Great Sounds Great, Wellington NZ, 2023

Great Sounds Great

18th November 2023
Cuba Street Precinct, Wellington, New Zealand.

Review and photography by Tim Gruar.

For the second year running Eyegum Collective brings us the coolest lil’ festival in the Coolest Little Capital. The lineup was a definite and diverse mix of acts from those that fly under the radar to them that win big awards and pack huge houses, spread out over seven stages across six venues. There was something for everyone. So, with notebook in one hand and camera in the other, I ventured out to the Cuba Street precinct to cover as many performances as I could before my shoe rubber ran out.

27 bands is a hefty schedule but what a line up: Alice Agnes, BIRDPARTY, Dale Kerrigan, DARTZ, Deva Mahal, Esbee, Flatmate, Goodshirt, Ha the Unclear, Hearth, Linen, Macho Macho, Milk Tooth, Mousey (solo), Mystori, PollyHill x Samara Alofa, Revulva, Sinjin, Skilaa, Soft Bait, Summer Body, Sure Boy, Tiny Ruins (duo), Vanessa Worm, Vera Ellen, Wiri Donna, and Womb.

Many were new to me. Which was great. This is why I do this, to find new sounds. There’s only so much hype and social media can do. Like buying a good wine or a decent pair of sneakers – you actually need to go out and try them out, in person. Which is why these one-hour sampler sets at nifty festivals like Eyegum’s Great Sounds Great are so cool.

So, who are Eyegum? Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Eyegum Music Collective are passionate about music, in particular live music, creating environments for like-minded souls that to share their art safely, without the usual pressures of corporates and promoters, working with artists to promote shows, supply gear and offer all kinds of other support.

Eyegum was formed in 2015 to fill a hole in the Capital’s local music scene due to the lack of venues and opportunities for young bands to perform live. They work organise concerts and events at both established and non-traditional venues and spaces, involving local, visiting and sometimes international artists. That includes the long-running and free weekly “Eyegum Wednesdays” concert series at San Fran, and the Welcome to Nowhere Festival.

Over the years they have supported many artists, some who have gone on to earn major success and even become household names. That includes The Beths, Glass Vaults, Randa, Anthonie Tonnon, Chelsea Jade, Kane Strang, Hans Pucket, Womb, Mermaidens, Earth Tongue, Vanessa Worm, Marlin’s Dreaming, Ty Segall and many more.

My night kicked off with a 7-piece young hungry jazzy pop outfit called Esbee. Members of this band will return to fill in other roles in Revulva and Sureboy later in the evening. Jazz/Funk is the Rogue & Vagabond’s stock and trade and it wasn’t long before the floor was bopping.

But for me, the first highlight was an all-girl group that’ve I’ve been itching to see for a while. Locals Sure Boy (Beth Stewart, Simone McCarthy, Freyja Appleyard and Lily Fulton) play bitter-sweet, super cool indie jingle-pop. Touted, quite rightly, as “Wellington’s baddest girl band’. Actually, two of the members were out of town. One was at Paramore. So, a couple of rope-ins were called up. From my perspective I couldn’t tell the difference. It was all good up the front.

Stylistically, they remind me of the Beths when they first started out. I won’t lie. I’ve been getting down to ‘What You Do When You’re Alright, ‘Gun’, ‘Loose Change’, ‘Her’ and ‘Lemon Lady’ ever since I found them on Insta. It was great to finally hear them live. Their style is still a bit raw, as a confident student bar band. Even so, I really enjoy their jangling tunes and onstage swagger. ‘Their lead singer has a real charming stage presence, with a character face, doe-eyes and great expressions as she delivers each line. Reminded me of Kirsten Morrell, a bit. Loved their short but perfectly delivered set. I think they’ll go places. Watch this space.

Feeling the need for a bit of garage rock I dropped in at Valhalla to see Linen (a trio who go by Emerald, Kate and Tom – no surnames, that’s uncool, people). New to my ears, but somehow familiar, their stuff was an amalgam of 90’s alternative, late 80’s flannel grunge and 70’s punk. Pretty much everything is meat and potatoes thrash and shoe gaze – angular and straight forward. A much-needed cathartic energy burst. Valhalla is a tiny club at the best of times and we were all packed in this sweatbox, moving slowly as one throbbing, swirling beast.

