Gig Review: Carnivorous Plant Society @ Regent Theatre, Hokitika – 21/07/2026

Touching down at Hokitika’s Regent Theatre as part of their NZ takeover through Arts On Tour, Carnivorous Plant Society delivered a stunning show in the halls of Hoki, drawing a very nice crowd for a Tuesday night. This is show 15 of their 21-date tour.

The band seemed to have dodged all the bad weather as they circumnavigated the South Island and now the West Coast itself has never seen the sun shine so brightly for their arrival. 

You never know who you’re going to get with CPS. An ever-revolving cast of members tapping in and out for different shows with band leader Finn Scholes being the only constant. For this tour we have a three piece who were not the same cast as last week’s show in Oamaru. Southland touring, including a ferry ride to Stewart Island, is for the brave and the bold. Luckily drummer Chris O’Connor (The Phoenix Foundation, Don McGlashan) and Eric Scholes on the hot bass (The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, The DHDFD’s) made the journey down south and upward to Hokitika.

And here we are. The Regent’s stage has never looked this full for a three piece band with more instruments than you can count. The tour van, a complete mystery akin to Mary Poppins handbag. And what an array of surprises we have in store. Every few songs, a new instrument appears out of nowhere. From gongs to pan flutes, no instrument is safe from Finn Scholes if he decides to take a break from doubling down on trumpet in one hand and keys in the other. Off the back of their latest EP they even have the audacity to play a brand new unreleased song just for the tour. 

Finn introduces each song by a short description of what you’re going to experience rather than the song title. Each song is played to a backdrop of his own animations at one frame per second, giving an impression it’s in time with the music, and when it’s not syncing up it feels as weird and other worldly as most of the songs themselves. “I’m going to play some anguished trumpet” Finn remarks with visuals of a man scaling a very tall hill only to fall down and splatter himself on the ground below. 

The Regent’s draw power stretches from Punakaiki to Reefton, and after a 20 minute intermission the crowd from afar are liquored up and ready to make the most of the trip. As the 2nd half begins an underwater soundscape pulls the audience back into the ocean before hitting the funkiest song of the night My Mum Is Proud Of Me, and voilà, a dance floor has emerged. The West Coast hippies are feeling the music in their souls, flowing like silk while parents and kids make use of the theatre’s mezzanine floor for more private dancing. With just three band members, they filled every crack and crevice of the joint.

After an epic 18-track set of apocalypse songs, “here is another apocalypse song, but a different sort of apocalypse song” the band take a strong bow together before jumping the stage for some good old West Coast mingling. Psychedelic jazz fusion doesn’t come to Hokitika often, if ever. A few minds had definitely opened up by the Carnivorous Plant Society tonight.