beyond party central: auckland 2011

Above: Party Central.
Below: Wynyard Quarter/Silo Park, now home to the Michio Ihara sculpture 'Wind Tree'.

five nickels in my pocket: dean wareham & britta phillips 2011

Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips playing the music of Galaxie 500 at the Kings Arms, Auckland, on Thursday 20 October 2011. I wasn't familiar with many of the songs but enjoyed the performance. They were later joined by Justin Harwood for an encore of a Luna song, and finished with a couple of songs that were very familiar to me - a plangent version of New Order's 'Ceremony', and 'I'll Keep It With Mine' from the 'Thirteen Most Beautiful' soundtrack. Britta Phillips has a beautiful voice, I wonder why they chose to use the auto-tune on the recorded version?




The reformed Stereobus played a brief set before the main act, kicking off with their recent single 'Leather Boots'. It was great to hear 'Be A Girl', 'Don't Open Your Eyes' and 'Birthday'. There was also an unexpected blast through David Yetton's earlier past with a welcome cover of the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience's 'Flex'.