So this is the fourth Homegrown since it started, and was the fourth one I attended (yup, I am very proud of that fact!) I didn't get to spend as much time in Wellington as I would have liked (my heart will forever belong there) but I did get to see some of my favourite NZ bands. I can't be bothered doing a proper review, so here are some pretty pictures I took, and maybe some comments.
Supermodel: I had never heard of them and didn't know what to expect, but they were playing before Motocade so we thought 'Why not?'. They turned out to be awesome!
Next was
Motocade: and they are always brilliant (fun fact, I first saw these guys live at the first Homegrown). I love the single 'Holy Moly', but even better they played my fave song 'Friends'.
After that was
Ivy Lies. I had heard the single 'Addicted' a year earlier on the C4 ad and had been trying to hear more of their stuff since. I had even leagally downloaded a couple of their singles from itunes, but was worried that they would be one of those girl groups who were made awesome by autotune in the studio, and sucked live. Not the case. They rock. I bought the album afterwards. WOOT!
After that we headed over to the Jim Beam Rockstage. We managed to get to second row of the mosh pit in time to catch the end of
Black River Drive, who I thought were good, but I didn't enjoy them enough to want to race out and buy their album or anything.
After that was one of my fave NZ bands
THE CHECKS: God I freaking love these guys. I have actually lost count of how many times I have seen them live, (and I am pretty sure four of those times were at each homegrown). Unfortunately because they were on the rock stage instead of their usual place on the indie stage, the sound quality wasn't as good (and by that I mean it wasn't as LOUD) and you couldn't hear the actual words half the time. Plus the singer did seem REALLY out of it (just how many drugs did he take before getting on stage?). But as always, it was still an awesome show. Squeeee The Checks!!
Then we killed some time before heading over to the Redbull Studio Live stage and caught the end of
Cairo Knife Fight before
The Phoenix Foundation. And if I could go back in time I would probably stay at the rock stage longer and miss these acts.
But then came
The Clean! These guys are the Godfathers of Indie rock in NZ and it was so amazing to see them live.
And we finished up with an always amazing, very energetic
Die! Die! Die!. I love these guys (even if the singer does look a lot like my mate Jeremy) and as always they were well worth seeing.
So it was a great night in the end. A couple of run ins with rude, drunk, annoying people in the audience, but that always happens. The music more than made up for it. Only next year guys can you not make it such a long walk between stages! We missed out on seeing Tiki Tane because he was all the way across near Oriental Bay, and by the time we pushed through the crowds and waited in line numerous amounts of time we had missed his show. Boo. But the rest was good. I think I will give it an A-
