In 1990 a group of us were flatting together in Dunedin, and we were all feeling a bit frazzled after a particularly harrowing mushroom season (terrible fucken things), when we heard that The Rollins Band were playing in Auckland in just over a week (start of June..?) so three of us filled a pack each and hit the road with heaps of weed and mushies but only $17 between us till next doleday. Hitched a few rides, jumped a few middle of the night freight trains and generally did what we could to make it. Two of us spent two days and nights stuck in Turangi, sleeping in the public toilets after the Desert Road was closed by snow. Cold, wet and hungry is how i remember it. But we eventually made it and the gig soon rolled round.
It was at The Gluepot in Ponsonby and we had fuck all money for alcohol after buying tickets, etc, so we dropped a few shrooms and lingered around outside talking to people. There was a few others from Dunedin, including Swan Jellybean, who gave me a full cask of red wine that she didn't want , so we peeled it back like there was no tomorrow. I mean shit, we couldn't go to a gig straight!! tsk tsk...
Pretty sure Sticky Filth played first which was the first time i'd seen them live, just after the Nektar Der Gotter album, and they were fucken excellent, well supported by a good size New Plymouth contingent. What can i say? My all time favourite NZ band.
Next up were Auckland band Second Child (or did they play first?) and they were cranking as well, although it'd be fair to say i don't remember too much about their set.
Henry Rollins had been over and done a spoken word show a few months before this gig. Chris Knox played support for him and made a couple of offhand remarks about being able to recognise him by his tattoos and shorts. This incensed Henry enough to approach Knoxsie afterward and step him out so he could "kick his fucken arse"!!! It was calmed down eventually but Knox drew a hilarious cartoon about his "meeting with Henry", which was printed in an old zine called Stamp. Still got it somewhere. Anyway,Rollins Band had just released an album called Hard Volume, and they proceeded to come out and rip the place to shreds, witnessed by a good sized crowd. And sure enough, Henry was in nothing but a pair of shorts. Man, he fucken owned that place. Hell, he even owned Auckland while he was up there. Absolutely fucken ferocious. Definitely one of my all time favourite....etc.
Afterwards we got into a healthy debate with some feminists at the nearby fish'n'chip shop, cos they reckoned that Henry was just an arrogant,sexist asshole, and i just couldn't let that go, i mean they were talking about Henry fucken Rollins!!! Then we began the long trek back to where we were staying in New Lynn. Pissed on wine and coming down off shrooms, i just remember stumbling along behind my mate who knew where we were going. At one stage i looked back and saw the buildings of Ponsonby way back in the distance and was told that we still had miles to go! We finally hit some roundabout on Great South Road(?), and just gave up. Suddenly a taxi came out of nowhere, so we flagged it down and scraped together about $15, and he took pity on us and took us to the New Lynn shopping centre, where we only had a ten minute walk to the blissful soft landing of our mates flat floor.
So that was the Sticky Filth/Second Child/Rollins Band gig.
No comments:
Post a Comment