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I must confess to some reservations when writing about Tauranga’s hardcore music scene.
That’s because I suspect the vast majority of you reading this don’t listen to this music, and the vast majority of you listening to this music don’t read the Weekend Sun.
But – and there’s always a but – it’s become obvious over the past couple of years that the most active, and possibly groundbreaking, scene in town is the hardcore one.
Blues, country, classical, jazz and folk music continue to thrive – though I don’t know what it says about the city that the most popular music nights week after week are Jack Dusty’s ukulele Mondays – but it’s really the hardcore and alternative bands that are closest to whatever cutting edge exists.
And something significant has happened on that scene: the long-awaited release of the new self-titled ‘Threat.Meet.Protocol’ album.
Two major players
Threat.Meet.Protocol are probably the biggest beast among the alternative bands: they’ve been together for years and boast two of the scene’s major players, in promoter, singer and bassist Austin Cunningham and drummer Evan Pope, who runs Studio 11b at the Mount and whose impressive production chops elevated last year’s Crooked Finger album and more than a few others.
Photo / Supplied.
I don’t think it would be exaggerating to suggest Austin is in a large part singularly responsible for Tauranga’s hardcore scene being so vibrant. He has been indefatigably promoting music and bands for around 15 years, from the early Woodcock festivals in Pyes Pā to more recent annual Loserpalooza events at Totara Street. Last year’s featured 24 bands and raised more than $5000 for Lifeline.
Austin is also responsible for more international bands coming to Tauranga than anyone outside the jazz festival. Last weekend Japan’s Guitar Wolf played under the harbour bridge. In February Australia’s C.O.F.F.I.N. was there, while there was a double bill from Japan at Palace Tavern, King Brothers and Alkasilka; and January welcomed the brilliant Schizophonics from America.
That all these gigs featured local support acts – Somacaine, Grown Downz, Eddie and the Dreamers, Cindy – is also most excellent.
Under the bridge
There’s another under the bridge on March 28, Czech band Onanizer with locals Carrion Bride. Which highlights another problem with me writing about this particular scene: I know quite a bit, but I’m still at an utter loss when trying to define hardcore genres.
Austin writes about Onanizer: “Although the band’s name could evoke goregrind feel, they are more influenced by old school grindcore, noisy hardcore/punk, fastcore and powerviolence”.
I am so far at sea I can’t even tell you if that’s serious or satire.
Threat.Meet.Protocol did a very early North Island album launch tour in December, accompanying another American band, Spotlights, and have received rave reviews from Return To Rock, Thoughts Words Action, Pitch Perfect and elsewhere. CDs are exclusively available now from the Tauranga Rockshop.
I’ll review the album properly next week but on cursory listening I’m knocked out. Despite the band’s often self-deprecating demeanour, this is a serious piece of work.
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