Bassed in NZ - 3x 80's Gigs

Hey TB - hope this finds you safe and well! Had a great gig last night and thought I share that and a couple of gigs that I haven't reported on from before Christmas - all with my 80's band Frisky Business.

GIG #1 - 9 Jan 2021
Beautiful day for a gig commute - venue was about an hour north of home, so snapped a few scenic shots on the way...



We've played here a couple of times before, but this gig IIRC was originally scheduled in April when we went into our first lockdown, rescheduled to October when we had our second lockdown, and finally got to play it yesterday. Venue is a converted sawmill - kinda cool

There's a bit of memorabilia inside

And even an old instrument or two (didn't get a chance to fire it up and see if it worked!

Early load in so we're sound-checked before they start serving dinner - here's a shot of the eating area, and us starting the setup dance



Bonus is they have their own decent sound system, so I don't have to lug speakers. I do run our desk from stage as we're all IEM - so just a LR feed to their desk.
Looked pretty good all set up


Quick partial gear shot


Bonus with this venue is they feed the band - pizza, and some sides (which came after I took the photo).


We also get a bar tab and use of the onsite accomodation, so we grabbed a beer after dinner, and whiled away the 3 hours we had to wait until downbeat!

It was worth the wait though - the crowd were in fine form, and up dancing from the first song




Cont'd in next post....

 

Wouldn't be a Frisky Business gig without some good costumes - here's a sample of how people dressed up





And they were still dancing at the end of the night

Venue owner and bar staff were happy and are already talking about us coming back again

A long day - a good 12 hours door to door, but a chilled setup, good people to play with, fun crowd, and great night!

Stay tuned for a couple of other gigs in subsequent posts!

 

GIG #2 - 19 Dec 2020
This was our last gig for the 2020 - also rescheduled from July I think. Road trip to New Plymouth to play at a club there - approx 370km (230miles) from home.
We took two cars - I travelled with Huz and Kim bright eyed and bushy tailed before we started at 9am....


Our trip was about 5 hours through mostly rural and coastal NZ - managed to snap a few photos for you on the way...








Here's our halfway stop where we met up with Christian and John for a bit of lunch at the Fat Kiwi Cafe - Eggs Benedict anyone?


Our venue is a quite a big club - not much to look at on this side, but the views from the inside were stunning




Load in (and out!) was a bit of a shocker - up a ramp, goods lift through the kitchen area and into the function room - decent size room though....


And we're setup and ready to go. Dinner was a quick burger but didn't get time to snap shots - a bit pressed for time.
Venue hadn't done a lot of promotion and there was a free outdoor concert on the same night, so not a very large crowd - but we were on a fixed fee so no problem for us.

 

We had arranged for a photographer (from the local photography club!) to pop along and take some shots of us, so you now get to see some gratuitous band shots....






Even one of the bass player (about to fall over...?)

Always cool when someone wants to get up on stage and jam with the band


Small-ish but appreciative crowd


We stayed overnight in a motel that's not quite the quality that we see from @BassCliff - and hit the road back the next morning. A couple more shots of rural NZ


Bit of a swap meet with some classic cars

Home again, I noticed that there was a line of white against Rangitoto Island - if you look closely you'll see it's all the spectator boats lining the course for the Americas Cup race

Long couple of days, but good fun - not sure I'd do it again just before Christmas, but you've got to experience these things!

Thanks for stopping by - stay tuned for gig #3

 

Cheers Cliff - I think I like my gig and the rewards a little better than yours today (normally I'm a little jealous of your gigs...) Trust the recovery is ok!

Cheers Bill - pleasure to share a little bit of fun...

 

Thanks Chris! As promised, here's

GIG #3 - 21 Nov 2020
Another good day to head north out of the city - venue is approx 90km away, so 1:15 drive time.
A bit of leafy suburbia on the way to the motorway

Then onto the run north, including my favourite bridge


Close to the venue and we're back at sea level


We've played here once before and were supposed to be back earlier in the year but covid restrictions meant we had to reschedule a couple of times... The building dates from 1890, and the venue is well known for live music

Plenty of room to park around the back (and the view's not bad either)

We get to play in the outdoor tent - tickets sold out so should be a good night off ~250 people

Stage is in place - takes us a little while to set up, but ends up looking good



We get fed which is always welcome - tonight was a pasta dish.

Green room was top floor of the hotel, so pretty nice for chilling out waiting for downbeat

Gig went really well - people there to party from the get to - here's a few photos (and video stills)






A great night - really fun gig. All that was left was to drive the car in and load up and head home


That's it for these 3 gigs - thanks for coming along for the ride, and hope this provides a little bit of joy and light in what's still a pretty unsettled time for many. Kia kaha (stay strong).

Matt

 

Cheers Robert!

You're welcome mate - your posts have brought me joy over the years, so glad I can give back a little!

Yeah Nick, won't be in a hurry to do the drive again - but every now and then not too bad...

 

Chris - 20 deg F doesn't comput for me mate - we'd be lucky here to hit a low of 40 F during the middle of winter. Guess you guys are "used" to it, and at least set up to cope with it stay warm man!

Yeah, i'm really mindful that my experience at the moment is very different from many parts of the world - hang in there, the seasons will change....

You're welcome Zach!