So I had never seen ‘the Boss’ before and had only heard crazy and great things about him so I was anxious with anticipation. I could feel my chest tightening as the music between each act played on and it was at this time I noticed what seemed to be a crazed, long zz-top style bearded, drunk madman stumble onto the stage at the Wunderbar. I was confused and my heart pounded much harder when this bare-footed behemoth turned around and seemed to be wearing a black ‘Boss Christ’ muscle tee. The Boss then set up a ratty old kick drum, some old hi-hats, an old beat up hollow bodied electric and a lovely old valve amp. I could not believe my eyes and felt as though I could well have been some how mysteriously transported across the atlantic to some tiny, hick town in the mid-west USA where the local hill-billy, shed dwelling, tobacco chewing mad-man had arrived to play his renditions of country classics. The pre-show music faded away and the Boss started his show by stamping his bare-feet in stage and chanting in a deep, husky like growl. An a capella style intro that also felt like the beginnings of some form of ritualistic seance, it did work the crowd up in to a frenzy and set the scene for what was to follow. As Boss then picked up his old guitar, sat behind the drums and finished downing his 6 pint of beer, he lowly mumbled something and then kicked into a frenzy of HOT roots/blues style playing with a catchy country shuffle style groove permeating from out of the rickety old drum kit. Every head in the room nodded, and feet started tapping. I turned to look at the friend I was with and we both had smiles from ear to ear as we could feel the party beginning. After the 3rd song Boss was joined by legendary slide guitar player Delaney Davidson who jammed out the rest of the set on slide which just added an eerie edge to the foot-stomping, swamp rock that was being blasted out infront of me.
Tag Archives: wunderbar
So here we go! It’s Tuesday morning here in the Rock Star office and I am STILL struggling for breath and wobbly on my feet after a crazy show I attended on the weekend that got me really thinking about the precious-ness that has come to surround me and many of my musician buddies regarding how we play and approach live performing.
The Wunderbar in Lyttelton saw the 4th ‘Harbour sessions’ show come to town. To give you some background, The Harbour Sessions is a monthly showcase of some of New Zealand’s cream of independent, obscure acoustic musicians. I am not just talking about ‘Jewel or Jack Johnson’ rip off amateurs, we’re talking unique, obscure, bizarre, cute and catchy and this show was yet again a perfect example of this. The night started out with none other than Harley Williams playing his lovely, downbeat country influenced original songs and had the entire room at his finger tips. Luckily enough I had decided to take my mobile recording set up to capture the entire night’s work (consisting of a Black Lion modded 002…but that’s another story).
Next up was a strange set from a performer I can’t for the life of me remember now (it was either one of those really long 5 word names, or I had a few too many lagers by this point). This player had a gorgeous old Yamaha acoustic that he’s consciously decided to NEVER modify and put a pickup in so was au naturale so to speak. Mic’ed up this guitar sung like an angel from heaven, and accompanied with this guys crazy husky voice made for a very interesting contrast and an extremely memorable performance. Now, by this stage the venue was packed and each and every person mostly swaying to their own booze fueled rhythm, which was an ideal platform for the one and only ‘Boss Christ’ to step up…
Thanks to Geoff for the beautiful pictures of the Wunderbar.





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