0. The Renderers at the Dux De Lux, September 9th 2000


Being immersed in walls of feedback and realizing for the first time that some country music isn’t all that bad.


9. Surfing USSR playing the Green Room, Mid-2000


Well I’m one of only a handful of people who can say experienced this – in fact one of nine if I remember correctly (and that includes the 3-person band and 2 person staff). The first time I had ever seen anything like that before (they play klezmer surf-guitar mixed with Sonic Youth-styled freak-outs) and I’ve been their biggest fan ever since.


8. The Clean playing at the Provincial Lounge, Mid-1997


THE comeback tour that established that they were indeed back. Scorching, eardrum-rattling performance to 250 people in a bar that only holds 150. I was trapped against Rob Scott’s keyboard with Chris Knox standing to my left, stopping the crowd from knocking it over.


7. The Datsuns playing the Jetset Lounge, Mid 2000


You're probably, by now, familiar with what the Datsuns bring to the world of rock’n’roll. If you’ve had the good luck of catching them live at any of their numerous tours (they’ve been touring continuously for 2 years now) you’ll know that if there is any new band that can revitalize rock – it’s these boys. Well, this gig back in 2000 was something special, they were still relatively young and wet behind the ears and blew away the packed crowd, placing their mics down in the crowd so that we could rock out around them, and man did it work - singing along to their hit "Super-Gyration" across the PA.


6. Hearing The Chills "Pink Frost" for the first time


Nuff said.


5. Getting up on stage at Chris Knox gigs


When Chris is in the right mood, he can throw one hell of a great party, and singing "Baby Baby Baby" on stage for him while another guy played guitar and Chris got changed at the back of the stage has to be one of my favorite memories.


4. The Black Panthers playing at Venus Café, Early-1997


Matt Alien, the lead singer of this amazing rock’n’roll band, driven by the very spirit of rock itself, head-butts a gigantic member of the burgeoning crowd in front of him, immediately drawing the entire gig into a brawl. The band come out clean, though bass-player Vaughen finds a pair of vegemite encrusted underpants hanging from the end of his bass.


3. The Puffins playing at the Dux De Lux, 28th February 1998


The Puffins were a bunch of namby-pamby, make-up wearing poofters* caught somewhere between early-era Split Enz and a mental breakdown, and that hot night at the Dux was filled with more rugby-head blokes* than you could shake a stick at. BUT the Puffins went on to perform perhaps the greatest gig in the history of my life, converting the largely resistant crowd and playing a stunning 2-½ hour set that redefined the ‘Dux gig’. Sadly this was one of the Puffins fleeting moments, but by god did I love it when those boys hit the stage.


* Poofter: a man who acts like a real girl, likes drinking cocktails and other non-beer type drinks.
* Bloke: the opposite of a poofter


2. Big Thom – "The Dick Incident", October 9th 1999


As part of a local bar competition, local loon and Mysterioball Sax player Big Thom throws the biggest party of the year. The premise of the party revolves around Thom getting very drunk then repeating his rather revolting party trick for the cameras, and eternal prosperity. Basically what happened is that Thom pulled out his sizeable penis and a rather large (10-15 pound) hunk of wood in the shape of a cross and proceeded to bring the two together using 17 industrial staples, said cross was then dangled between his legs and set on fire. Let's just say he forgot how to play most of the songs that night.


1. Superette/3Ds playing at the 1995 charge concert


This was the gig that turned me into a New Zealand music obsessive, and the only moment I ever got to witness two of my all time favorite bands live. My wet (16 at the time) ears were blown away by the share power these guys possessed, an absolute live changing experience.