Jetty haven't played together in the best part of ten years, and the first three songs of their set show it, the band is loose to the point of threatening to completely collapse and the levels leave a lot to be desired. Typical sloppy indie rock stuff really and It Started With a Kiss is a virtual write off. Three songs in and the levels are sorted, the wheels are oiled and the band is ready to rock. The obvious debt to bands such as Pavement are not so evident in the live setting and Jetty are ready to step forward and enjoy themselves. Some furious strumming, chiming and clanging, a loose shuffling beat, the occasional paean to The Modern Lovers in the form of Roadrunner and Jetty are in their element. By the end of their set they are rockin' like it's 1998 all over again, the most direct connection to white-boys-with-sloppy-guitars we've got this side of Guided By Voices. As an album re-release and re-introduction to Dunedin they have done extremely well, but it's a pretty sure bet this is not the precursor to a full reform and an assault on the charts Feelers style. Happy with what they have achieved in creating an album of competent indie rock the future for Jetty is entirely open.

Strangely, on the re-release of their album Jetty chose not to headline the occasion, giving the honour to Onanon. Onanon's material can be split into roughly three styles, glorious atmospheric soundscapes, weirdarse obtuse dirty rock songs and their mainstay of ridiculously catchy, loud, bouncy rock songs.
They open with Lammerlaw, as glorious an atmospheric soundscape as they have yet produced, somehow made all the better in this environment. A strange song to have graced the upper reaches of Radio One's Top 11, tonight it justifies its position there with a beautiful and liberating evocation. From there it's almost straight into the more straightforward rock songs, guitars at times producing a screaming wall of sound (as in a standout rendition of Fall Boy) while the rhythm section nails the serious business of laying that solid, fat beat. Man, tonight this band is really on fire, tight, loud and glorious. Pink Frosting, Exploding Heart, Monster, this band produces brilliant nuggets of songs about darkness and death at a ridiculous rate and with such a level of consistency and tonight they are as good as I've ever witnessed them. This bodes extremely well for their own album release in the near future.

They end with Fluffy White Clouds and positively rip the shit out of it, the perfect distillation of everything that makes this band great with a bouncy beat, a happy melody coupled to some kinda morose lyrics and an undeniable groove. Calls for more are rewarded by two more songs of twisted beauty, lyrics reflecting tough emotional times wrung through the most optimistic and life affirming music able to be produced by the most loveable weirdoes you could hope to find.

This gig was another great example of the role Powertool Records plays in the New Zealand musical landscape, bringing those people together who are still just outside the peripheral vision of even the more undergrowth scouring media and the incredible catalogue Powertool Records has amassed is well worth investigation.


Dave Local
Posted by rob

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