I was in Rotorua doing the commentary and being Mr Dj at the Oceania Mountain Bike Champs. I was having a good time for sure. In fact I was out for dinner quietly minding my own business having that previously mentioned good time when a poster caught my eye.
Upon closer inspection I was rapt to see it was a poster for the Mint Chicks & Die! Die! Die! at Barbarella that very evening.
The Mint Chicks are a hard working Auckland 4 piece punk rock band that have had a lot of favourable publicity from respectable sources as well as industry puppets. I had missed the Mint Chicks & Die Die Die when they played Christchurch so it wasn't too hard to talk myself into attending.
Even though I was knackered I dragged myself along to the very cool Barbarella bar on a lone wolf mission to check these young cats shit out. The poster and maybe some publicity in the local rag had managed to lure 30 odd Rotorua locals along.
Thirty is a pretty good number for a provincial town on a Thursday I guess but that poster really did deserve to drag more people along. It was excellent. The Mint Chicks have got their rock & roll doodle art wired. I didn't grab a poster (I should have) but I scored some superb stickers that feature a Mint Chicks 'suck face' coat of arms that is just magnificent.
First up was Die! Die! Die! They feature past members of Xanadu and Carriage H. Well Die Die Die! tend way more towards Carriage H than Xanadu that's for sure. This is angst rock with a serious Tourettes syndrome live act.
The rhythm section was tight and the powerful drumming will appeal to anyone who is out of their tree.
These guys are good at what they do but the genre is not quite my cup of tea. I know this sort of stuff is not supposed to be about melodies and rhymes but their songs just needed a few rhymes and a bit more melody all round for me. See I told you I didn't get it!
Onto the Mint Chicks . . . in a nutshell they are a very tight punk rock band with a very polished (rehearsed?) live show that centres around dynamic front man Cody's vigorous 'Iggy goes all foetal' stage act.
The sound thankfully is nothing like the plethora of young 'Datsunswannabe' bands that have swamped Auckland town in the last 12 months.
As I said the Mint Chicks are a punk rock band. What sort of a punk rock band ? you ask.
To me they sound a little like a 1980's San Fransisco SST band (like say the Minutemen) that also manages to remind me at times of 1978-1980 era Manchester new wave bands like Magazine , the Sound and Joy Division (a little).
The drummer is on the money for sure and he really beats those puppies up. The speed of his drumming will probably give the band's sound an extra appeal to metallers as it is pretty fast.
This is a damn good band and I am a harsh critic but as usual most of my criticism will come down upon the songs. The lyrics just didn't stick in my head and force me to think about them. Granted things were sung pretty fast but strangely after the gig I couldn't remember a single lyric or melody which is unusual for a gig I enjoyed.
The live show was pretty good alright but I think I will have to buy a cd and have a good listen to the songs before I really judge these guys. The Mint Chicks are definitely a happening thing and probably the most original sounding band in Auckland at the moment. Go see them. Definitely better than any 'punk' band on a major record label I can think of.
