While you could call me biased – I know a few of these guys personally and have been a big fan since I first heard them – there’s really no need to doubt my word though.

Afternoon Raj is a five piece band that mixes prog rock with reggae, dub, and ska influences. I love to skank so I have a huge amount of fun dancing to these guys! The Raj’s ringleader James Mason draws the crowd in with a huge smile and a genuine love for what he’s doing. Bede, Matt, Andrej, and Nick impress with guitar solos and great beats.

The crowd grows every time I see them play and more than a handful of us have learnt the words to their older songs. They know it and use it to their advantage! Their show on Saturday, at Wellington’s cool kid venue Mighty Mighty, kicked off with number one crowd favourite Lickity Split, a song that creeps up and kind of explodes. After a few originals guitarist Bede Eagle stole the mic to sing a cover (turns out it was another original!), I’m not sure what song it was but Brandon Boyd (of Incubus fame) could easily have been the one singing it. And then the short set concluded with a few newer originals.

Quite frankly I was relieved when the set finished, I was about to pass out from heat exhaustion. In a matter of 30 minutes I managed to go from tipsy and excited for the music, to AHH WOoo *dance* *dance*, to omg I think I’m going to drown in my own sweat, to I need fresh air and a chair or I’m going to throw up. It was awesome.

Afternoon Raj is the sound of Hawkes Bay in the big city, it’s the sound of summer, and it’s for dub and rock fans alike. These boys may work in offices by day but they’re drunk musical hippies at heart, singing at concerts bringing awareness to global warming and generally trying to save the world.
They’re yet to record an album, an album I’m looking forward to having on repeat, and I’m nervous about how they’ll capture their perfect live sound. They’re smart guys though, I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

Check out Afternoon Raj on Facebook and MySpace. (Don’t take the recordings on MySpace as an indicator of their talent, just an indicator of the style.)

Hear them in real life on the 6th of November at Watusi for a gig I am sadly going to be out of town for. :[

Photo credits to James Schollum

Music is something that didn’t really come into my life until I was a tween. I don’t have the early memories of music that many do surrounding their first years. I do remember Mums reggae christmas tape, her Michael Bolton CDs, and that I got a New Kids on the Block tape when I was five.

My first foray into metal came when I was about 11 years old. My Mums partner was a huge Metallica and Megadeth fan. I really liked Megadeth when I heard it. So much so that I convinced two friends to do a dance to it in our Primary School talent quest. It’s pretty embarrassing thinking about it now!

I listened to Megadeth around the same time I got into Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Hanson, Destiny’s Child and Spice Girls. Spice Girls were the first band I ever became obsessed with. I had their CDs a VHS of the movie and I cut out every single picture I could find to plaster my bedroom wall. The one and only time I went trick or treating I dressed up as Sporty Spice.
Around this time mum found a TLC tape in our driveway which I claimed for myself. I loved it, perhaps without realising how dirty it was, and I learned the Waterfalls rap off by heart.

The first years of high school saw new genres added to my love list. Nu metal, rap, punk, and ska. I was introduced to many new bands through mixed CDs sold at the store and mix tapes borrowed from boys at school. Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, System of a Down, MxPx, and Eminem were the big ones.

Later years of high school came and I was getting over my wigga stage. I no longer rapped along to Eminem every day. I was listening to Incubus, Alien Ant Farm, and Rammstein. All bands I still love to listen to. Rammstein was what first sparked my interest in the German language.

When I left home I was pirating a lot of music. I didn’t know what a lot of it was before I had it on my computer, I just went for punk. I ended up with The Ataris, Third Try, and Fenix TX splattered throughout the mix CDs I made for my discman.

A couple of years ago I got back into music after seeing the video for Helena by My Chemical Romance. It was love at first sight purely for aesthetics, but I found I loved the music too. I became obsessed and would spend hours on the MCRmy street team site. I knew every fact about the band and had hundreds of photos saved. But then Welcome to the Black Parade was released and it was different to the music I loved them for.
I joined MySpace and found the world of online music. I started listening to songs people suggested and found Fall Out Boy, Coheed and Cambria, and Mindless Self Indulgence.

