The End ft: P.H.F., Power Nap, Uncanny Valley & Toy Triptech – The Wine Cellar Dec 18, 2021

The Wine Cellar brings the very short “concert season” to a close with The End… four acts taking 2021 out kicking and screaming.

Only a couple of weeks after we’ve been allowed to enjoy live music here in Auckland and already the holiday season cuts things off before we really even get started.

I’ve attended a few shows at The Tuning Fork that were quiet, low.-key affairs, but this show at The Wine Cellar on Saturday night billed as the ‘Final Show at the Wine Cellar for the Lamentable year that was 2021’, was anything but quiet.

With four acts on the card, the evening got underway with Toy Triptech who are Colin Woods and Rohan Evans…Rohan usually can be seen manning the mixing desk at Wine Cellar, but now he was on stage making a gloriously unholy electronic racket. It had been about four years since Colin and Rohan had performed together, but a quick rehearsal the night before resulted in their squalling set.

Fans who showed up early seemed to like what they heard which was for the best since this was not a night of “easy listening”.

Next up was Uncanny Valley (aka Ary Jansen) a lo-fi pop artist armed with a guitar, mic and laptop. His 20-minute set began with a dose of eerie electronica and morphed into…something else.  Initially it looked like he may present his set sitting on the riser at the rear of the stage obscured by the gear up front. For a bit all we could see were shoes but he soon re-emerged to a more “traditional” style of presentation.

Ary claimed he had just covered a True Bliss tune and he may very well have. This was indeed followed by his take on Cat Power’s Bathysphere.

According to my “research”, Uncanny Valley is a term used to “describe the relationship between human-like appearances of a robotic object and the emotional response it evokes”.  There were robotic aspects to the performance, so there you go!

After a “sorry, thank you and goodbye” Uncanny Valley was done and soon it was time for Power Nap. Power Nap is Aucklander Chris Cudby and, along with his laptop, he accompanied himself from behind a couple of keyboards. With video projected behind him and an EP titled Dinosaurs scheduled for release next year, Power Nap whipped up an impressive 80s-infused electronic noise that, during one “song” included a distinct sample from Eric Clapton’s 85 hit, Forever Man.

To close out the night, and the silly season, we got P.H.F. (formerly Perfect Hair Forever) and aka Joe Locke…so hard to keep track of these names!

Joe prowled the stage clutching his mic while a laptop spat out samples and beats. I did recognize The Cardigan’s Lovefool being covered and the crowd did stand and…well there was no dancing…but they were clearing into it. P.H.F. went out in a squall of noise and then it was all over.

Thanks to The Wine Cellar for offering up an opportunity to cleanse our musical palates and prepare us for what hopefully will be a more thrilling year of live music in 2022.

Marty Duda

Click any icon to view each artist

P.H.F.

Power Nap

Uncanny Valley

Toy Triptech