Gig Review: Earth Tongue w/ Hans Pucket @ Lōemis Festival, Wellington – 13/06/2025

Friday the 13th is the night all the horrors emerge out of the shadows. All the devils and ghouls come out of the mists and the undead roam the streets in the early hours hungry for fresh blood. Aliens hover the skies looking for victims to probe. Nuclear dinosaurs stalk the hills in search of rivals and dragons seethe spit and venomous gases under the sewers. The perfect night for another great gig in the Lōemis Festival series. This time it was the return of former local heroes, Earth Tongue, who specialize in rock inspired by B-Movies, splatter films and clunky sic-fi.

“We may live overseas now,” shouted Esra Simons, “But we’ll always be a Wellington Band!!!!”

That drew a huge cheer from the room, many of which were well known in the music industry in the Capital. I clocked the crew from Flying Nun, including Roger Shepherd, himself. And Vera Ellen, with bandmates. I also ran into Abe Hollingsworth, one third of Gussie Larkin’s other band, rocking an amazing crimson jumpsuit.

I also ran into Meow Nui’s owner co-owner Rahine O’Reilly, who showed me her amazing collection of retro rock mags in a display cabinet just inside the entrance to the venue. Plenty of nostalgia in this venue now, especially upstairs with a bar built entirely of old radios. Every time I come here I love it more, it feels like home.

Fittingly , the incidental music featured plenty of old Rock ‘n’ Roll trash and monster mash, to help build the mood. Lighting remained graveyard gloomy – goop green, chilling blues and a horrific blood red. All adding to the fun.

Tonight’s proceedings kicked off with longtime mates, Hans Pucket, with their quirky, 60’s-tinged, often upbeat songs about depressing subjects. On the menu was The Spiral, Mentor and one of my favourites from their repertoire, You Must Chill.

There was a new one in there, too. Jokes about bad driving were the introduction to a Lenin-esque popster called Eyes On The Road, which I loved. Bankrupt and Honey were nifty, as was the awkward Eczema.

Now a trademark for the boys F*ck My Life demanded a sing-along as did the earworm Straight To My Heart.

Usually a four-piece, tonight we got the twins Callum and Oliver Devlin, guitars, and Callum Passells on drums. Johnathan Nott couldn’t make it. But he dialed in, leaving a special message, to count in one the songs in their set. Just one of the antics. The twins loved prancing about the stage and give a great performance in feel good vibes. It was great to see them back on stage again.

Appropriately Gussie Larkin and Esra Simon started off with Reaper Returns from the new disc Great Haunting. What an onslaught of energy. Larkin was shredding like a demon and Simon pounding his kit as if the world would stop rotating without his forces continuing. They ripped through a stunning set of material from the latest that included Out of This Hell, Nightmare, Sit Next To Satan, and Bodies Dissolve Tonight! Larkin uses here 12 string and double amps it for the bass and the top creates an overwhelming was of pop-grunge fitting to move even the coldest of ghouls. The mosh pit was enjoying some swell, as they moved about like a huge human carpet in the wind. Yet despite the cathartic energies, the vibes in the room were only love. The security guards were doing their best to stay alert, despite the night being pretty much incident free.

“Here’s one for the OG’s”, Esra shouted as they ploughed into the back catalogue, featuring Portable Shrine and Astonishing Comet. A second barrage came with Symmetry Dripper, the evilness of Harvester, and the sci-fi-horror Microscopic God.

Towards the end of the set, one of the Devlin Brothers saunters on, red wine glass in hand, and leans over Gussie’s mic to give us a long growl! Then jumps into the audience and surfs about for a few seconds before being carefully returned, whereby he picks up his glass and slinks off. Did that just happen?

Of course it did. It’s Friday the 13th after all.

It’s brilliant that Earth Tongue are back in town. The last time I saw them was three years ago at Valhalla. They’ve outgrown that little venue now, for sure. Now based in Belin, we may not see them as often as we’d like but I hope they’ll be back again soon. In the meantime, Aotearoa, rush out like a demon possessed to see them while you can as they hit venues at in Tāmaki Makaurau and Ōtautahi this winter. Just remember your laser rifle, crucifix, garlic and dinosaur traps.

Photo Credit: Tim Gruar for Muzic.NZ
Hans Pucket Photo Gallery
Earth Tongue Photo Gallery