live

Rip It Up, Issue 176, 1 March 1992, Page 39

live

THE BATS ABLE TASMANS, TIN SOLDIERS Otago University, Feb 27. Only just out of school unifroms this year, Tin Soldiers are already one of the leading young guns of the Dunedin music scene. As such, their youthful enthusiasm results in sparky, brash energetic pop, but in places their ' • performance shows they have also yet to master the art of quality control. The/re on the right track with songs like the punchy, fiesty 'Airpit' and the/ve got some incisive riffs influenced by some local Flying Nun heroes. However, they should drop stuff like the pathetic, near-heavy metal pastiche 'Madness' and the singer's spastic Bez-type dancing. Ready, willing and able, the Able Tasmans strolled on for one of their rare Dunedin gigs. Where most bands have only the guitar dominating their songs, Able Tasmans have the luxury of a twin guitar and twin (sometimes three!) keyboards to enhance their songs. Normally this results in excessive, indulgent sounding crap, but they create rich, powerful bouncy pop. Also, any accusations that the Able Tasmans are fey and wimpy are null and void. Punctuating the smoothness was the occasional speeding frenetic spazz-out with guitars spitting out harsh melodies and keyboards droning away. Much of tonight's set comprised newer material with songs like the dazzling 'Not Fair 7 indicating that any forthcoming album should be as good as the previous two. The Bats were the icing on the cake, Orientation veterans that they are. From the start, with songs like 'lt's A Lie', they splashed out their massive melodic mastery. This is what makes the Bats the great live band they are —no pretension, no derivative ' hair-waving grunge shite, just luscious, highly intriguing and appealing pop with Robert Scott's calm voice flowing alongside. The catchy 'You Know You Shouldn't* and recent single 'The Black And The Blue' were vibrant highlights of a convincing set, loaded with their simple, basic, naive pop. ,

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen the Bats live, but I've never

been disappointed. This time they were again on the ball. The Bats may not be scary or put the fear of God into you live, but they can play heavenly pop by the bucket load.. GRANT MCDOUGALL 3Ds, SNAPPER MY DEVIANT DAUGHTER Otago University, Feb 28. My Deviant Daughter's drummer was wearing a Joy Division t-shirt and unfortunately this sums up their predicament — tbey wear their influences in too many of their songs. This three-piece are capable of strong, gutsy stuff, but far too often let themselves down by insisting on using a poxy, insipid drum machine and obvious Joy Division/New Order rhythm section rip-offs in their set. Songs like 'lnterface Me' just sound like Factory fodder out-takes. It's in songs . like the less derivative, tense 'Delirious' that MDD's strengths fully emerge,. especially in the incandescent vocals of Emma Higham. But their songs would improve a ton if they were to chuck the drum machine and smash their Joy Division/New Order records. After some extraordinarily mediocre recent gigs, Snapper were back on form. Fuck this sub-pop, look how flash can we play crap, Gutteridge and co. piss all over it. Their hypnotic dance groove was mesmerising. Slabs of dense powerful white noise and highly charged repetitive rhythms foamed out with Gutteridge's laconic vocals sounding neatly understated. New drummer Mike Dooley (ex-Toy Love) has slotted in well, as has David Kilgour. Not only did the booming sonic soundscapes from the earlier EP and the new album Shotgun Blossom kick a hole in your brain, so did the beautiful, gentle pop of things like . 'Planet Phrom'. The last time Snapper played an Orientation gig they sucked, this time they blew people away. Then the 3Ds sung songs and they didn't get it wrong with their warped little oddities in full fiery flame. With lots of nifty little riffs permeating each song they were engagingly bizarre . and strangely enchanting. The oldies like 'Nimmos Dream', 'Bunn/ and 'Evil Kid' still sound fairly fresh, but hell, one thing's for sure, the new Hellzapoppin is the most appropriately titled local album of the year already. Whatever the songs on it are called, live they are hellishly menacing, snarling pop songs. One wonders how they do it, but the

3Ds can jam out the kicks no sweat. Now forthem to conquer the States... MCDOUGALL SIT ON MY FACE OR GET OUT OF MY LIFE! A One-Woman Show by Ms Ima Hoar Maidment Theatre, Auckland Writer / Director Charles Bracewell is well known in Auckland circles as the creator of Ima Hoar, lead singer for the Drag Babies. His attempt to flesh out a 15-minute floor show into a full . theatre performance is bold to say the least. Luckily for Bracewell he has the talent to pull it off. That is not to say this one-off show didn't have serious flaws. Act One was marred by faulty microphones, which made the actor's voices sound disjointed and stilted. This clearly affected the delivery of the lines, ruining the humour, however Bracewell I Hoar carried the scenes with his fine singing voice. After the technical problems were resolved during intermission, Act Two kicked off with more jokes and songs. Ms Hoar is the over-the-hill (ie 22) club dolly who drinks too much and has bad relationships with men. Her recounting of these instances we can all relate to are witty and perceptive, but the humour is not riotous. That is not to say that Ms Hoar is not outrageous. With the benefit of a simple banana she proves Madonna is not the only bleach-head with a talented throat. This performance was not a play as such, with Ms Hoar often breaking thru the 4th wall and diving into the audience to let them taste her acidic tounge up close. Her attempt to pull two punters on stage for a bit of a chat drew immediate and obvious . comparisons to Julian Garey's Sticky Moments. Sadly, the audience members chosen were too reserved and the scene failed. Bracewell may have perhaps over-reached his considerable talents by attempting to write, direct and perform his own material in his first v show. There is no doubt, however, that now he has proved himself he'll readily find others to share some of those tasks. I look forward to a second

performance.

NICK DANGLE