Over The Atlantic, Disasteradio & The Bemsha Swing

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Whammy Bar, Auckland

There’s a little gem bubbling just above the surface of the New Zealand indie music scene, their name is Over The Atlantic. On Saturday night those who were in attendance witnessed a truly magical performance. So often we harp on about overseas bands touring this country and we forget how many hard working world-class bands are right on our doorstep. So far this year I have witnessed an absolutely pathetic performance by the Brian Jonestown Massacre; a tired and overly pretentious CSS and JD Samson playing tunes from her iPod. The first two gigs I mentioned sold-out. Over The Atlantic had not played in Auckland for almost a year, in that time they had been touring the world recording an album and gaining a steady international fan-base, they are indisputably a world-class band that deserves just as much attention as many international bands that tour here. Unfortunately for them they are from New Zealand.

The night opened with The Bemsha Swing. Shane and Andrew along with their drum machine were electric, entertaining and showed every sign of a hard working band. Their entire set was played with an intensity that took hold of the stage and commanded absolute attention. Disasteradio had some new toys, and while he goes through the learning process he’s working on filling in between songs with a bit of crowd banter; difficult when it’s a small crowd. It’s always a bit weird seeing D-Rad play to such a small group of people, but he never disappoints, playing hits ‘Digital Pop’, ‘Awesome Feelings’ and his version of The Strokes ‘12:51′.

But the highlight was Over The Atlantic, producing one of the best live performances I have seen all year. Starting with ‘Jen’, it set the platform for the entire show and remained my favourite track throughout the entire set. Gliding along beautifully, with guitar and bass played over midi- synths and bruising drums, the intensity increased in all the right spots and was played to a flawless quality. Despite the dreamy nature of much of their music, Over The Atlantic had the crowd dancing throughout with moments of high energy bliss and all out rock and roll. It speaks for itself, the music did the talking and like any international band that visits this country they played a complete set lasting almost an hour.

More Over The Atlantic, Disasteradio, Bemsha Swing live photos

Posted by Nick Fulton under New Zealand