Blog Roddus

Blog Roddus
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Sunday, July 23, 2017

The Terminals - New City Hotel - Christchurch - 21 July 2017



The Terminals are another of the legendary Christchurch underground bands and have been around off and on since the mid 80's. They recently released a new LP and this gig was kinda in support of that. I had only recently started listening to The Terminals, although I had heard of them over the years, the recent compilation was pretty cool and the new album I am still getting to grips with it's very lofi sound. Still I didn't want to miss this rare opportunity to see this band in action.
 This was my first gig at the New City Hotel, the last of the original historic hotels still standing in Christchurch, although a place of pretty rough reputation in the past. It had been a recent development of having gigs there.
 With 5 bands playing and a pretty late start, it was going to be a pretty late night. I arrived just after the advertised 9pm start time to find the place pretty empty with just a few musos milling around including Steve Cogan, the leader of the Terminals. There was yet no one on the door collecting the cover charge and I had to sort that later.
 As the place started to fill, I finally got to meet the dude from Coco Muse Records(Regan) who had been sending me copies of the records he was releasing for testing of pressing quality on my hifi gear.
 Also it turns out that the first Band, Les Baxters, included the owner of Galaxy Records, a small record emporium from which I often procure New Zealand records I am after.
 Les Baxters are a four peice with electronics, keys, samplers and a therimin. They produced an electronic industrial techno kinda noise that impressed me and reminded me a little of early Cabaret Voltaire. Not sure if the improvise their music or it is pre constructed but it was an interesting set.
 Next up it was Richard Maybe's Passion for Nature. Two young ladies on keyboards and electronics who created a cool but very lofi bunch of noises and beats with one of the girls singing but the vocals were mixed down into the mix so that they became part of the sound effects. Not sure if this was deliberate of just part of the bad sound system. I certainly enjoyed what they did and it turns out they were the two girls out of The Negative Nancies, along with Mick Elborado from the Terminals, whom I had seen in Dunedin earlier in the year.
 Colt 45 had pulled out of the gig and fortunately for me and the getting lateness of the show, The Terminals played next, possibly because it was getting past their bedtimes as well, aging hipsters that they are. As they kicked into their set we were presented with a real distorted wall of noise, the sound quality of the PA was not that great or set up all that well, confirmed by Dave from The Les Baxters the next night when I saw him at another gig and I struggled to enjoy the noise they were making and being unable to make out all that much out of the muddy mix. I know they are a pretty lofi band and all but it was difficult to make out the differences of each song, although some I did recognize. The last two songs of the set were quite long drawn out dirges with no vocals and I couldn't tell them apart. Mick played his keyboards with much gusto and was one of the few things I could actually make out at times and I always like Steve Cogals voice. All that being said, I'm still really glad i got to catch these guys in action and they play with a lot of energy and all are legends in the NZ music scene. I didn't wait around for the last band as it was now past 1am and i still had the hours drive home.







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