9/10/02, the Jetset Ch-Ch

What a funny week it was. The Datsunmania kicked off with that piece on Tv 1 where Mike Hoskins tried to deliver a story just made for Dylan Tait. Nevermind. Then the guys were on the box and in just about every paper I read all week. You see the media over here are making up for ignoring the Datsuns when they could have done with a hand by over doing the spinky kissing. Nevermind (pun intended) it'll settle down after awhile. The boys take the piss out of the media in these interviews but the sneaky bastards edit it all out before it goes on air.

I caught up with the band on Wednesday arvo and pretty much hung out with them til they left town. Of course they were still exactly the same if a little worldlier which is a good thing maybe. Dolf is just so happy. As the dude off the A team said 'I love it when a plan comes together!'.

Happy is the word. The Datsuns are happy happy happy. They love the hotel to airport to gig whirlwind lifestyle. Matt and Dolf even spun me a few yarns about the tour bus but I'll see if I can make a few bucks by sending them to Penthouse for their forum section !

When I think about it if they weren't happy I probably would have had to punch them over and put them out of their misery.

Since the Palace of Wisdom were opening I got down on Tuesday for a practice (our 2nd as this line up!) and to get some shit done in the big smoke. Well one of those things was to get some photos developed as a present for the Datsuns.

These photos were a nice reality check. You see they were from the last time the Palace of Wisdom played with the Datsuns in Hamilton about a year or so ago. That tour with the Hi-Tone Destroyers seems so much longer ago than that. Check out the photos, that was the first time we had all met and heard each other in the flesh as we had all been fans of each others shit from a far. The Datsuns having heard Matt Aliens awesome 'Blood on Satans claw' album and the Hi-Tones amazing 7 inches from '96 & '97` as well as the rumours about the Palace of Wisdom. A meeting of some of the NZ undergrounds rock & roll gentry.

A world class line up at Ward Lane in Hamilton. No shit you probably wouldn't have found a better gig on the planet that Friday night. The only thing missing was a crowd, there were about 30 people, maybe. I wonder if the guy whingeing on the Datsuns guestbook about no Hamilton show was there?

Anyhow check out the photos folks and if you know Dolf or Matt get them to explain to you what everybody is laughing about as I don't think they would want that particular story floating around in cyberspace.

The memories of that gig made the capacity crowd at the Jetset on Wednesday night a little hard to take seriously. The only difference to a year ago was 80% of people were told to come here by the Tv because this band have 'cracked it' in the Uk. The other 20% would have been here based on the Datsuns last show here (see FEE archives). Was this the Shihad audience? I don't know. I wasn't complaining. Crowds are cool and they were a pretty cool crowd so that's all ok by me.

This was the Palace of Wisdom first gig without Matt Alien keeping time on the throne. His percussion duties have moved to Nick Heart (Tony Valens in a previous incarnation). Nick used to play drums in the late Hi-Tone Destroyers as well as being the guitar playing founder of the Incisions. The bass playing is being handled by none other than the legendary Mr Mick Elborado. We are stoked to have a settled line up. While I'm there thanks to Andrew Tolley, Terry T and BoB Cardy for playing various bits and pieces in the Palace of Wisdom for us on Auckland tours this year.

I wasn't really thinking about my performance and was just catching up on the gossip with the band and having tea etc. The outcome of this was I went through the Datsuns pre gig build up instead of the Palace of Wisdoms!!! Raw talent got me through but this could have been a disaster as the preparation couldn't have been more different than what I usually do before a gig.

You see the Datsuns like to have tea, play video games and generally just chill out before they play.

Not me. I like to get fucked up.

A dozen vita stouts , a tab of acid (if its about), a million cones and a few lines sounds about spot on to me. It's not nerves it's just my duty as an honest party gladiator with something to say.

