the Palace of Wisdom with
the Steffan Van Soest Hit Machine & Into the Void
@ the Media Club 2/4/4
The wee room at the Media Club was the venue for this auspicious event. A small crowd of around 40 were treated to some world class entertainment from 3 of the countries most original bands.
First up was the Steffan Van Soest Hit Machine. I am (first equal with Nick White) the Hit Machine's biggest fan in case you didn't know. Check out our top 12 NZ bands and you'll find them right there. In fact they would definitely be in my top 3. I love these guys.
This was the first time I had seen them this year and the most obvious news is that they are now a 2 piece! Paul Glubb has taken his bass with him to Wellington and Matt Bullimore has also split the scene.
Even though they didn't have that dynamic super power that the full band has the songs were still great because the songs are just so great! Highlights included the evergreen 'harness racing' as well as gems from the 'Night Stingers' album like 'rock cocaine' & the 'rock now' song which I hadn't heard live before.
When I said it was a rock set that is because the Hit Machine also have a 2 piece set that uses heaps of samples and is quite different but still magnificent. After all you must remember that this band has got around 100 incredible songs at their disposal so you always see something different or new at a Hit Machine show.
Into the Void are the elder statesmen of the underground rock scene in Christchurch today. The Void are possibly as old as 15 or 16. Their critically acclaimed Flying Nun release would have been at least 12 years ago now.
Reknowned former Christchurch artist Ronnie Van Hout is still the bands official frontman. However you are most likely to see them as an instrumental act as he only returns from Melbourne to perform with them once every 2-3 years maybe.
Into the Void are a space metal band. Mark the drummer is solid as a rock at the heart of this unit. His double kick action teams up with Dave's bass to form a powerful rhythm section.
The guitar sound belongs to Jason and just like him it is all about heavy metal. This man has a lot of effects pedals and gets some damn fine weird sounding riffs out of them.
I can't review the Void without mentioning their turntableist. I don't recall his name but someone did tell me he is a librarian. This man uses an old 50's era turntable plugged into a guitar amp. Check out the photos, P Money eat your heart out.
The aesthetic value of this 'instrument' is superb and his presence adds greatly to the band in the absence of their singer (see photo). Sometimes he scratches things up at timely moments while at other times you hear a weird vocal and then realise that it must be coming from his turntable!
The sound was mighty good too and did the Void justice. Thanks to Logan & Loki, who also looked after the sound at the Mikey Hex memorial gig 3 weeks earlier in the big room.
The Palace of Wisdom were on next. We cranked out a 12 song set that included a couple of new numbers as well as a Joy Division cover (Sound of music). The usual degenerate Palace of Wisdom fans seemed to enjoy the new stuff. I even managed to grab a guy by the throat and strangle him for awhile during 'stitches'. Gangster rock, it takes some beating!
There are rumours of a 7“ single by the Palace of Wisdom in coming months. A vinyl 'Pills' EP maybe. We'll keep you posted. We are meant to be doing some recording in comings weeks but on past history that stuff will take us 3-4 years to get out. Nevermind. It's only time.
All in all another great night at the Media Club. A shame about the turnout but it was a really nice intimate sized crowd of 35. Curiously enough I met more people that night than at the Dirt Bombs in Auckland the following Tuesday and there were 600+ punters at that gig! Oh well that's the way it goes I suppose.
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