Drug Church – Whammy Bar: August 12, 2023 (Concert Review)

Drug Church made their New Zealand concert debut at Auckland’s Whammy Bar encouraging the sold out crowd to walk on the ceiling.

And there were those who did!

Drug Church are a “post-hardcore” band from Albany, New York front by Patrick Kindlon, who seems to have based his on-stage persona on Black Flag-era Henry Rollins. Patrick rants, glares and sneers while the four-piece band cranks out a relatively generic version of early-80s LA hardcore.

Dick Move

At the stroke of 9 the Whammy Stage is filled with the members of Dick Move, who never fail to entertain, and tonight is no exception. The room is already packed and the temperature is rising. Great to see a full house for a local opener.  30 minutes later, they are gone, leaving ears ringing.

Melanie

That ringing will grow louder after West Auckland rockers Melanie are through with us.

“This song’s real fast and it’s called Cold Feet” announces vocalist Jamie Dentice.

Not only is it fast, but it’s loud and the crowd is loving it.  Jamie takes an opportunity to become one with that crowd by throwing himself into the audience and has a good crowd surf…signs of things to come as it turns out.

Drug Church

“Today you are all Spidermen!”

Patrick Kindlon is determined to get as many people as possible walking on the ceiling and many oblige.

“If they go up, you keep them up!” he tells the crowd.

The 40-minute set kicks off with a couple of tunes from latest album, Hygiene…Fun’s Over and World Impact. After 15 minutes the band has raced through 6 songs and breakneck pace.

Finally Patrick stops to speak.

“I don’t know much about New Zealand”, he admits, “what’s your national anthem?” And before you can say Pōkarekare Ana, the audience sings back God Defend New Zealand (and quite well, I might add).

Kindlon is clearly taken aback. Apparently he was of the opinion that Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke) had written our anthem. “Did he write some…shit?” he asks. Yes, but not the anthem.

Best to get back to the music then, and more crowd surfing is encouraged…”Keep ‘em up!”

Three songs from the end and Patrick has nominated a young lady in the front to be the “conductor” instructing the audience to follow her cue when the “drop” happens in the next tunes. Everyone is on board and the set closes out with Weed Pin and chaos reigns supreme on stage.

Just another Saturday night in Auckland…too bad Jaz missed it.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Hamish Graham (who almost became part of the show himself)

Drug Church:

Melanie:

 Dick Move:

 

Drug Church Setlist:

1. Fun’s Over
2. World Impact
3. Avoidarama
4. Grubby
5. Myopic
6. Bliss Out
7. Foam Pit
8. But Does It Work?
9. Unlicensed Guidance Counselor
10. Unlicensed Hall Monitor
11. Banco Popular
12. Million Miles Of Fun
13. Weed Pin