A Motor Neurone Disease fighting fundraiser for Chris Kemp. Bringing many music compatriots, family, friends, and fans to a celebration of the life spirit.
This being a cruel auto-immune disease with a rapid progression. But Kemp and his big posse of fellow travellers on the life path were determined to make it a riotous and defiant trip.
Many fellow artists were present. Some to play, some to watch.
Kemp was the drummer for the Thin Men playing with Bernie Griffen. Who passed away in 2023 and was a local legend himself in Alternative Country, as well being a pioneer in promoting and running an independent music scene in New Zealand.
Several of the musicians associated with Griffen are here, including Tony Daunt and Griffen’s wife Kirsten Warner.
She plays in the Wine Cellar public bar tonight, along with several others. This area is packed, and it’s not a big space by any means.
It is fashioned like an old rustic British tavern with a similar character.
She is singing doomy Folk ballads and curiously it is a perfect fit for the convivial atmosphere that everyone is bringing to the evening.
Her last song is Drowning, a Griffen song, and it is a dirge and a lament. Coming up for air/ Breathing in your perfume/ Playing with your hair/ I feel like drowning!
Mike Hall, bass player for the great Come Together ensemble, is out there too, possibly playing tracks from his recent solo album.
Hard to know as the sound is not great for his set. Dense, muffled and sludgy.
But he turns up playing with Kendall Elise in the main room of Double Whammy, where the sound desk is at its usual high standard.
Chris Kemp is there on drums, and there is palpable tenderness from his wife Kendall.
They start with a slow tempo Folk Pop ballad, to warm up until Elise unleashes her strong witchy tones at the end.
The Clock Tower has John Segovia playing a lap steel. The guitar is across is lap and he is using a slider, and it is NOT a dobro. The Country drone style sounds familiar those who would be fans of the Velvet Underground’s last studio album, Loaded.
Elise gets deeper into Country Swing when she sings about a heart full of dirt. Big powerful voice with a little yodel added in at the end of each phrase.
Earlier on the main stage, Dick Move deliver the slap in the face and kick in the guts I need to fully awaken.
They dive straight into Old Skool thrash Punk with all the rage and attitude of, say Crass.
Crass were humourless. Dick Move have a keen sense of humour behind them whilst seriously trying to rip the audience several new orifices.
I have a revelatory moment. Lucy Suttor looks like the wild child offspring of MC5’s Rob Tyner and she acts like it. This band loves to…kick out the jams, motherfuckers!
Vocals are slogan chants. Meshed guitars sounding like a thousand metal rods landing on a steel floor. Drummer an engine room inferno.
Sometimes, a melody creeps in. More cerebral than hip-shaking and relaxing in its own way.
Dianne Swan and Brett Adams are The Bads of course, and they are playing edgy Power Pop with essential early Byrds flourishes from the guitar.
In the gutter/ Tryin’ ta reach ya. Adams adds some glassy-toned guitar, sounding like Dolphin Smile off the Notorious Byrd Brothers album.
Swann sings with a Post Punk squeak. They get into a great drone style of Alternative Rock.
Glad to be alive, Adams wails.
They finish with a song they requested for themselves. It’s a stunning and exhilarating version of the Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated. Nothing to do, nowhere to go-oh!
I catch Video Nasty as they try to break an electric guitar on stage, with not a dent on it. Doesn’t stop the guitar thrash sound though.
A duo called Durty Murder play hard, dirty, Rockabilly in the pub. Singer sounds like the crazed Hasil Adkins in his early days of She Said infamy.
Adam McGrath, he of the Eastern band from Christchurch is a big guy who sings with the heart of Union Hall Folkie.
He easily captures the attention of a rowdy main stage room, where the alcohol has been flowing freely.
Always a captivating presence with his powerful voice, along with an acoustic guitar. He knows instinctively to start his set about taking the load off Fanny.
Great version of the Band’s The Weight.
Then switches to a cover of Gene Pitney’s Something’s Got a Hold of my Heart. Still sounds Folk.
This is the day when things fall into place. Could be his own song. He phrases like Springsteen here.
Would have liked to have seen Ratso, but I was in a state of nervous exhaustion and there was another band before them.
Outside the subterranean homesick hangout, there was a polar blast on the street to revive the senses.
It was a great, rowdy, raucous and irreverent salute to Chris Kemp, and a most heart-felt one.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Jennifer De Koning
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