Tour Dairy: Weta Reunion
Dates: Auckland, Wellington,& Chch
By: Aaron Tokona
Subject: My Impressions
It's Monday afternoon I just picked my little one up from school, It's been a choice weekend. I was driving around today and had this thought that I would write about how the tour went and express my personal thoughts and feelings about it. Whether people care too read it or not is beside the point, fact is its cool that we can do these things so easy in this information age that we are all thriving in right now.
1st thing straight off the bat is that I would like to thank all of you that came to our gigs. I/we are sincerely very grateful to you all that made the effort it really meant a whole lot to us. It's not the easiest of times out there in the world for any of us at the moment. I think it's fair to say that we are all cutting back our budgets as things tighten up all round right now! In times like these it's hard for most artist and performers to be able to produce and present work in the way that we envision it. But I think we did our best to put on these gigs and to all of you that came we give Aroha and gratitude too . . . . . . . . . . . Thanks Guys Awesome Buzz x
Well then………. 2 weeks prior to the tour we spent 2 weeks together at my studio space in Lyttleton, We had an awesome buzz and didn't piss around. We got stuck in and it was heaps of fun, and lots of laughs. I think Lyttleton made a great impression on the rest of the boys, there is a choice buzz in this little town and the locals and my dear Lyttleton friends made the experience so much more for us. We broke our 'playing Live' Drought by performing at the 'Southern Amp' festival which was choice buzz! That was a bit of a brave thing to do as a 1st gig back show, but I think you gotta have a sense of fearlessness about doing things otherwise you just end up doing the things you have too, and doing nothing that you love. After breaking the 'playing live' drought at the Southern Amp Festival and rehearsing everyday for 2 weeks by the last couple days in the rehearsal room I had a sense that we had done everything we could and that it was time to just get out and play and soak up a buzz.
Auckland: The 1st gig of a tour is always going to be an exercise in calming the nerves! Kevin and Gareth who produced and promoted the gig I could tell were a little stressed and nervous too! But everything went off without a hitch in the end and we played to packed house at Galatos. Highlights for me was seeing my Mum who came to the gig and catching up with my Auckland crew. The gig went ok for me, It felt like it was a little clumsy, we were all nervous and it took about 4 songs for us to find our groove but we got there in the end. The strange thing about it is to me it felt like a 'industry showcase' gig! Like one of those gigs that a lot of record company and industry people come too to check out the new band that is just signed or just about too! We had 2 support bands I got there a bit late to check the 1st band out but I did see The Midnight Youth play and I really love there buzz. We have become mates with those boys and we all love em. They awesome. There singer Jeremy gave me some good advice about vox warm ups just before the gig, he said to go for a run and warm up and sing all day so I promptly went out the back and started sprinting up and down the stairs worked up and sweat and did a vox warm up, that was great it helped a lot, so if anyone ever comes to a gig and sees a stocky maori guy running up and down some stairs in a skirt singing, know that there is some kind of method to the madness!
After the gig i left pretty promptly. I though it better that I didn't get into too much conversation as I wanted to look after the old voice a bit! It took me a long time to begin to believe that I could sing again. Ive always been a confident guitar player but really became the singer by default in this band. Mostly a mental thing I think but my boys were really supportive of my need to leave straight after the gigs to try in someway save my voice. I was very grateful for that. So Auckland was choice and we were classically up early and out to the airport pretty early the next morning. It was only at that moment that the feeling of touring hit me. The late nights and early morning flights! It was the thing that eventually ground me down just before we broke up some 8 years ago but it was good in that moment to feel like an excited kid again off on an adventure on the road of rock n roll.
Wellington: The hometown comeback gig! Everything to me on this little tour was about having an awesome gig in our hometown and I think we nailed it! All our songs were written in this city & in a lot of ways our songs belong to its people. Sounds like a romantic idea but those thoughts and feelings permeated throughout my mind the whole day. I knew it was going to be a good night for us as soon as I got to the venue. Everything was set up and I could see that the crew at the San Fran Bathhouse had put the hours, effort and thought into the set up already. It blew me away our tech crew in Wellington were just amazing. Everything about touring is about the gig the 'Show', and in my opinion the most important people on tour is your tech crew they make it happen. Steve and Ollie were our techs and they inspired all the confidence we needed to make the gig great. In a lot of ways it was the missing element the was the difference between us having a good or awesome gig. It allowed us to not worry about anything but the music, which is kind of the whole point really! We had Jammo on the lights that looked like he'd been rigging up his gear the whole night! Which looked amazing, we had one of the very best soundman in our country Andy Craig who besides being highly skilled and ultimately professional has an amazing calming effect on me personally, is quiet, unassuming and has a great sense of humour that always seems to come out right in the perfect moments. We had Ziggy our tour manager who was just incredible for us, he looked after all aspects of our tour he set the tone for everything. He was magic, he really got to know our personalities and how we all as a band bounce off one another. Just bloody awesome. It really struck me after the gig that if we had these people around us we would of survived the 1st time round.
