Fanclub + The Boondocks & Cliffs

Fan Club celebrated the release of their debut EP Towards The Sun with a show early Sunday at the Big Fan with their boyfriend The Boondocks And cliffs.

The EP had only been released two days before and these young people (aged between 16 and 19) were already looking forward to performing in front of their fans… and the fans were there!

Cliffs

The party kicked off with Cliffs, a 5-piece “indie surf/rock/reggae” band from Auckland. I’m always a bit skeptical about New Zealand reggae bands, but these guys had a groove that felt right for the evening.

The singing is done by Millie Easton and guitarist Zavier, while the rest of the line-up consists of Taque (guitar), Arden (bass) and TJ (drums).

The band played 6 songs in about 25 minutes and played the soon to be released single Have had enough of it and an impressive revision of The police Message in a bottle. One guitarist got a cramp in his hand, but the condition passed and everything turned out well.

The Boondocks

The Boondocks are a completely different story, the duo of Scott Parker (bass) and Brandon Pritchard (drums) make a big, big sound. Parker manages to make his bass sound like a guitar… and more… and they caught everyone’s attention by bringing out the riff to Michael Jackson’s Get lost before they find their own melody, Nice guy, one of two songs from their EP of the same name, released last February.

Your cover on Nirvana’s Breed was something to behold…intense, intimidating and loud. Kurt would have been proud.

The crowd was with them the whole time, even clapping along to a drum solo when Scott jumped off the stage to get some water at the bar.

And they also have a new single ready for release … look for Sticks and stones this Friday.

Fan Club

Fan Club came prepared.

The quartet appeared while a dramatic fanfare played over the PA system. The audience was excited, but unfortunately Emma Wagner’s Microphone wasn’t there. So the big moment was a disappointment due to technical problems. Big Fan’s sound engineer ran to the stage, then back to his desk, pressed buttons like crazy and finally we got some singing.

At this time beach weather, The last single and the EP opener were over, but this young band must be credited with overcoming the problem like professionals and persevering.

Until the end Towards the Westthe sound was clear and when Emma introduced the new song, Stay if I want to stayshe and her bandmates clearly had things well under control.

The quartet sounded strong throughout the rest of the set and I was impressed by the lyrical and musical depth the band goes into. Songs like Sedate And Rough venture into serious lyrical territory and musically this band already seems to be taking risks.

Sure, they could produce crowd-pleasing hits like their “hit”. No caller ID, but I get the feeling they’re interested in doing more than that. Fortunately, their fanbase seems to see it that way too.

Besides Emma, ​​the band consists of Caleb Young – Lead guitar, Thomas Christie – Drums and Tilly Wells – Bass. Emma plays rhythm guitar and does all the vocals.

Emma got the chance to show her love Radiohead by covering High and dry but for me the highlight of the set was a song called Push pull with great dynamics and a rousing vocal performance by Emma.

I wonder if some additional background vocals might be helpful at some point, and if Emma’s between-song banter could be expanded to just “the next song is…”

I have to say she did a great job of getting the audience involved. No caller IDencouraged everyone to jump around with her and eventually everyone was kneeling on the floor.

I also enjoyed Tom and Tilly’s jazz intermezzo while Caleb set the music before we ended the evening with ‘Paramore’S Everything I wanted.

Overall, it was nice to see and hear three such different acts supporting each other and being supported by a nice, young audience.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Azrie:

Fan club:

The Boondocks:

Cliffs:

Fanclub setlist:

1. Beach weather
2. Towards the West
3. Stay if I want to stay
4. Was it us?
5. Sedate
6. Rough
7. High And Dry (Radiohead cover)
8. Never
9. Push pull
10. DYK
11. No caller ID
12. All I Wanted (Paramore cover)

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