DARTZ Tour Blog Week Two: The Kids are Alright.
DARTZ has kicked off a tour that’ll take us across Aotearoa, Europe, and Australia for the next two-and-a-bit months, and I figured I’d document each week, a travel blog of sorts, to have a look into life on the road and our possible unraveling.
Week two of the Aotearoa leg of the tour took us further down south, beginning in Dunedin, the first of three sold-out shows. We flew into Christchurch to pick up a rental van and do the (very boring visually) drive down to Dunners. Ten minutes into the drive after toiling around with the radio, we were faced with the grim reality that the radio’s Bluetooth capabilities were shot.
So, we stopped into a few small-town op shops to collect some CDs, even though the pickings were veryyyy slim, we ended up with Jack Johnson’s 2003 classic ‘On and On’, The 1998 Godzilla Soundtrack (which features a remix of ‘Brain Stew’ by Green Day that just has Godzilla roaring in it), the Small Soldiers soundtrack and ‘Elevator Musiq’ by Nesian Mystic.
Thursday’s Dunedin show was great, except there was a severe lack of any air conditioning and ventilation which resulted in us ending the show drenched from head to toe, I took an ice-cold beer on stage at the start of the 40-minute set, and by the end it was undrinkably warm.
The next stop was Lyttleton at Wonderbar, yet another sold-out show the room was packed beyond capacity (we were told we could sell 150 tickets, yet there was a sign saying max capacity was 120) but was at least quite well-ventilated.
We had been approached by a 14-year-old DARTZ fan Luci a month out asking if her band could open for us, so they were first up and they were excellent, insanely talented for their age. A huge shout out to their parents who came along so they could play and supported them, and stuck around for the show, it’s honestly really endearing to see such supportive parents even if the music isn’t their kind of thing, it’s just really cool to see. I also must thank Luci who made us Brownies (their mother stressed that they were “regular brownies” more than once) and some sick fan art too (Rollyz stole it, so unfortunately I don’t have a pic.
The weekend closed off in Hamilton at our cherished NZ pub, Last Place, for 4/20 or as we dubbed it, ‘The Bush Weed Bash’. Yet another sold-out show it was nice to tick this off as we have a wonderful working relationship with the team here, and it was nice to have a victory in our favorite venue. As always, chef/organizer Connor made the night special, with some excellent food and Bush Weed-themed shots.
The set was tight, easily the best of the weekend, with a very energetic and diverse crowd. I’ll always go to bat for Hamilton, the crowds are always lovely and everyone is just keen to support, yarn, and shout you a drink - more bands need to add Hamilton to their tours. There are a lot of venues across the country owned by bigger corporations that charge stupid amounts of hire fees, take cuts of tickets, and are cold to work with, but small venues like this weekend’s run remind me that there are people behind the scenes in small venues that do this for a love of music and community, and we should do all we can to protect them.
The next morning the boys, sans me, were greeted out back by a young fan called Harrison and his Dad, who proclaimed that his favorite member was Clark (fair) and his favorite color was orange (Clark wears a lot of orange and plays an orange bass). In summary, this weekend also showed us that DARTZ is for the kids.
Danz