Gig review: HLAH in Wellington

Last week I interviewed Nigel Regan from Head Like a Hole and as part of the interview we gave away some prize-packs (double-tickets, CD, T-shirt). The band played at The San Francisco Bathhouse on Friday. So here we go with a review:

Head Like a Hole (HLAH)
San Francisco Bathhouse
Friday, March 19

There were a few opening acts, and I only caught the very end of Beastwars but I can see why people like them. I did get to see Gaywyre. Several people had told me to make sure I saw them. They are clearly developing a following and their brand of cock-rock attempts, somehow, to be a sincere parody. This is more Anvil than Spinal Tap - an obvious love of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest permeating the material.

I liked hearing the band - but I'm not sure they are quite as good as their fan base seems to think. The music is not sharp enough to transcend the novelty-act feel. But maybe they'll get there.

HLAH sound very good live these days, settling into a new feel that recreates enough of the past and suggests there is a future for this band (again). They have been reinstated for over a year now, following the reunion for last year's Homegrown show.

And with compilation album The Devil Makes Work for Idle Hands the band's music has been rediscovered by old fans besides introducing younger music fans to the sound of Head Like a Hole.

So the set plays out like a Greatest Hits show - with Hootenanny and Wet Rubber; with Fish Across Face and Faster Hooves...music from the band's earliest shows has come back to mix and merge with music from the band's last couple of albums. Now all we need is music from a new album to slot into the set...well, fingers crossed (and again, go back to last week's interview with Nigel Regan) that could be on the way.

Meanwhile, Friday night was a chance to see HLAH sweat up the stage of the San Fran Bath House and it might be the last chance for a while.

So, Booga Beazley cupped the microphone and pushed himself face forward wherever he went, crouching with his hands in front of his face, facing the audience. Hovering with this butt out to the crowd as he nosed in on Regan's guitar...again (as with the Auckland shows last weekend) Nigel Regan's shirt was off...and the crowd at the front were thriving to second song, Mr. Bastard.

The band's cover of Bruce Springsteen's I'm On Fire is a perfect mid-set highlight; it's been that way since HLAH started touring again. It's a correct example of how a cover should work, especially when one becomes a staple of a band's act - it is for many fans the version of the song, but it still pays full respect to Bruce and to his song.

When Booga spits Hootenanny from the stage, lights flashing, toms thwacked, cymbals crashing, it has been an event. It was an intense experience - and it was all about dusting off and handing out great rock'n'roll songs.

People flooded to the balcony when the show ended - a surge of warm air coming out with the crowd to heat the outdoor area.

One couple who only go to shows three or four times a year due to having a wee child now said it was their first time seeing HLAH in about 12 years. Others were rattling off lists of venues and dates of previous shows, listing seeing the band 10, 20, 30 times even.

It was a happy vibe - a happy crowd and completely different from last year's show as part of the August nationwide tour at The James Cabaret. Clearly some of the band's oldest, keenest fans were there. But also there were people checking out HLAH for the first time - and just as the songs from all versions of the band mingle well on stage, the fans of the band, from 18 to 60 in age (or thereabouts), seemed to mix fine too.

And how is this for a rock'n'roll story that is so good it could only be true:

One of the winners of last week's competition to see HLAH and receive a CD and T-shirt had entered to win for her partner. He is a huge fan. Unfortunately he couldn't be at the show on Friday night.

When the competition winner told her partner - she was setting it up as a surprise - that she would be taking him to see his favourite band and that he might, just might have a chance to meet Booga or one or two other members of the band he flipped out. He got overexcited. The straight whiskeys wouldn't have helped either (or perhaps they helped just a little too much - depending on how you look at it).

But there's more.

She was taking him to the HLAH show - she was hoping to get the band to sign the free CD that was part of the prize, and maybe the T-shirt too. And as this was going to be a perfect night for them, or close to it - she was going to propose to him.

But he didn't make it out of the house. So she went to the gig with a friend...

I'm not sure how the proposal will end up working out but we decided this was both a sad and funny story - a brilliant story - so with the help of Booga's partner, Tamzin, we organised for this competition winner to meet Booga; to have the merchandise signed and Booga, who suggested we "all get in the car now and go visit this guy", left the competition winner's potential-fiancée-to-be a phone message. Booga reeled off the world's best hangover cure - a concoction that included at least some parts of a banana and some tomato juice (I missed the rest) - and then concluded the message, after calling him "a useless c***" with the instruction to propose to his Mrs.

Well, I thought it was funny - and I'm sure the competition winner's partner was stoked.

So Head Like a Hole were nice guys after the gig - helping out fans - and they were what fans know and expect on the stage: honest, hard-working rockers. No gimmicks, no cheese, no tongue-in-cheek metal-subversion, just oily, greased-up riffs and party-hard anthems. Good times.

I hope the new album goes ahead.

So - did you get along to the gig? Were you happy with it? And if you have read this far and want another topic to discuss how about you share your stories of the gigs you missed due to, erm, "overexcitement". Or maybe you went along and it was just your partner who missed out?

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