Indicator Dogs Palmerston North Gig Disappointment
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 10:09 am

---

Recently a top New Zealand rock band - the Indicator Dogs - embarked on a tour for the release of their debut album - 'Anschluss'. On Friday the 13th of June, this tour led them to Palmerston North. Unfortunately, this particular gig was unsucessful, and the band did not perform, leaving literally hundreds of Dogs fans disappointed.

This all started when the Indicator Dogs decided to book a gig here. Originally the gig was booked at the Globe Theatre, who decided they no longer wanted to run Rock concerts. They then moved to Guv'nors Tavern, who advised the Dogs that they had double booked the evening with a 21st - two days before they were due to perform. This left them with Zeeba - a venue who had (quite obviously) never hosted a gig before, and does not seem to be very supportive of New Zealand music.

After having a fine meal at Lone Star, the Indicator Dogs arrived at a packed bar, thanks to the promotional efforts of Radio Control and Kickwaterhead. Kickwaterhead were setting the stage for a stonking evening of full-on-rock, when it was noticed that the owner of Zeeba (Sgt. Catherine) was telling her customers to get a drink or fuck-off. Hardley polite behavour to show towards customers, let alone fans of the Indicator Dogs and Kickwaterhead. Needless to say, if these bands weren't performing on the night - most of these customers would not have been there.

When asked what the problem was, the owner of Zeeba stated that "this is a bar, not a fucking theatre, these people should be drinking." If the intention was for this place to solely be a bar on Friday 13th (and not a live music venue as well), why did she say yes to the Indicator Dogs performing there?

It was then mentioned that some people had come to see the bands perform (as you do), and as the place was full and plenty of people were drinking, the owner of Zeeba would be making plenty of money. However, it appears that during a performance at Zeeba, everyone has to have a drink in their hands all the time. (I wonder what happens if you're a sober driver - if you were, Zeeba could almost be encouraging you to drink drive). The event was an R18 event.

With this observation, the Indicator Dogs were opened up for a string of abuse, and were told to mind their own business as the owner of Zeeba "owned everything in the bar including "THE AIR". Is this the way to treat top New Zealand bands? I think not.

Eventually another attempt was made to 'reason' with the owner, things deteriorated and eventually they were provoked to the point of verbal retaliation. They were promptly banned from playing, and kicked out of Zeeba. So, instead of punk and rock lovers in Palmerston North being treated to an excellent night out and Indicator Dogs playing to a packed pub of people, they were looking for accommodation at 1am and Sgt. Catherine's customers were leaving. I imagine that Sgt. Catherine lost out on making as much money as planned when she kicked out the Dogs, despite all her efforts to make people drink.

The classic end to the night was when one of the Zeeba's staff members started negotiating the Indicator Dogs payment. They were told to come back in the morning to sort this out as "she gets really unreasonable when she's been drinking". Wouldn't this world be crazy if we all drunk while we were working - let alone running a business?

If you would like to read about this in the Indicator Dogs words, copy and paste the following link into your web browser:

http://www.muzic.net.nz/artists.php?id=120&action=readreview&thread=1996

As a supporter of New Zealand music, I feel angry that a top New Zealand band had to go through such difficulty to find a venue here, and that they had to leave in this manner. Sgt. Catherine has given Palmerston North a bad name and I truly hope she regrets her actions of the evening. Will the Indicator Dogs return? Will this prevent other bands from wanting to gig in Palmerston North? Only time will tell...

If, due to the actions of Sgt. Catherine, some New Zealand bands choose not to gig here - the people of Palmerston North will loose out.

Palmerston North has Creative Sound's @ The Stomach, which in the past has featured a large number of punk/rock gigs and Stakeout Records, punkas.com and muzic.net.nz are all run from Palmerston North. There is no doubt in my mind that bands such as the Indicator Dogs would have a huge following here.

Since Harvesters decided to no longer run gigs, Guv'nors have taken over, and while they have been doing a fine job - one would have to hope they do not double book again. Palmerston North also has The Colesseum and the Events Centre (Rainbow Stadium etc), but you can only play at these venues if you have the money to book them out - which is something a lot of New Zealand bands and artists do not have.

Another venue worth mentioning is Murphy's Law - see my post @ http://www.muzic.net.nz/discussion.php?forum=5&thread=1993 -

If the rock and punk lovers in Palmerston North want to see bands, such as the Indicator Dogs come back time and time again, perhaps it is time we did something about this....

RE: Indicator Dogs Palmerston North Gig Disappointment
Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2003 11:21 am

---

btw: For the month of June, muzic.net.nz is giving away an AUTOGRAPHED copy of the Indicator Dog's 'Anschluss', along with Angel Hammer's 'Tricks'. Check out the following URL for more info:

http://www.muzic.net.nz/index.php?area=competition

RE: Indicator Dogs Palmerston North Gig Disappointment
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 9:13 am

---

Please note: The Indicator Dogs gig @ Brewers Bar in Tauranga on 28 June has now been cancelled.

RE: Indicator Dogs Palmerston North Gig Disappointment
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2003 11:19 am

---

THE PALMY RE-MATCH!!!

Fri July 11th @ Guv'nors, Palmerston North (for Catherine)

See you all there!!

RE: Indicator Dogs Palmerston North Gig Disappointment
Posted: Thu Dec 8, 2005 10:35 pm

---

This is an automatic reply stating that Muzic Bot has closed this thread due to inactivity.

This means that there have been no posts made to this thread for a period of 12 months and the thread has been locked.

Now that this thread is locked, you will not be able to make any further posts to it.