The gig went great I think all these elements came together and produced what we all wanted or more what we needed – a good gig. Its like most things so ive come to learn, its not so much about the big stuff its all about the details! Its all the little things that truly make the difference between a good or awesome gig, and things felt awesome to us on that stage that night. After the gig i caught up with my very good friends, stayed up late, smoked too much, drank too much, talked too much, lost my voice the next day, had no sleep…………….Was all worth it, Was awesome buzz. On the way out to the airport I was pretty shattered but had fun getting on it with Wellington! I had a good feeling in my stomach, a sore head, a warm heart, a healed soul and a resounding phrase swelling around in my brain – "were back".
Christchurch: As chch is my home now days I was keen to see my wife and my little one. I was buggered I think I had always been the old man in this band! I went pretty hard the previous night and was feeling the full effects of it this day! The blow out in Wellington came at a pretty big cost I lost my voice it was pretty bad and I felt bad about it! But long story short chch rocked too! Wellington set the tone for us as we now knew that we were a band again that was capable of putting on a good show, this inspired confidence in us and now we felt like there was a level and a feeling that we could hope to aspire to and work to go beyond. I was meant to be at als bar the venue at 10pm I was still asleep at 9:30! So I got to the gig the voice was pretty crap. The turn out was awesome chch turned up. The lights looked amazing – hang up lighting did an awesome buzz for us. I went to work on getting my voice into some kind of shape straight away! Being on the road with the Shihad brothers certainly teachers you a few things about how to be a great live band, and we took notice! One of the things I learnt from Johnny Toogood was how to deal with a shattered voice. So there I was out the back bowl of boiling water, mixed in some vicks rub, towel over the head breathing in the fumes………. Works a treat! A few whiskeys later the voice is as ready as its ever gonna get to get through a hour 20 min set. The other thing with the crapped out voice is there is really no room for pacing the voice through the gig you just go out there and kane it on the very 1st song and that's exactly what I did! After that the energy and hype factor hopefully pulls you through it….. and it did that night ! Chch was awesome, Its always great to play too your friends and family and most of my Lyttleton family were there, I love Lyttleton ive found a piece of my hometown Wellington in chch.
So overall this has been an awesome thing to do, we made a commitment to ourselves and to one another and followed through. It's been an awesome experience for us as a band of rock n roll brothers and also for each of us as individuals. I think ultimately this has been a healing experience for us boys we put our demons to rest and had heaps of fun doing it!
We all came outta this with the commitment to do another record together which is exciting for us. I think also it feels like a cool thing to do 8 years later, I personally have that much more of life stuff to be able to be inspired by. This time things will be different though! Its so cool that the music industry has changed so much, now we can do what we want, when we want – no pressure buzz! It's a great time to be an artist we might even make some money this time! Kids to feed now!!! Thank you so much everyone that came out and saw us, again it meant so much to us you all made the effort.
Hey mate..... just letting you know we're playing two gigs this week. "Beerzaplenti" at the Rooty Hill Carousel Inn from 8.30 tomorrow night (Thurday 15th Oct). And Headlining St. Mary's Lucky Aus Tavern Sunday (18th Oct) arvo from 5. ($10 cover) Hopefully see ya there kk Nath [Pure Heir]
Hey there, thanks for accepting our add.... our album is coming out in november and will be available my here, twitter, facebook and itunes. what you been up to? Thanks again Nath [Pure Heir]
Thanks for the compliments a while ago. We've almost finished our first album and it sounds much better than the demo songs you've heard! You guys rock! good luck with your "reunion" tour!
suup huge fan from the start...galatos gig was choice!! great you guys are back!! last saw you play at roadhouse with shihad d4 and jimmy barnes was sik...!!!
WOW - THANK YOU so so much for the awesome comments! we are having a blast atm being back together jamming in port lyttelton - hoping to kick out the jams and maybe another album CHUR Clinton
Just to be an absolute ass...i've noticed a bit of a Melbourne theme going on in the comments so who do I have to smash to get you guys to play here?....I won't be content untill I see "Weta live @ the Corner Hotel" this summer!
Wow!!! Thats awesome!!! you guys are playing!!! Good on you guys!!! Exciting to hear u guys back on stage, good shit!!! I loved your sound, your album, the energy of WETA!
To be honest you guys just made my day to hear you guys gonna rock out again! Cheers for that!
I'd love you guys put together new music as well, a new album too ;) You guys had your own sound. Shame to let it all go!
Neways good to hear! Im gonna go blast, Got the Ju!
Hey thanks for the add, you guys rock man! I was just wondering where I could get a copy of your cd? I've been looking around for it and it doesn't seem to be in stores.
