling is heard. I thought she was miming this, but it was real.
My name is Molly, and I am a whistler. A huge smile, like the cover of the Cars debut album accompanies this.
She is Australian and currently lives in Los Angeles. She does whistle and has an extraordinary career to date. Appeared with Dr Dre and Jackson Browne, just to name two.
She supplied a whistled song for the Barbie movie.
Has visited NZ 21 times to date, appearing in small provincial towns like Waipu.
Her music is soothing, and the whistling is almost otherworldly. High piercing laser-like tones and always lyrical. It was as genuinely moving as hearing Mongolian throat-singing for the first time.
So I stayed.
A song to Miracle Fruit. Which is a natural sweetener, suppressed by Big Sugar. I can believe that. Spooky, disembodied eerie tones. I expected Kyle MacLachlan and a malevolent dwarf to appear.
A lot of her music remind me of the ambient sounds of Joe Meek and the era of Telstar by the Tornados.
I must mention Dolphinese. Her tribute to the ocean wayfarers. The ambient background does sound like the Byrds Dolphin Smile.
Later in the evening, it is Mary Lattimore who plays the harp in church.
She is also based in Los Angeles and is an in-demand harpist for many big-name artists. She combines her harp playing with electronic gadgets and loops. Which expands the palette without losing any of the beauty of the celestial tones.
And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me. That’s a song title. Inspired by the time she got a hug from Sesame Street’s Big Bird, as a 10-year-old.
On the Days of the Dead Whale seems to drift. Backward loops are used. Becomes dramatic like film music.
Jazmine Mary takes the stage at the Wine Cellar, and her powerful voice effortlessly fills the small venue. She is wearing a black witch hat, which also makes her distinctive as she move around the venue.
I saw her recently at the Atomic: Women in Rock concert, where she powered up great versions of Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit and Somebody to Love.
The ambience is like a cathedral from the sound desk, which is a good achievement. The Wine Cellar always has superlative sound and is an artist’s favoured venue.
She does a bracing version of her own Seagull. Arresting.
Mournful and lugubrious tones from a song with lyrics Won’t cha kiss me/ Won’t cha kiss me.
There is a hole-in-the-wall called Underground which I discovered tonight, on the other side of the big stairs at St Kevin’s Arcade.
I was grateful for the blast of Punk Rock from two bands I caught there. Late to Chelsea and Melanie.
I reviewed these two at a music revue I attended in July this year in West Auckland, called Clash of Arts ’23.
Tonight, it was the head and gut punch I needed to wake up. But more than that, they took me back to the thrash days of Punk’s first flowering. When I was a varsity student in 1978.
Chants of Oi! Oi! Oi! Fuck you Jason, say boo! to Chelsea yells the lead singer. All in good nature.
On the street again and a busker is singing Sympathy for the Devil.
In days gone by, a busker was singing I want to destroy passers-by on the streets of London in 1976.
The Souls of Mischief explode onto the Galatos Outdoor Stage.
These are a four-man, underground hardcore Hip-Hop group from Oakland California, and they are celebrating 30 year this year, having been formed in 1993.
I am discovering them for the first time. Glad I checked the posters tonight and saw they had top billing.
Two DJs behind desks start first. They put James Brown’s I Feel Good into a break-beat processor. Sound effects which echo Lee Perry’s arsenal.
The four guys come on and lock into fast free-flow Rap. They do it in unison. Clever and very funny.
A shout-out to Taylor Swift. Feelin’ queasy/ Lookin’ drowsy. A refrain with You can do dis/ Or you can do dat!
They slow things down and get into a bit of Toasting. Thou shalt not kill/ Unless I have to.
They love coming to New Zealand. From Oakland to Auckland! You get it?
The Veils are on in the Galatos Main Room.
Dave Khan is with the band on violin and other instruments. Finn Andrews of course in a familiar big hat.
Noisy packed room but the group’s Gothic intense Folk cuts through eventually.
Swimming with Crocodiles is satisfyingly edgy and eerie.
The spare and spectral meet dissonant Rock’n’roll. If you add feedback, you will have the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Fazerdaze also play on the outdoor stage. Amelia Rahayu Murray tells us that the Others Way is a nice home coming. She has worked here in the past on merchandise and giving out wrist bands.
There are four other players on stage around her,
What starts as edgy Indie Rock effortlessly moves into Power Pop reminiscent of the Bangles.
Judicious amounts of shredding from the lead guitar.
In the end they combine New Wave girl vocals with meshed guitars. Mostly bright with just a little of the dark side.
Vera Ellen plays the Galatos Main Room before the Veils.
Three young women form the front of house. Three guys form the outside backs.
My first experience of this new Indie Pop outfit. They have a great engine room bass and drums. One of the women plays percussion including syn-drums. She also looks cool wearing sunglasses after dark.
The vocals are a bit muddy and muffled, so I will have to check them out again.
That atmospheric does make the singer sound like Moe Tucker and her solo work. I am equally intrigued.
After awhile I was stumbling around, checking out DJs’ and equally interesting crowds.
There were many great acts that I just could not get to. Sometimes it feels like a marathon. At others like you have five minutes to grab as much food as you can from a huge smorgasbord.
The smorgasbord being whistles and harps, to thrash Punk and hardcore Hip-Hop. And everything in between.
It never fails to amaze me, the power of rejuvenation that great music has.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Jemilah Ross-Hayes
DERYK, Dick Move, Fazerdaze, Jujulips, Mā, Marlins Dreaming, Office Dog and Pickle Darling
