The Others Way Festival was the biggest and best-organised event yet for this iconic annual extravaganza.
This time the game-changer was the pop-up main stage which occupied Karangahape Rd at its heart, between Queen St and Pitt St. Audacious and daring (and maybe a little mad) to even attempt it, but it worked perfectly.
Better than the organisers could have dreamed for, I suspect. Blessed with a perfect early summer day, stretching out into the early hours of Sunday morning.
The headline act we all got excited about in the media call months prior, was the announcement of Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory.
The inclusion of her band reflects collaborative effort made by all the members, and her current 2025 self-titled album is what this evening’s show draws heavily from.
The rest of the band. Teeny Lieberson keyboards/synths/guitars, Devra Hoff bass, Jorge Balbi drums, Shanna Polley guitar.
Inside the Heavenly Pop Hit Main Stage on the tarmac, a much bigger version of the Cross St and Galatos St outdoor stages of the past.
Open with the mostly atmospheric Live Forever, but it seems very underpowered in volume and presence. I was on the outside on the footpath, just next to Sal’s Pizza, because you could get right next to the level of the main stage.
This had me rushing back inside, but the sound desk powered up for the following Afterlife, and the rolling waves of synthesiser rhythms that is Idiot Box.
Up close Van Etten looks stunning, attired mostly in black and dancing expansively across the large stage when she is not wielding a guitar.
The rumbling thunder of drums opens Comeback Kid, which then rises with the pressure waves of keyboards. Yeah, I’m the runaway/ I’m the hardly stay.
No One Is Easy to Love has a beautiful progression to climax, built around a simple staccato driving rhythm.
Every Time the Sun Comes Up and Seventeen concludes her set on glorious melodic highs.
I checked out some of the preceding acts on the main stage, being the biggest hive of energy of the festival.
Connan Mockasin comes from Napier, his actual surname is Hosford. He plays some mean twangy and swinging R’n’B guitar licks which move with a definite Dire Straits mood.
Relaxed and gently psychedelic fluid riffs which seem perfectly welcome for a sunny afternoon.
Perhaps better known overseas than in his home country, he has played support for Radiohead, collaborated with Charlotte Gainsborough and James Blake, and is admired by many including Beck and Tyler the Creator.
When the bigger drum beats take control, his guitar pecks with it like a rooster.
HDU means High Dependency Unit and this trio of Tristan Dingemans, Neil Phillips and Constantine Karlis hail from Dunedin and they first got together in 1993, although each of the three also pursue various other projects.
My first time to see them and they have a reputation as a fearsome live act.
In the afternoon sunshine, the light show is upstaged. They are cathartic noise merchants. Not as openly jarring or hostile like Wax Chattels, they dial it back a little and let melody enter.
Progressive or post-Rock, they open portals where the drum thunder dominates and the other instruments screech metal.
This approach can get ambient and meditative, where what sounds like celestial voices float up like cream.
Will mark them as ones to chase after soon.
The Heavenly Pop Hit Main Stage drew my attention being such a dominant structure right in the middle of K Rd.
Of course, The Others Way has always been about the other iconic clubs and venues which make up the mainstay of the popular and avant-garde music scene which makes this central city area so vital for the arts.
One of the most beautiful is the Pitt Street Church, a Methodist building built in 1865. Its timber framework, wooden pews and high arch window framing the central stage area make it a quiet refuge away from the ebullient Main Stage.
The first place I go after getting my accreditation and wristband pass from the opposite Beresford Square.
Holly Arrowsmith is already playing a gentle acoustic set of her own brand of idiosyncratic Folk Americana. Singing about the prairie wind and talking to God.
Arrowsmith is originally from America, but was raised in the hills of the South Island in New Zealand
With her is Motte, who is Kiwi violinist and alt- Folk musician Anita Clark, who adds some nice harmonising vocals.
Following her was Shannon Lay, from Redondo Beach in California. Her descriptor on Wikipedia calls her Folk and Punk, but she’s strumming an acoustic guitar and it is gentle contemplative and soulful pastoral music as I catch the end of her set.
She heralds an acapella song by way of this introduction. I want to focus on expansion and heart. I sit here quietly, fingers folded. I must not dream of yesterday.
Then she sings unaccompanied and rises in inspirational tones. Raise your heart to revolution/ Feed the joy that lives within.
At The Studio, Anthonie Tonnon is setting up, ready with a synth keyboard and numerous backing tracks. I last saw him as a band at the Hollywood Theatre in Avondale where he played a compelling set, but he is solo tonight.
This is all new material he tells before launching off and the venue is filling up quickly.
This new project seems to channel the musical score of a Tarantino movie. Nice Disco Pop rhythms with a baritone drone vocal. A lighter Human League with just the hint of a vibrato vocal.
The singer gets more animated and pushes the inspiration towards Gospel Pop.
There is a long tale of a space monster which is part narration, part preacher. What can I do in my sin?
Highly idiosyncratic and this will definitely be one to catch when he does finally tour it. The plan I heard was to make it a multi-media presentation and using cinema screens as a backdrop.
The choice now was the Bats next up here, but something told me to trek over to Double Whammy to catch Georgia Knight.
The thing with over 40 separate acts spread over 8 (!) venues and a main stage is that you can thrash yourself silly trying to catch as many great acts as possible.
You can’t see all that you would like, but I was glad to catch Knight even if it was the last third of her set.
Racing down to the big cellar at St Kevins Arcade, it was pitch black but jammed with people and Knight was there alone on stage in subdued lighting. Looking pale and ghostly and clutching an autoharp.
I first saw her at the Tuning Fork where she was in support of Folk Bitch Trio. All Melburnians.
You could call her Folk Pop that night. She has been described as Trip-Hop, and she is a little dishevelled. I did not realise that she was supposed to be playing with a band, and they have been delayed unfortunately.
A hell of a lot of chatter and someone yells for everyone to shut the fuck up.
The autoharp has a chiming quality when strummed (rather than picked) like a dulcimer. She then grabs an old telephone receiver handset and sings into it whilst cradling it under her chin.
It could be Heart Like a Wheel, the one that Linda Ronstadt covered. Hard to be sure.
I thought she would be good to follow up back at the Tuning Fork, and I was right.
Thought I would check out Hina whilst I was close to the old Whammy Bar. This is Amy Boroevich, and whilst her band was in full flight, the venue was as packed and claustrophobic as I can recall.
Got out of there and a race to get to Galatos to try and catch Toody Cole.
Legendary Rock’n’roll garage band style musician with her husband Fred Cole, they had a band called Dead Moon which influenced many like the American early Punk and Grunge bands.
She plays bass guitar and admired by the likes of Motorhead’s Lemmy.
They play dirty and nasty Rock’n’roll riffs, some resembling Link Wray’s Rumble, some cycle-delic Davie Allan motorik racing off into mutant Rockabilly.
One of the best sounds like a Sex Pistols raveup. All have the characteristic snarl and mean growl of Toody.
An abundance of riches and too much great music to get around. Could not get to the Bats or Phoenix Foundation, and the gas tank was empty to get around Pearly*, Womb and Elliot & Vincent.
Some of them will be covered in the photo gallery.
Rev. Orange Peel
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