Gig Review: Porirua Rocks @ Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua – 03/05/2025

Te Rauparaha Arena is looking good, the huge stage is at the back arena, there is a wrestling ring near the centre, and beer vendors all around the edges. The first wrestling match goes off, the MC has announced the first band Claemus and the small crowd are gravitating to the stage.

Claemus (pictured above) came out and I have to give a special mention to guitarist Dan Hayston’s purple tracksuit because it is epic!

Starting off with melodic rock track Purge, there are some great drums and the vibes are being set. Brand new track Fear has a heavier start and some sweet guitar riffs and Nemesis is a funky song with some heavy bass drum. Taylor Hemson’s vocals truly shine in Conduit which features an epic heavy instrumental that has me hooked. Claemus finished with Shallow and I would have started with this banger as it showcased all the instruments, hyped people up and then bam, the set was over.

Sidewinder wins best band intro of the day as the stage goes dark and ambient music starts playing. Visuals appear on the big screen above the stage, eventually becoming a video of the band, and the band starts to play on stage.

Immediately it is clear that Jem’s voice is made for an arena as she busts out some long ass amazing notes on Yggdrasil. The power vocals continue in Desert Song and the power of Jem continues as I am in awe of these amazing vocals and not focusing on the instruments at all. This is rectified in Prisoner which features some hard hitting drums and epic guitar riffs and has the crowd rocking out.

Less powerhouse and more soulful vocals are in Wasted Space which mainly consists of an instrumental showcasing the bands talents. Sidewinder are a force to be reckoned with and I was not ready for the chills and awe I would feel as I witnessed their set and especially Jem’s voice.

Bad Schematics were displaying a new lineup for this show with three new guitarists who have only been in the band for 5 weeks and are debuting at this show, which seemed like a risky move! But there was nothing to worry about as bassist Daniel Ashcroft, lead guitarist John McKenna, and rhythm guitarist Kayne Bohanna held their own onstage and performed wonderfully.

I was listening to the first song Do they know? From upstairs in the band/wrestlers/media area and the sound up there made the guitars in this song sound shrill and the vocals sound strained, but having seen Bad Schematics before I knew this wasn’t normal so headed on down to the dance pit for better sound.

Sure enough the second song Waw2wmt sounded far better from up front and Caleb Hickmott’s signature emo voice was shining.

Fan fave (and a song that never leaves your head) Happy Apathy had good audience interaction with everyone up front screaming the lyrics that we had been asked to scream by Caleb. DJB has some great drumming moments in We Should Be Better Strangers.

Caleb doesn’t need to direct the crowd in All To Blame as the people up front are already singing “all to blame, all the same” before he asks us to. This is always a favourite to sing along to. Pilots or Passengers has some great lyrics and I especially like “we’ve got one shot to make something of ourselves; are we pilots or passengers”. There is a good clap along moment which is always a hit in any audience and some great guitars. Caleb jumps up on the drum riser and hits some cymbals near the end as well.

Final song time and Caleb announces it’s our last chance to dance so to jump! Cry Yourself Awake is high energy and fun, and at one point someone is taking pics of a little toy in front of the stage so Caleb grabs it and sits it in front of the drums. Great finish to an awesome set.

I was not ready for the heaviness of East York and how much different they were to the other bands, but I dig it. They got straight into it with Outsiders which has a lot of Screamo.

Singer/screamer Tarquin Keys lets us know that they are East York and they are “Heavy metal, but I didn’t say how heavy” before getting into King of Persuasion which has some screaming backup vocals from a guitarist. It is a good combo of singing and screaming and has a good beat.

Time for latest single Medicine which has hard drums and a catchy chorus. The audience is encouraged to sing along at parts. While Damned Anthem has mean guitar riffs and a hearty instrumental 

Two yet to be released songs in a row and the audience are loving them. The guys are making the most of the stage by moving around a lot, and they are great at interacting with the audience. To Kill The Sun is their last song and features a special guest Jeff Kildare on extra vocals. I thought I had heard some epic screaming in this set but holy macaroni this one had some insane screaming and was a good end to their act.

Special mention moment here for Curlys Jewels guitarist Aaron Ludlow who got the opportunity to play live guitar for the Champion Dan Martin’s entrance to his wrestling match and smashed it! Such a cool thing to do and the Curlys fans went crazy.

Volts remind me of classic old school rock and I love it. Starting with When You Go which is a fun song with some nice guitar riffs. There is great energy between the guitarists as they play This All Ends Tonight which also has great vocals.

Make Up Ur Mind is a bit more hard rock with some intense drums. Lorna Coll gives us some power vocals in This Time which had a heavy start. I love female versions of classic songs and Lorna did not disappoint with Volt’s rendition of AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds, which had everyone singing along.

A more poppy tone for them now as they played Bleeding Hearts which was a fun tune. This was followed by another cover as they played Call Me and Lorna dons a wrestling mask. Volts brought a fun atmosphere and commanded the stage.

Last band of the night is the mighty Coridian and they started with their beautiful intro Algorithm before playing State of mind to get the crowd going, and of course there were plenty of the signature Dity Maharaj jumps anyone who has seen Coridian live know well.

Endless war had us putting our hands in the air as Dity’s powerful vocals declare a more relevant than I’d like “You live for what’s wrong when you’d rather be at war”.

There were some great guitar riffs in Good For Nothing with Mike and Nick Raven shining on guitars. I could go on about Dity’s voice for hours, but Coexist was where it shined the most, truly phenomenal.

Dity asks the crowd to do hand sways during Seed II and declares it looks like he is ‘doing aerobics’ which gets a laugh. Meraki is a bit of a heavier song and Kris Raven plays some damn good drums in it.

Crowd favourite Blind Faith is up next and Dity gets a guy who’s up front in a Blind Faith t-shirt up on stage as it is an OG Cordian shirt and then dedicates the song to him. As I mentioned, this is a crowd fav and we all go crazy for it, singing and dancing/rocking out to it.

Much to everyone’s dismay Dity announces that Seed is the last Coridian song, but it does not disappoint with the crowd going wild and the night ending on a high note (literally). Coridian are made for a big stage and to play arenas and this performance highlighted that as it was just epic in all ways.

Porirua Rocks was such a good time, between the bands were wrestling matches, there was a variety of beer and food vendors, even a gin one too, and the vibes were just a good fun time. I highly recommend attending next year for an afternoon and evening of epic music and entertainment.

 

Photo Credit: Tim Gruar
Porirua Rocks Photo Gallery