Meatwaters Music festival 2002


James Robinson

The meatwaters music festival 2002 was held at the Space over the 5th, 6th and 7th of September. During the 3 nights, Dunedin painter James Robinson came to town to do a impromtu and responsive piece of work in conjunction with the festival.


The line up for the Thursday night went as following. The festival was kicked of by the mr sterile Assembly with the new addition of live foot percussion. Next was the 1/3 Octave Band. Beautiful sub-end rumble hewn from this lovely collaboration. Third was the Brown Marks with their electronic pops, whistles and farts. Finally for this evening was Thee Ideal Gus, being stefan from Auckland and clayton from Dunedin. Loud, raw and the closest thing to the best punk music I have seen in a while. The meatwaters crew minus a few

The second night kicked off with a splendid tone, the first act being Anthony Donaldson and Jeff Henderson, playing gramophone records,keyboard, percussion and sax. Next was Shehard( formerly Poptart) delivering their own fine brand of angular pop. Next on stage was the divinely manic Dark Anus.Stage diving from a flat floor into the audience, this has to be the BEST metal around. Pumice concluded the second evening with his own fine repetoire of well crafted pop songs submerged within hiss, crack and chaos. 1/3 Octave Band plus extra guest


eso steel The final night was booted off to a rollicking start with Swagger Jack's interpretation of country, it was as if Sid Vicious had been born in the back blocks. Second was Dave Edwards performing poetry, with and without guitar,tapedeck and street noise. Followed by the Deconstruction Unit, wellys own jazz, rock, improv beast, 3-4 guitars, 3 saxaphones, tea chest bass and drums delivering beautifully fucked tunes.

After DU, the tone eased for a moment as eso steel from auckland(at present), 30 odd minutes of subtle tones reprodeced via laptop before the final act of meatwaters hit the stage, The Futurians. A 3 piece rock-out ensemble,clayton and beth from dunedin and stefan from AK on drums. A sci-fi-lo-fi powerhouse performance to end the event on a electric high. Deconstruction Unit


swagger jack says sing along 'fuck you you fuck, fuck you you fuck, fuck you you fucking fuck' This years series of shows was a hugh improvement on last years.It hit the mark that I have been trying to reach, mixing diverse and eclectic music under the context of performance with an emphasis on the theatrical. My only major self-criticism of the shows is that there is still too few women involved in music making at this diverse end of the spectrum(for whatever reason). There is an impression that holds, in Wellington at least, that experimental-improvised-knob-twiddling music is the realm of boys. Horseshit methinks
It is a challenge for Meatwaters 2003..
All photos by Andrew Ross.
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