Even though I took the stage as straight as a laser beam things still went great and the crowd seemed to love us. It's fucking hard to review your own band but I saw a video of the gig and know we went down pretty fucking well. Heaps of people said good set ra ra ra and quoted some PoW lyrics at me which is a good sign they were listening. We are playing with the Incisions again at the Dux on the 24th so that will be the test of whether people liked us or not I guess.

Oh yeah a big shout out to Scott the Dreaded One for doing our sound. Thank you very much chief.

The 'Incisions' are no longer called 'Tony Valens and the Incisions' is the first thing you need to know about the Incisions. The second is that they now have a vocalist which has of course changed their sound dramatically. Karl is playing bass and doing the singing. Nick is of course calling the shots on guitar and Tim is now the drummer.

The Incisions had previously been this crazy psychedelic instrumental surf guitar band and now they sound heaps more like your traditional Stooges influenced dirty garage act. I like it. I was outside smoking a number and missed the first couple of numbers but everything else was fucking cool.

I had heard a cd a few times at Nick's house of this line up and so I knew a few of the songs. They were fucking cool and the crowd dug them. A highlight was the cover of Cyndi Lauper's hit 'money changes everything'. It has some great lyrics that Cyndi definitely never wrote.

I look forward to catching them again when we play with them at the Dux on the 24th of October. Enjoy this line up while you can as I heard a rumour Karl isn't the biggest fan of Rock & Roll so singing in such a cool rock band may prove all to much for him.

Then it was time to give the crowd what they really wanted. It was time for the Datsuns to do their thing. This was probably an average show by the Datsuns standards. That said we still saw Phil climbing everything in site and Christian and Dolf hurling themselves into the crowd.

The sound was about as good as you could have got out of that PA and it was loud but not too loud. Right on time the crowd went crazy. The foxy young chicks in the front row were literally doing the front row thing (like rugby) as they held back a veritable scrum of macho mosh heads. It looked pretty funny really, the girls did a fine job though and held the defensive perimeter with no major casualties.

Once again it's time for me to compare them to a year ago and the sound has definitely matured into something uniquely it's own with much more of a seventies influence. I am stoked for them. When we first met them we knew they could go all the way but I wondered if they would be able to keep the songs coming. You see back then I could easily pigeon hole the Datsuns as a 'Hi-Tones' influenced NZ dirty rock group (just like the D4) with a big fat dose of the Hellacopters thrown in and a kind of AC/ DC guitar sound.

Now the sound is way more their own, way more seventies and way more stadium than garage. The lyrics are coming along nicely too as is Dolf's soulful wail. The other thing with the lyrics is the nature of the market they are now in means catchy kicks profounds ass everytime. Previously I guess I might have compared them lyrically to SHAFT and of course the Datsuns would come up wanting in that lyrical comparison. But now they just have to kick Kylie and Robbies butts which shouldn't be too hard.

I am still waiting for Dolf to turn into some mad songwriter who carries a pen everywhere and writes the lyrics way before the music but I guess that will come in time. No doubt he's gaining heaps of life experiences for future material.

On that note the new songs like 'sitting pretty' and 'in love' were great . My personal favourite was once again there Cheap Trick cover of 'good evening ladies & gentlemen', fuck I love that song.

There was the standard encore and then back for more. I guess the boys must have played for an hour or so which is a much bigger set than they used to have a year ago.

After the gig there was really no time to party as the Jet Lag from the weekends flight across the world hadn't even been addressed yet. The guys were saying how much it sucked that everyone wants to party but they can only party real hard out when it suits the schedule.

All in all it was wicked and pretty much exactly what I expected. The Datsuns are loving the lifestyle but if I had been in their shoes I wouldn't have bothered doing such a full on tour. Fuck New Zealand guys you don't owe this country nothing on the rock front. Catch up with your family and friends first next time. They are more important than fair weather fans.

The boys are loving it though and they have no problems getting 'up' for the crowd each night so they can belt out another set. This is their job and they love it. They are good at it and they should be, they've worked fucking hard to get where they are today.

More power to the Datsuns they are driven.