San Francisco Bathhouse
29th March 2008
The rain may have discouraged a fair few punters this evening but those who did make the effort were rewarded not only with a sublime headline set but also an intriguing display of sonic manipulation from Dunedin’s Kahu. The band consists of one man, a guitar, and around 300 effects pedals (well, maybe not that many. 200, perhaps). Luckily that man is none other than Tristan Dingemans from legendary post-rock outfit High Dependency Unit. The skill with which he loops, re-loops and delays his guitar to create a unique cavalcade of noise is mesmeric to say the least. However, the lack of a traditional rhythm section obviously left a few of the audience wondering when the songs were about to start. Never mind, the rest of us are more than happy to hop on his flotilla of serene, ethereal soundscaping.
If a bit more purpose and direction are what you are after, you needn’t look much further than Napier crew Jakob. Their instrumental epics are punctuated with such bone-crushing crescendos, you are left wondering how such a dense squall can originate from just 3 people. Celebrating 10 years together, they race through a set of blissful post-rock. The strength of numbers like ‘Semaphore’ and ‘The Collar Sets Well’ will no doubt stand them in good stead on their upcoming European tour supporting post-metal titans Isis. And as an extra treat tonight, they acknowledge the influence of HDU on their sound with Mr. Dingemans accompanying the band for a spectacular version of ‘Laburnum’. Rain schmain- tonight was easily worth its weight in dry-cleaning bills.