Holly Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins) was the first big headliner to take the stage tonight, performing on the Meow stage. Having recently returned from touring Europe, she performed a ‘duo’ set with longtime road-partner in crime Cass Basil mining tracks from all her albums, covering lustrous dream pop, irreverent psychedelic noise, enchanting folk and achingly beautiful balladry.

I didn’t catch her whole set but loved what I did hear from the new album ‘’Ceremony’ especially ‘Diving & Dreaming’, ‘Dogs Dreaming ‘and Ín Light Of Everything’. All beautiful, delicate songs.

In complete contrast was Milk Tooth, a five-person ‘union’ of wāhine and non-binary individuals that burst out of Massey Uni three years ago and have been going strong ever since. Their material explores what it’s like to navigate the male dominated music universe as female/non-binary people. They mix traditional song writing and live art noise with electronica and digital mediums live video. A good example was their new single ‘Voyager’, which got it’s airing tonight amongst other gems.

Briefly I caught a couple of songs from the duo Summer Body, Lily West’s (Mermaidens) new project. Music was minimalist, droning and earthy. Almost avant-garde or cinematic (if you like art films). Definitely, an acquired taste.

Last year I reviewed music from Ōtautahi/Christchurch-based artist Mousey (aka Sarena Close, but not the Goodshirt song), who put out a delightful folk-tinged indie albums – ‘Lemon Law’ and ‘My Friends’. The singles ’My Hands Are Made of Glass’ and ‘The Bench’ were hugely popular on college radio. I heard a stripped-down version of ‘Lemon Law’ and some new material, influenced by the singer’s estrangement with her whanau. ‘The Dreams of Your Mother’s Mother’, the title track of her new album (a work in progress, due out next year, maybe) is a sad, but poignant affair, about standing your ground, even when the pull to tow the line in your family is so strong.

On record Mousey’s ethereal vocals are layered up. But live her voice is more pure, innocent even. Slightly shy but still as eerie and haunting as on tape. She plays mainly guitar tonight (missing her piano for a new track, which she has to abandon) and a gently tapped glockenspiel.

Ha the Unclear (an anagram for Nuclear Heath) from the ‘gothic harbour’ of Ōtepoti makes off-kilter alt-pop with sprinklings of vintage and weird tangent and angles.

It was great to see them back in the Capital playing a range of unique jerky, indie songs from their back catalogue – ‘Strangers’ and ‘Growing Mould’. We also were treated to new material from their most recent album ‘The Cul-de-Sac King’.

Michael Cathro, the band’s lead was hilarious jumping around like a ‘Stop Making Sense’ David Byrne figure. The whole band was clearly enjoying themselves and that joy spread across the stage to the audience who were jumping around, too.

Valhalla was the perfect hole in the wall venue for the Student Union Bar hoonerisms of Dartz, also known as the ‘Band From Wellington’. Ranging from moshpit pogo punk like ‘DMC’, ‘1 Outs Captain Cook’ and ‘Steal from The Supermarket’ to the bloke culture piss take humour of ‘Earn The Thirst’ (the alternative to Th’ Dudes’ ‘Bliss’) they are crowd pleasers. The bar was beyond jam packed with sweaty bodies in a whirlpool mass of ecstatic chaos. This is a band that doesn’t take it’s self too seriously, enjoying the opportunity to play caricatures of rock gods. It was a joke we all got!

Deva Mahal’s sister and some-time band mate Zoe Moon stepped up last night after the withdrawal of Pōneke’s sibling three-piece Womb. Performing with Deva’s band, and less that 24 hours prep, she carried off the pretty good set of modern Soul numbers with the strong social message and themes of anti-violence and anti-slavery.

I snuck in to catch songs by Skilaa, who I’ve seen before. They are a great pub act, blending neo-soul and Balkan pop, R’n’B and even Hip-Hop. Definitely worth staying for a much-needed beer and a boogie at this point in the evening.

I’d never of heard of Revulva when I breezed into Hotel Bristol to feed on a feast of fusion – soul, pop and jazz from this super groovy 8 Piece.

