What a better way to showcase some local talent than to have an evening at Whammy Bar with friends and some epic bands right in the heart of Auckland city.
Armed In Advance and Bakers Eddy’s singled out tour also saw bands Coridian and Dead Beat Boys joining the Auckland leg.
First up were Coridian. Knowing these guys well and having seen them play several times I knew the night would get off to a great start. The audience was treated to tracks off their debut EP as well as some new tracks thrown into the mix. Frogs and Crossbones has Dity’s rapcore vocals syncing nicely with the rest of the band as the song moves through its changing progressions, this song means business. The guys showed great energy and looked like they were having a fun time as was the audience. Dity and the Raven brothers gel really well together, Mike's tones really shine through the mix (Brave Disguise is a prime example) as well as a nice grinding bass delivered by Nick. Kris's drums keep everything in check with heavy hits and grooves that had people moving. I quite enjoyed Fate, one of their new tracks, which had some super melodic vocals and nice blend of instruments going on. Overall a top effort and well worth watching.
Dead Beat Boys hit the stage next. Lead singer James immediately expresses his ability to perform through various songs screaming from the floor, getting right into the audience moving around and jumping off speaker boxes. Highly entertaining! The band has been absent from the stage for a while and it was a pleasure to see them smashing out catchy tunes again. Their song 2 still gets stuck in my head with all the na na na’s. It's got raw vocals punched out by James, and backed by clever guitar parts and sick beats. Overall a highly entertaining act.
The next band really hit it out of the park. Wellington rockers Bakers Eddy showed up ready to get the audience moving and deliver a killer set. It was my first time getting to see them and their style of fast paced rock was right up my alley. I didn't know what to expect to be fair but was swiftly converted as a fan. Leader singer Ciarann injected 110% into the show and had the audience chanting and moving about. Great showmanship displayed. The drums just worked really well creating nice spaces for the guitars to chime in. Something Outside is a track I really enjoyed listening to, but also their new one, Wallbreaker, was great to hear. The instruments absolutely all complimented each other, the drums were tight, the guitars had nice progressions as well as hooks. I would definitely a ticket to their next show.
Now for the main act, Armed in Advance. These lads have totally stepped up. although I've seen them many times they are an act that blasts a set of loud grooves, big hits, rumbling tones and without fail has the audience jumping around, moshing, and singing along. With several tours under the belt it was great to see JP, Hugh and Daniel tearing through their set in style. First up is Same Old Story, their latest single and followed through with a mixture of tracks from their EP and more recent. The audience was treated to a nice rendition of their track Baida. For those that know this number, it's hard not to get into it! And then mid way the song segways into some Linkin Park and back. Nice cover. At one stage the venue lost the house lights and like true professionals the trio kept blasting through their set only asking for a bit of cell phone lightage in return. Epic. Needless to say the audience had a great time. Hugh and Dan supplying the rhythm section were in fine form. Rounding out the set was Stay and another more recent track delivered with super gritty vocals from JP and subtle bv’s by Hugh on bass. The audience was not satisfied leaving the set there and the boys were coerced into playing an encore. Nothing was held back here for the final track and the boys gave it everything. Massive night and loads of fun.
Armed In Advance are a heavy rock trio from Auckland with a penchant for ruthlessly efficient, hard hitting post-grunge songs laced with pop sensibilities and thought provoking undertones. Hailing from Auckland, the band is made up of JP Carroll (guitar and vocals), Hugh Hokopaura (bass) and Ryan Thomas (drums).
Since starting out in 2013 under the moniker of Stitches, AIA have released an EP (Stitches EP, 2014) and a full length (Change/Evolve, 2016), and have subsequently had the honor of 5 songs gracing the NZ rock radiowaves over that time. The most recent success of rotation play for single Same Old Story on the country’s biggest rock radio station, the Rock FM, paved the way for a debut full length album described as “refreshing… modern hard rock with a point of difference.” (Muzic.net.nz)
Change/Evolve reached #9 on the NZ album charts, and was accompanied by a sold out Auckland release show. Two tracks from Change/Evolve were deemed worthy of NZ On Air funded music video grants (Same Old Story, Running You Down).