What we do in April

April is upon us, and we're doing a couple  of special shows as we continue to take the *ahem* award-winning show 'The Explorers Club: Antarctica' around the country.  The good folk at the Tauranga Art Gallery rang up six weeks or so ago, as we were tearing down the West Coast on the way to a party in Okarito where at least two people would turn out to be dressed up as ships, dogs would be dressed as other, more famous, dogs, there would be more than one Amelia Earhart and a resplendent Julius Von Haast, as well as open fires and the many many half-wild children that haunt the fringes of any gathering down there in Westland, running about underfoot in a baying, slavering pack and by god you don't want to turn your back on the whiskey or they'll be off with it faster than a weka with a set of car keys.

Explorers Club party, near Franz Josef. Note people dressed as ships, dogs dressed as other dogs, etc. 

Do not try to party like this in the city, you will not be able to reach these levels. 

Anyway we were making good time on the tight turns, listening to War of The Worlds at a reasonable volume, screaming in the scary bits and shaking our skinny fists at the mountains, those awful snowbound monstrosities that wouldn't stop their looming out there to the left of the car, and shaking our fists also at that mighty ocean roiling away out there to the right, generally passing the time the way we do when we're driving through scenes of surpassing natural beauty and feeling a little bit diminished by it all.

For the love of God, move back the mountains.  How they loom!

So it was reassuring, amidst all of this awful (in the sense of filling one with awe) and deeply savage (in the sense of there being a lot of trees around) sensory overload, to receive a phonecall from that most genteel and civilised of institutions, a public art gallery.  I pulled to a halt at the side of the road and reduced Jeff Wayne to a polite murmur, and we did the deal then and there, using the magic of wireless telephony:

Thurs 18 April: The Explorers Club: Antarctica at Tauranga Art Gallery 7:30 PM, tickets $25

So come to that, if you find yourself in the Bay of Plenty at the right time.  The next night, we're appearing on Waiheke, in the wonderful Artworks Theatre.  Last time we were there it was as the Wine Cellar Strings, backing Marlon, Delaney and Tami, the sweetest country threesome you'll hear in New Zealand at the moment.  And ladies it's true - I did kiss Marlon Williams all upon his stubbly cheek, and he will always have a piece of my heart.

Fri 19th April: The Explorers Club: Antarctica at Artworks Theatre, Waiheke Island, 7pm $15 presales, $20 at the door

It's only a short and very beautiful ferry ride from downtown Auckland, so let's just agree that we'll see you there on the night.

Righto.

Bond Street Bridge win 'Best Music' in 2013 NZ Fringe Awards

Glorious news, comrades! In addition to selling out our Auckland and Wellington Fringe Festival shows, and getting rave reviews in the popular press, The Explorer's Club: Antarctica won 'Best Music' in the NZ Fringe Festival Awards in Wellington on Sunday night. Tonight we will sleep on a big pile of money.

Then we will hit the road again, and take the show to the Dunedin Fringe, The famous Nor'Wester Cafe in Amberley, our good friends at the Dharma Bum's Club, Artworks Theatre on Waiheke, and the Tauranga Art Gallery. Ace!

Here we are in Paekakariki a month or so ago.  Michael Edge-Perkins took this.  He's a wizard.

Here's where we'll be next week, more details on the April shows to come.

Thurs 21 March:  Dunedin Fringe Festival Club (Queens Hotel, 1 Queens Gardens, Dunedin)
Doors at 9, support from Estere, we'll be onstage round 10.
$15/$10, tickets here: 0800dashtickets

Fri 22 March: Nor'Wester Cafe, Amberley
Show starts at 8:30, support from Luckless
$20, call 03 3149411 to secure tickets. Restaurant open from 6 for pre-show dining.

Sat 23 March: Dharma Bums Club, Wairau Valley
8pm, support from Luckless and Brendan Turner

Really looking forward to these shows, plus we got some great footage of the Auckland shows so keep an eye out for that pretty soon on your internets.

Review of The Explorers Club: Antarctica in the Wellington Fringe

Well we've just played 16 shows over 15 days at some of our favourite venues in the country, 2000 people in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, dogs dressed as other dogs in Okarito, late-night throwdowns in Milford Sound, transtasman rowers in Oamaru, Mt Cook Summiters in Te Anau, Pirate Queens in Waitati, and a sold-out show at the beautiful Moorings ballroom in the New Zealand Fringe Festival.  Here's a review of that Wellington show from Simon Sweetman in the Dominion Post.  Thanks Simon!

"Bond Street Bridge Presents Explorers Club: Antarctica


The Moorings, February 16

Auckland-based Sam Prebble has, through his Bond Street Bridge moniker, released two excellent albums and now this stunning song-cycle taking in, and drawn from, the diaries and letters left behind by Captain Robert Falcon Scott on his failed Antarctic exploration and Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition.

Prebble's latest version of Bond Street Bridge is a three-piece, upright electric bass, percussion and backing vocals.

All provide worthy assists but it is Prebble, now filling a role as guitar-slinging, violin-flailing hipster/jive-talking raconteur, who creates the journey for the audience.

There is a devotion to the performance that is remarkable - we're simply lucky to have someone like him; creating songs that mean something, that share interesting history, that interpret lost artefacts - and showing some sense of exploration himself, Prebble deftly demonstrates that he knows his way, time and again, to the heart of a jangly-pop song, to the soul and core of folk music.

Animations accompany the story-songs, spoken-word introductions were delivered with a near-shamanistic fervour, and it is not always the case - hardly ever in fact - that you leave a performance feeling privileged to have been there.

It felt like most of the audience had some version of this; such was the connection, to the stories, to the presentation and - of course - to the music.

The exploring theme was pursued also by local alt-folk duo Rosy Tin Teacaddy. Songs from the band's second full-length album, the somewhat underrated All Mountains Are Men, celebrated (and commiserated) experiences at Tarawera, and there was a new shimmer to the sound, too.

Where previously Rosy Tin had been so very strummy and chummy on stage now the banter is still there but loops and beats and soundscapes add an extra tension to the songs. Andy Hummel and Holly Ewens wind their voices around one another and Hummel's guitar now softly frames each song.

A perfect evening of music."

Wow.  Shamanic I can believe, but perfect? Only Led Zeppelin and mathematics are perfect.