Concert Review: DARTZ, Whammy Bar, Auckland 13 February 2021

Four mates from Parliamentary Services in Capital City pub-crawl their way up the country to slam out some high-energy Old-School Punk in front an enthusiastic K Road crowd. Above ground the street is shredded. In the dark pits below ground the DARTZ are shredding.

Danz bellows and snarls. Clark on bass, Crispy has a guitar and Rollyz lays into a drumkit. The Speaker of the House has called them a menace to decency and said they deserve to be paid a lot of money. From him.

High at the Beach is energetic Power Pop which they rev up faster than the single to slam their vehicle into Punk. Thoughtful lyrics and meditations on vitamin D, board shorts and mental health.

40 Riddiford Street and Danz sounds spiteful like Johnny Rotten. 24 beers and two free hands. The band takes care of business and the front of the stage is filled with enthusiastically moshing fans. Blowing vape smoke towards the lead singer recreates dry ice.

Rollyz Quit. They hone the attack down to a brutal and fast thumping like the early Black Flag of Damaged. Fuck that racist bar/ bastard(?). Or something.

Pray for Prey and of course they must be fans of Ramones lyrics. Brain surgery, social politics and sexuality. And getting pissed about it all which makes it hilarious whilst they are laying out a battering rhythm.

We wanna slow it down just a little bit. Start with a bass rumble. A little bit of the Louie Louie riff. Then raise the energy and the ceiling with some fast Garage Punk. Setting with the Sun.

I like the distorted dirty fuzztone guitar sounds they can come up with on songs like Smoke That Coke and Leisure.

1 Outs Capt Cook is history, protest and profanities slammed out at speed.

Dumpling House is packed full of Buzzcocks-style riffs whilst they get sentimental about their favourite eating-house at 2am. Rests his head in a dumpling soup.             

Cartoonish irreverent humour. A pretty good Punk band in the classic style. A far-cough reaction to all the hot air that blows around their home patch.

A brace of bands supports the Dartz tonight.

Wiri Donna are a new Indie-Pop band who are playing their first show away from hometown Wellington.

The band is primarily the vehicle for young Bianca Bailey who writes, sings and plays guitar. With Ethan Roberts guitar, Harrison Scholes bass and James MacEwan drums.

They take a few songs to get into their stride. Wasted Daylight starts with bending bass guitar tones and some rumbling Surf guitar. From nice Pop to edginess and shrieks as it progresses.

Manuka Money has nice chiming guitars and vocals which are a bit flat. The singer gets buried in the mix generally throughout the set.

Not Follow Through has a bright sunny opening like a Smith’s guitar line. Girlfriend is their best for the night. Driving rhythms and they come on like the Ramones. Singing is stronger and they whip it up to a screaming finish.

More melodic in this company tonight which is slanted towards thrash. Keep an eye out on them.

Ripship are a Noise Merchant duo from West Auckland who put out a huge sound from a stripped-down set-up. A White Stripes outfit.

Callum Lincoln on guitar and effects, looks like one of the Flanders from the band Okilly Dokilly with played at this very same Whammy Bar exactly one year ago. Eva-Rae McLean sits behind the drums.

They are riff merchants. Simple brutal drums and drone textures from guitar. Vocoder sounds add a third instrument. They play science-fiction dystopian soundscape music. At times they push towards Harmolodic Jazz progressions.

I like the rolling and hypnotic repetitiveness, matched to fast and furious drum rolls.

Twisted Anus are a Punk band from Dunedin. More the edgy, beat-driven New Wave style that surfed behind the initial Punk explosion of 1977. What I appreciate is that they have that same irreverent humour as well as forcefully getting into their audience’s faces.

First song starts with a Public Image Limited bass line groove. The singer often sounds like the Fall’s Mark E Smith with his beat poetry and scathing wit.

Danger Money. I wanna job that gets me some money/ That gets me some honeys. Whining like John Lydon. Guitar lays out some fast Stooges-style nasty riffs.

Nice Cock gets the early crowd pumping (sorry for the pun). Singer tells us we‘re all a bunch of wankers and to get some forks. They are from Dunedin.

A great night out from the Punks, Indies and the Noise Merchants. The spirit of 1977 is revitalised.

Rev Orange Peel