These days Mums partner introduces me to most of the “new” music I hear. My favourite is Sonata Arctica.

I think it’s true what they say about the music you listened to when you were a teen staying with you for life. I still like the music I listened to when I was about 16, Rammstein and Incubus etc. And I’m not (too) ashamed to admit I think Fred Durst did some great stuff that I still listen to on long road trips.

Can you match music to periods of time in your life? Do you still like the music you listened to when you were a teen?

I stood in the longest line I’ve ever seen in Wellington on Wednesday

If you are familiar with Wellington, picture a line that stretches from the main doors of the TSB arena, around the side of the building, down the stairs, across the driveway, through Frank Kitts park up the ramp right down to the over-bridge! That was where we joined it. It was massive and took approximately 45 minutes to reach the front of the line and get in the doors.
When we did eventually get in they were taking all of the studded belts. Thankfully the pat down consisted of one or two soft pats and somehow she didn’t feel my belt.

We got in just after Alter Bridge started, completely missed Redline. Alter Bridge has three members of what was Creed, unfortunately they don’t (IMHO) have the same star power. The singer did make sure he told us at least 5 times how sick he was and how sore his throat was. That may have been the case, but I wasn’t impressed by their music.

After Alter Bridge was POD. They opened with Ka Mate coming over the speakers. I don’t think I’m the only one who thought it was strange. I can’t see the relevance between them and a haka.
I’ve never been a big fan of POD but the crowd seemed to lap them up. Especially when they requested that all the hardcore fans go mental…they truly did!

What we were all waiting for was Disturbed.

Disturbed is huge in New Zealand. Their last three albums went to number one here. And David made sure to thank us for it.

I ended up near the back of the Arena. I could see OK and I wasn’t getting too bashed up by big guys crashing into me (only a little bit). I did miss David’s entrance though. He came in wearing a straight jacket and Hannibal mask.
They opened with a song I’m not familiar with. i haven’t listened to their newest CD very much so I only know a couple of the songs off it. I’m a fan from their first CD and their sound changed quite a bit on the latest offering.

In all Disturbed is one of the best bands I have seen live. The songs took on new meanings. Probably the meanings they were meant to take in the beginning. But hearing them live meant I could feel the words and not just hear them. Jumping around while screaming “This is the way I pray” made something click.

Down with the sickness, Deify, Prayer and Land of confusion were the stand out songs for me.

The only downer were the assholes who thought it would be cool to smoke inside (cigarettes and weed [it's illegal to smoke in a public building in New Zealand]).
And to the people sniggering at the few of us wearing ear plugs, you should try it sometime. It cuts out the crap bits of sound because of the bad acoustics, so you can hear the singing properly. We’ll be listening to music for a lot longer than you, when you go deaf too :D

Disturbed has announced a New Zealand tour. And this time it’s a lot more worthy of the tour title because they are not playing exclusively in Auckland! They are including Wellington and Christchurch.

Yay

I’ve been listening to Disturbed for a long time (a long time for a 22 year old anyway). I was introduced to the when I borrowed a mix tape (yes a tape) from a boy at school when I was 14 and I copied it using my awesome double tape deck stereo. There was a strange song on it with someone screaming Ooh ah ah ah ah! I didn’t know how to use the Internet to my best advantage back then (typing words of a song into Google and finding out what it is :]) so it wasn’t until a while later that I discovered this was Disturbed’s song Down With The Sickness.
I downloaded their first couple of albums when I was a poor non appreciative teenager but I own at least one album now :S
I’ll be picking up their latest one this week.

Tickets for Wellington go on sale to the public July 10 through Ticketek or pre-sale through The Frontier Touring Company on July 8.
$82.50 for seated or GA.

♥ Live bands Yay for Coheed & Cambria and their opening act Slipping Tongue

♥ Having loud music in the car Sol doesn’t like loud music (or music at all sometimes) so it was cool to drive with my sister and have the music up loud!

