BOOM BOOM MEGA BOOM

While others were busy erecting tents at Playground Weekender, it seemed that every indie kid who remained in the city headed to Candy’s, which was absolutely rammed for the much-anticipated Boom Boom Mega Boom night.The Holidays kicked off proceedings, and represented the zeitgeist nicely enough with their jaunty, spiky and ever-so slightly nostalgic indie tunes. Next, The Hate Game [have we reached a stage yet where we can stop saying that they were formerly called The Vendettas?] belted out their familiar dancey sound. While their tracks perhaps lack a little variety and subtlety when performed live, there is no denying that they sure as hell can get a crowd dancing, and frontwoman Larissa was obviously as cool as ever, with the words “Be a hater, love is boring” scrawled across her back.

Talking of cool frontwomen, singer Holiday’s interesting, breathy and powerful vocal was particularly stunning as Bridezilla took the opportunity to showcase some new material, which further demonstrated their continuing musical growth. The beautifully-attired and incredibly accomplished quintet played with panache, and live favourite Saint Francine proved not only to be the highlight of the set, but the highlight of the entire evening.

Like The Hate Game, Cut Off Your Hands were also recently obliged to change their name [from Shaky Hands], but it was business as usual for the Auckland quartet, who performed with such communicable oomph that they had an already excited crowd going absolutely mental. Frontman Nick climbed the rafters, pouted, sank to his knees, yelled and screamed his way through the set, while the sweat-drenched front few rows sang along, jumped and roared their overwhelming approval.

Headlining a bill that was equally high in energy and quality, The Ghosts’ [now Ghostwood] set had that typical bold sound to it, thanks largely to Paddy’s awesome guitar noise, and proceedings were kept joyfully high-tempo by Westy’s upbeat drumming. Despite having been on their feet for hours, the audience showed no sign of tiring as the teenage four-piece opened with an instrumental track which saw singer Gabby sitting on the stage nonchalantly strumming his guitar while all around him went crazy. A powerful rendition of The Red Version was the pinnacle of another impressive set, which was devoured by an appreciative crowd whose unabated enthusiasm made the whole night that little bit extra special.

review by rob townsend