Love Makes the World Go Wrong

Yes, Je Suis Animal are playing in Auckland! Thanks to being signed by Lost & Lonesome they are now coming to Australia and New Zealand. On Friday 26th they are playing Cassette #9 and I will be playing records before they come on (Guy Blackman takes over after the gig, so people can actually dance).

The DDOMD night went great and there are a bunch of photos over here. I went along for the exiciting (but tiring) Treasure Hunt the next day as a photographer, so those pics will be there soon as well. It was basically a busking tour of Auckland in one day, with Andrew of Cheese On Toast driving us between the 20-or-so stops! 3 News and Radio New Zealand tagged along for a bit, and apparently I ended up in the background of some shots on the 6 o'clock news. Lucky I didn't see it, or I would've been shocked indeed. (Just found it here - not sure if it's the full story.)

The gig she did on Friday, at Matthew Crawley's MUM club night was ace as well, but she had to follow a murderously bad support act. Unfortunately I missed the other support act, called The Hairdos, but I had a good excuse. Namely watching The Chills! They did their first gig in Auckland for many years - in celebration of the 25 years that have now passed since the release of "Pink Frost", which they played of course. As well as "Heavenly Pop Hit", "I Love My Leather Jacket", "House With a Hundred Rooms", "Rolling Moon" and many other classics. In fact, the whole setlist is here, pn their amazing new website which was launched just recently, as we all learnt on Friday. Phillips also insisted on announcing that Chris Know had suffered a stroke and was in a poor state.

I forgot to bring my camera but the Montecristo Room turned out to be very photo-unfriendly. The crowd was predominantly male (and tall) and the room became so full of steam they didn't even need a smoke machine. So no photos of the topless bass player... I've been trying to find some pics or videos online, but no luck so far. Maybe the people who managed to capture the event are too old for Flickr and YouTube. It was a very good gig I thought, well rehearsed, with decent sound, and as inspired as in the 80s (I guess). We missed the support band (didn't know there was one!) but it didn't really matter since it was only Paper Planes, and not The David Bains (which I misheard Phillips saying).