For what has been quoted as the best Orientation lineup in almost a decade, attendance told a different story at far too many events. Particularly Cool Town, which was brutally sodomised by apathy. Ten acts, playing for free, at your local student bar, with drinks specials. Yet, despite best efforts, these shows went largely ignored. The same went for gallery openings, with Kazaam Blam playing to a number of people that was countable on two hands. Roger Shepherd, founder of Flying Nun, drew a maximum of 30 people. And while the quality of these events was somewhat debatable (an overbearingly loud slide projector drowned out Shepherd in the Adam Art Gallery, Cool Town drawcards Nevernudes were far too sloppy/drunk on their last show ever with original lineup), there was a plethora of quality acts that were missed: The Body Lyre, Seth Frightening, and Vaults, to name a few.
Of course, it wasn’t all bad. In the wake of Martin Phillips’ inability to make his flight to play with The Chills, Die! Die! Die! stepped in to play a free show at SFBH alongside Joe Blossom and Secret Knives. And while my fourth experience of Secret Knives already feels same-y, Die! Die! Die! inverted their Campus A Low Hum setlist and proceeded to tear the stage a new exit. They then repeated this performance on the Friday at the VBC 3rd birthday party—pretty impressive that they can pack out and annihilate the Bath House twice in a week, with near-identical sets. Birthday billmates Bang! Bang! Eche! seem to be edging ever closer to poppy bangers, but their live show carried more than enough bite to justify their presence alongside Die! Die! Die! and headliners The Mint Chicks. For what retrospectively may be their last ever show in Wellington (only time will tell), it was certainly the most interesting set I’d seen them play. With two bassists (including the sorely missed Michael Logie), and Kody Nielson hacking at a second drum kit while singing “shit got real”. There were Fuck The Golden Youth hits galore, and the ‘Enemies / Life Will Get Better Some Day’ combo towards the night’s end completely sealed the deal as well.
Deerhoof fell victim to a hugely apathetic crowd, despite putting on an incredible show. Opening with ‘Panda Panda Panda’, Sutomi is officially the babe to end all babes. Combine the awkward pointing at crowd then self, cutesy shuffling, juxtaposed with the Need For Speed-paced riffs, the drummer who was giving off more energy than the sold-out crowd put together, and you have a fantastic show that, unfortunately, seemed to fall upon 500 passive sets of ears. At the other end of the spectrum was Hawnay Troof, who whipped a decidedly smaller Mighty Mighty crowd into a frenzy, culminating in an incarnate version of ‘This Is Our Invite’, his collaboration with LA punkettes Mika Miko.
Overall, the calibre of acts involved in Orientation 2010 was phenomenal. Wanganui’s Sets performed two shows in one night, writing entirely new material for each show, incorporating a telephone and a stereo speaker as instruments. Street Chant played one of their last New Zealand shows before opening for the fucking Dead Weather. DEERHOOF PLAYED FOR TEN DOLLARS. It was certainly an indie-leaning lineup, but the sellout crowds at the VBC Birthday Party and Deerhoof completely justified fleeing another Katchafire O-Week set. Hopefully the lazy among you actually get out there next time. Orientation: Because you’re worth it.
Oh. Ladyhawke played a one-hour iTunes Genius DJ set too. ‘Lovecats’. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. ‘This Charming Man’. ‘Human After All’. I think the same songs might have been playing at Mighty Mighty for about $25 less, actually.