♥ Gossip Girl Favourite TV show! Those clothes, the money, and Penn Badgley

♥ Seeing my family It was nice to see all the family again. I even got to see my sisters new flat. She’s so grown up :]

♥ My boyfriend being a cutie and moving around the furniture in our lounge to make more space and make it easier to use

♥ Wondering if I’ll spot Gala out and about in Wellington

♥ Lots of new friends from the connection post and people reading my blog :]

My first visit to The Powerhouse in Auckland was a great one.
I travelled to see Coheed and Cambria on the 29th of March. Favourite band for the last while.

There was a bit of a disruption to the visit for some though.
A while after the doors were meant to open (at 7pm) the owner of the venue and two security guards appeared on our side of the doors and announced they had some news that would upset some people. Unfortunately there had been a mix up that was not able to be resolved that meant the all ages gig now had to be R18. The venue is licensed and therefore whether the bar is open or not, whether there is any alcohol on the premises or not they couldn’t let under 18s in or they would risk being shut down. I’m not sure why they didn’t announce this earlier or try to fix it a month ago, but that’s what happened. Under 18s will get their tickets refunded and were able to stand outside.

The opening act was fantastic. The band is Slipping Tongue, the singer, Jennie Skulander does a growl like I’ve never heard before. She does it so well that you can actually hear what she is saying. But don’t worry if growling is not your thing, their CD doesn’t contain a lot of it. The caliber of their performance made me assume they had traveled from America with Coheed so I was surprised to hear the band members hail from Whakatane, Rotorua and Hamilton.
On their MySpace they describe themselves as Metal/Rock/Punk. They are well worth the listen, and if you like what you hear their CD – My Kingdom Falls – is also fantastic. Find them at http://www.myspace.com/slippingtongue.

I was a bit disappointed with the sound quality when it came to Coheed and Cambria. The sound guys seemed to turn everything up to 11, sometimes making it so loud I couldn’t figure out which song they were playing. And I had earplugs.
But, that wasn’t going to ruin it for me. I screamed and danced and jumped and sang my heart out. I was on the mezzanine with a perfect view of Claudio’s flowing hair.
Coheed and Cambria are fantastic live and put on a great show. With guitars being played behind their heads and with their faces at some points.

The show ended with a drum solo that went on for about 10 minutes. It was a bit strange and self indulgent but I was really hoping everyone would come back out and play Mother Superior. No such luck.

I feel so privileged to have seen them play live.

I’m really loving Sonata Arctica at the moment. Especially the album Unia.

Look at these lyrics and hunt down the song, truly fantastic.

Once I got caught in an avalanche, I must have died
When the black swan flew to the rescue and cried
An offer I could not refuse, now I’m working on the other side
Well I flew with the bird then, and we flew all night
And I got to see my prison from a thousand feet high
Buy me a drink, and I’ll tell you about the black swan

So, I guess this one should be an introduction? Maybe I can fix that lame excuse to talk about myself later. (and probably delete this whole page later as well when I’m established!)

I’m Constantine (not my real name, did you guess? :]), I’m 22 and I live in Wellington and have done for just over 5 years. I love music and movies and TV and books and most other types of entertainment. I’m learning to play bass guitar.

Right now I’m not sure exactly what this blogs going to be about. I figure I’ll just start writing and see if I fall in to a pattern. It’s quite likely that not many people will see this anyway so I’ll try to make sure I update regularly and give the people what they want (lol). If no one looks I guess it will be a good way to keep a diary of sorts.

There is a lot of stuff I like, that influence my thoughts and fashion and choices. No doubt I’ll post things about them on here too. One thing that is really interesting me at the moment though is raw eating. I’ve read a lot of stuff about it now and think it’s going to be a great thing to try. Ill document it all here as well. I have Indeterminate Colitis so I’m hoping it will help there and also help me to lose some weight (I’m not overweight but I have a bit more padding than I’d like:]).

Ok until the first ‘real’ post, Bis Später!