The Pinheads
15th July 2017
Whammy! Bar, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review and Photography by Sarah Kidd.
Pizza, ten pin bowling and horror films are just three of the ingredients that make up the swampy soup called The Pinheads. After a rough start to their first New Zealand tour thanks to a winter weather bomb which saw their merch remain in Auckland while they were in Wellington, and the cancellation of their scheduled gig in Tauranga, the band finally made it to Auckland’s Whammy Bar. The six piece (sometimes seven – depends on the day) band hail from that Australian place with the funny name, better known as Wollongong, and are rather a close knit group of friends who prefer to travel to gigs collectively in a van rather than fly, so their journey to New Zealand was sure to have been a novel one.
As they stumble onto stage, each member dressed as if for a completely different occasion then the next (although to be fair what occasion doesn’t call for short shorts in gold lame fabric?) the small but solid crowd presses in ready to be doused in accelerant and set alight by these wild merchants of sound. Lead vocalist Jez Player, looking like a reincarnation of Joey Ramone, all denim shirt and long legs; strides onto the stage, every inch emanating the persona of the disaffected rock star. As he paces about, one of the guitars begins to emit a few sounds, then another. Is the band tuning up or is the beginning of the set, each member looking preoccupied with their own personal space.
All of a sudden the entire six piece springs into life and we are roaring through the first track of the night ‘I Wanna Know’, Jez seemingly trying to channel several rock deities at once as he lunges and lurches across the stage, howling into the microphone along the way. Chris Zanko dressed for the winter, a brown ushanka atop his head, controls the back left corner of the stage, moving between playing the tambourine and the Theremin, the latter adding a fascinating layer of spooky 50’s style sound effects to many of the tracks. Not an instrument one sees often on a stage Zanko in a recent interview explained that due to his Russian heritage and the wonders of YouTube he developed an interest in it and has never looked back since. A good thing too, as it makes for a fantastic point of interest watching him play it, his hands moving hypnotically through the air to create the sounds.
Two songs into the set and Jez has now climbed up onto the side of the stage and perched himself inside the small space his feet up against the speaker; tongue lolling from his mouth, as if in silent demand for moisture which is answered swiftly by the band’s manager handing him a beer. This is punk rock and roll at its best. Raw and visceral it disembowels itself before you without caring less about whether you are interested or not.
And that’s the magic.
Their debut self-titled album released just this year was completely self-produced, the band choosing to record the record in a homemade studio filled with equipment that each member had acquired along their journeys. Unlike their 2015 EP which was mixed by The Grates Owen Penglis, the album featured no producer or sound engineer; the result being a concoction of fuzzy garage rock that a few critics have dismissed as too simplistic, missing the point entirely. This is the essence of Rock n Roll, the beauty of it being found when it is in its most basic form. As their set progresses each song more raucous than the last the audience responds, their bodies shaking and jerking in time to the rhythms; as if that essence is now coursing through their veins.
Jez is slowly losing his clothes and possibly his mind as he sacrifices himself to the deities. First the shirt, then the shoes; the microphone coiling around his neck and body as he staggers out into the audience, blind to those around him. He returns to the stage and leaps up onto the side of the speaker stack, clinging precariously as he shrieks the final lines of the song. And then there he sits, as if at high tea, legs swinging making mewling sounds into the microphone. ‘Keep It Dark’ sees drummer James Kates act out the song by pulling the black backdrop curtain over his face, the dark sunglasses he has been wearing the entire set not quite dark enough apparently. Tanya Avanus on bass guitar steadily keeps the pace in each song, purveying the audience with barely a flicker of emotion across her face.
Second to last song ‘Wildfire’ one of their better known tracks here in New Zealand, has the entire audience jiving along to the call to arms and strangely apt song for these current times. Once again we see Jez off on a wander, ending up curled under the bar in a ball before becoming entangled in the arms and legs of Luke Player (Luke Spook) as they wrestle, guitar, microphone and all on the floor circled by enraptured fans. Then just like that without a word the band began to break down their equipment, the crowd quickly attempting a chant of ‘one more song’, Luke Spook replying that they don’t know anymore. An obvious lie; but who are we to argue with these creatures of the dark.
We can only live in hope that they see fit to grace our shores once more in the near future.
Were you there at Whammy! Bar for this intense high-energy spooky surf punk showcase? Or have you seen The Pinheads perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
