Shed, quarry, beach: concerts everywhere

All Day Breakfast Stringband playing March 8.



Easter. It's coming up fast. Jazz Fest ‘n' all. This column isn't about that.

No. Next week I'll have a comprehensive look at the downtown section of the Jazz Festival but for now I wanted to let you know about a last-minute concert just arranged for next Tuesday, March 28. It's small and will be very exclusive and I reckon it'll be fantastic.

Currently touring New Zealand is the four-piece Canadian outfit All Day Breakfast Stringband, which features guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle.

These guys hail from Montreal and play all over Quebec and Ontario as well as festivals in places the rest of us just dream about going to on holiday. They won awards two years running at the Appalachian Stringband Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia, which is pretty high cotton in the bluegrass world.

Kicking off this weekend they're playing 22 shows in New Zealand before the end of April, which means barely pausing for breath! Yet the indefatigable Rosie Holmes managed to track them down and has persuaded them to add a 23rd date – a special, one-off shed concert.

A shed show

Some of you might know Rosie. She's been the main mover behind concerts at the Te Puna Memorial Hall for the last few years. Of course the hall is now no more, making way for a roundabout, or currently just a bunch of roadworks hindering traffic trying to get into Tauranga from the north. We're told it's a good thing in the long run though it has been suggested that when the new bypass goes in, the roundabout will again be unnecessary...

Anyway, the hall rebuild is now sometime in the indefinite future but Rosie's not one to let a small impediment like someone demolishing her venue stop the music: the concert next Tuesday, March 28, will be in the shed at her property on Wairoa Rd. This does make for a rather intimate show, since the shed holds only about 50 people. But it should be a blast!

If you're uncertain about this kind of old-timey country music, check out the band's website.

If you're after tickets, they cost $20, contact Rosie at: redruth@vodafone.co.nz or phone 07 552 6291.

A quarry show

And since we're north of the city, here's a heads-up about another gig on the currently un-bypassed road to Katikati. On Sunday, April 2, Nigel Gavin and Richard Adams, both of Nairobi Trio fame, will be playing a duo show at the Te Puna Quarry Park.

This is the finale for a weekend there which will see violinist Adams, also a serious artist, leading a two-day painting workshop at the quarry. Very serious. You can tell from his description of the workshop: 'The two days will focus on mark making, under-painting, over-painting and essential gestures and processes which form the basis of painting, and participants will gain a deeper understanding of the way light, colour, surface, textures and gestures in the abstract form are still the essence of good painting”. Damn! You can book via: bopart.co.nz

A beach show

Finally, just because they got in touch with details about their gig this weekend – and happened to be the only band to do so this week – I promised to give a plug for B-Side Band, the spunky little four-piece rockabilly outfit which stubbornly refuse to add a bass player to their line-up.

They're playing out at Waihi Beach Hotel on Saturday night, March 25, starting 9pm – and there's no cover charge. If you haven't caught B-Side they comprise of drums, two guitars and sax/harp, and play a mix of 1950s and 1960s rock ‘n' roll gems and their own songs, which are an impressively eccentric Kiwiana take on country and rockabilly sounds.

After the usual big summer blow-out, it's back to regular music happening again at the hotel, both on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, with the likes of Sarah Spicer, Brendan McCarthy, Jinan Dodd, Brendan Hopping and Coral Pitcher playing on Sundays and bands fitted in around rugby on Saturdays. Of interest may be Easter Saturday, which features country-rock band The Desotos. They're also playing in Downtown Tauranga at the jazz festival.

More on that particular shindig next week.

watusi@thesun.co.nz






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