They played a selection from their recent EP. ‘Girls Gotta Eat’, which is a fresh and at times frivolous take on woman navigating life and the music industry. That included the exasperating ‘One Puff Wonder’, with it’s zippy, jazzy keys, breathy vocals and sharp brass stabs.

Others on the set list included the almost comical, yet infectiously funky ‘Stop Pulling On My (Hair)’ and a weird song about a woman with hay-fever called ‘Sniffly Lady’. Best lines of the song: “She’s a sniffly lady, antihistamine popping baby” and “Is that a pocket full of tissues or are you just happy to see me?” Now that’s something you don’t hear every day!

I nipped back to Meow to see the second half of Deva Mahal’s incredible soul set. She is a top performer. I saw her at WOMAD and had the pleasure of talking to her just prior. Going from strength to strength she delivered a full-on show of songs from her latest e.p. ‘Future Classics Vol.1’ including the stomper ‘Will Anything Change’, the 60’s Motown feel of ‘Run Me Through’ and her best goosebump moment ‘Travel with me’.

During the night, I also caught Vera Ellen, fresh back from gigs in Aussie, including SXSW in Sydney. She played a few new numbers and a few oldies, too, from the ‘Ideal Home Noise’ album and ‘the Ít’s Your Birthday’ e.p. Pretty sure I heard ‘Lenny Says’ and ‘Fake Milk’ in there. Wearing a ‘Free Palestine T-Shirt I know she encouraged everyone to join the ant-war protest the next day. I think it’s great that musicians are taking a stand again. For a while it’s been a bit quiet on that front. “No matter what side you are on, this madness in Gaza has to stop. Genocide is not ok!“, she screamed.

Naturally, I had to finish the night with everyone’s favourite party band and Noughties chart toppers, Goodshirt, who have returned from oblivion to wow us once again. The band came on to Dolly’s Jolene – an in joke? The guys, Rodney Fisher (guitar and vocals), Murray Fisher (guitar); Gareth Thomas (keyboards/bass and vocals) and Mike Beehre (drums) have aged a bit, obviously. But still have that magic, blasting out all those fab earworms, ‘Sophie’, ‘Fiji Baby’, ‘Blowing Dirt’ and ‘Buck It Up’. They’ve been on extended hiatus with many of the band members overseas or involved in other projects, rare performing together as a whole unit. So, that made this gathering even more special.

There were grins all around. A bit of random banter and chat and Fisher dedicated an old song, ‘Merrilands’ to his Standard three teacher. You never know where inspiration comes from.

They also buzzed out ‘Lucy’, ‘Not That Far’, ‘Mousey’ and ‘Just Like Heaven’ and, of course, ‘Green’. Somehow, 50 minutes whizzed by. Yet it seemed a bit of a struggle for a band that’s been away for so long to muster enough material. As they had to replay ‘Blowing Dirt’ in their encore. “But think of it like this”, claimed Fisher, “we’re playing it for all the people that came late and missed the opening song.” And again, we jumped around like crazy loons.

For me, Goodshirt was my final band. The late-night angels were keen to return back to Meow for digital act Alice Agnes for the afterparty. But for me running between six venues is a crazy thing. But well worth it. I only wish there’d been a few more people. It was clear that the night was well supported but there was room in most venues for another 30%. It seems a little bit less patronised than last year. But that could have something to do with having extra venues.

And as venues went, most worked pretty well. Although the Hotel Bristol had to manage its regulars with the festival events and didn’t really kick off until later. Consequently, it was a bit quiet, not really a festival environment for most of the night.

Still, congrats to Eyegum for achieving this event, especially in these hard times and for nurturing young and upcoming talent. This is such a great showcase. I’ve no doubt that I’ll be seeing many of these performers again and I’m looking forward to seeing what they will do next!

Were you there in Wellington for this great gig? Or have you seen any of the acts perform live some other time? Tell us about it in the comments below!

_{Note: Ambient Light was provided a pass to review and photograph this concert. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only. This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase a product using an affiliate link, Ambient Light will automatically receive a small commission at no cost to you.}

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