Dunedin’s Jetty play Auckland for the first time
Jetty (Powertool Records) play Auckland for the first time ever since their formation in 1996. These lo-fi UFO punksters specialise in mashing up your favourite iconic songs (some would call it ripping off or plagiarising) and re-moulding them into a jukebox of awesomeness sponsored by Flying Nun, Thrill Jockey and Matador. Fresh from a double-header in broken New Brighton, they’ll tickle your spine with shards of sonic basalt and even the odd one that finishes where it’s meant to.
They’ve been around in an on-and-off (mainly off) existence since they released their cult album Soundtrack For Modern Heartbreak on Powertool Records in ’96. Alternative radio fans from back in the day will have heard their song White Boys on Punk blaring across the nation’s airwaves.
For a second opinion, Ian Henderson (Fishrider Records) reviewed the album in the Otago Daily Times in 1998 and said this, “Not since the Double Happys has New Zealand rock had such an animated bundle of squawking energy as Jetty frontman Robin Sharma. Doesn’t matter what planet he’s in a shaky orbit around, the boy’s got attitude… Jetty and Sharma are equally at home poking fun at pop fashion in Sonick Youth, dropping references to Pavementin the gnarly White Boys On Punk and mixing health, history and haka on ‘Purakanui’. But wait, there’s more. It makes Jetty sense to end your debut album with a sublime five-minute classic called Leadsong… there’s a ragged glory in these Te Wai Pounamu punk-folk classics” (5 stars).
They’re also bringing Polypto the Thirsty Dog – a seminal Dunedin band which half-filled the Empire during a gig in August, 1991. They make a comeback of sorts here with two or three songs that will have you thinking about that cigarette you so desire after giving up 8 years ago.
Fats Thompson also comes to Auckland fresh from his 15 month non-stop tour of the Arnhem Land Delta. His technically efficient, often brutal blend of Coltrane and Club Rugby will come at you like a “stumbling, overweight Brad Shields and hit you with the force of a goose down feather.”
And we come to THE VAMPIRES…In 1994 Glen Ross and Edward Gains played their first ever live show together as The Ed Gein Experience supporting hometown heroes Jetty at the Empire Tavern in Dunedin. At the end of their show, drunk and messed up beyond belief, and like a pack of total dicks, they left their gear lying all over the stage for Jetty to pick up. Since then Gains & Ross have transformed into THE VAMPIRES, playing one gig every decade since then. Described by one punter as ‘an energetic Dead C’,THE VAMPIRES will be joined by Stefan Neville wielding his otherworldly drum skills, plus other special guests, to make a racket to shake the bowels of hell itself, hopefully picking up after themselves this time.
