Latest news with #TheBirthdayParty
Scoop
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
The Jesus Lizard Returning To New Zealand This October
Press Release – Jesus Lizard The quintessential punk band of the 90's – the Jesus Lizard, returns to New Zealand shores for the first time in 27 years this October! Playing two exclusive shows only at Auckland's Tuning Fork and San Fran in Wellington on the 11th and 12th respectively. After initially calling it a day in 1999, the Jesus Lizard officially return full time to save us from the current state of musical mediocrity with their latest album, Rack. A blistering resurgence of the so-called 'noise rock' they helped define alongside contemporaries Big Black, Flipper, The Birthday Party, with their previous and most noted albums Head, Goat and Liar. For those of us who live in fear of the reunion album and subsequent tour, the Jesus Lizard thankfully display not only the same chaotic and dark nihilism of their earlier careers but also the maturity and seasoning of a band riding a wave of renewed and reinvigorated form. Once slated by famed engineer Steve Albini as 'the greatest band I've ever seen' the Jesus Lizard not only lived up to this lofty praise in their prime but continue to do so in their advancing years. David Yow still leads the charge as the maniacally possessed frontman entering crowds with reckless abandon and a stamina that much younger vocalists would kill for. The original rhythm section of David Wm Sims and Mac McNeilly further continue to prove why they were and are the best bass & drum combo since Jones and Bonham, anchoring the ship as Captain Yow and first mate Denison navigate the wild seas of their songs. And while he may not always feature (as he rightly should) on many modern music journalists 'best guitarists lists', Duane Denison could perhaps be the most innovative and idiosyncratic punk rock guitarist EVER. However, each member is a sum of their parts but combined they are as Albini also once said 'the purest melding of the sublime and profane.' Whether you are a longtime disciple of the Jesus Lizard, seeing them when last here in '98, or perhaps your fandom is more recent and have only seen videos of their legendary live performances, you will know that these shows are not to be missed. Tickets go on sale through on Friday 8th May. But get in quick, these shows will sell out fast!!!! Saturday 11th October 2025 – The Tuning Fork, Auckland (All ages)
Scoop
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
The Jesus Lizard Returning To New Zealand This October
The quintessential punk band of the 90's - the Jesus Lizard, returns to New Zealand shores for the first time in 27 years this October! Playing two exclusive shows only at Auckland's Tuning Fork and San Fran in Wellington on the 11th and 12th respectively. After initially calling it a day in 1999, the Jesus Lizard officially return full time to save us from the current state of musical mediocrity with their latest album, Rack. A blistering resurgence of the so-called 'noise rock' they helped define alongside contemporaries Big Black, Flipper, The Birthday Party, with their previous and most noted albums Head, Goat and Liar. For those of us who live in fear of the reunion album and subsequent tour, the Jesus Lizard thankfully display not only the same chaotic and dark nihilism of their earlier careers but also the maturity and seasoning of a band riding a wave of renewed and reinvigorated form. Once slated by famed engineer Steve Albini as 'the greatest band I've ever seen' the Jesus Lizard not only lived up to this lofty praise in their prime but continue to do so in their advancing years. David Yow still leads the charge as the maniacally possessed frontman entering crowds with reckless abandon and a stamina that much younger vocalists would kill for. The original rhythm section of David Wm Sims and Mac McNeilly further continue to prove why they were and are the best bass & drum combo since Jones and Bonham, anchoring the ship as Captain Yow and first mate Denison navigate the wild seas of their songs. And while he may not always feature (as he rightly should) on many modern music journalists 'best guitarists lists', Duane Denison could perhaps be the most innovative and idiosyncratic punk rock guitarist EVER. However, each member is a sum of their parts but combined they are as Albini also once said 'the purest melding of the sublime and profane.' Whether you are a longtime disciple of the Jesus Lizard, seeing them when last here in '98, or perhaps your fandom is more recent and have only seen videos of their legendary live performances, you will know that these shows are not to be missed. Tickets go on sale through on Friday 8th May. But get in quick, these shows will sell out fast!!!! Saturday 11th October 2025 - The Tuning Fork, Auckland (All ages)
CBC
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Nick Cave lost two sons. Grief transformed him forever
When Nick Cave was with his post-punk band The Birthday Party in the late '70s and early '80s, he developed a reputation for being a confrontational performer who intimidated and antagonized his audience. "I was just kind of like that," the Australian musician tells Q 's Tom Power in an interview. "Fighty, nasty, angry little guy with nothing to be angry about. Actually, had a lovely childhood, but had a sort of default setting of contempt for everything. Young people tend to have that." Looking back, Cave says he developed some of his "violent feelings towards the world" as a result of his first significant experience with grief at 19: the sudden death of his father in a car collision. Though he eventually grew out of his youthful contempt, Cave threw himself into his work, remaining completely consumed by his creative pursuits for much of his career. That didn't change until he experienced the devastating loss of 15-year-old son, Arthur, in 2015. "Up until my son dying, I actually thought that what I did creatively was the most important thing of my life," he says. "This was the fundamental reason why I was put on this world — and that completely collapsed when my son died…. The grief process, as slow and as sort of tortured as it originally was, had a massive effect on how I ended up seeing the world." WATCH | Nick Cave's full interview with Tom Power: Cave recalls being "completely mad with grief" following the death of his teenage son. Though he and his band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their 16th studio album, Skeleton Tree, in the aftermath of that loss, he says he was in no condition to be doing anything. "The thing that I know is that you don't know anything when something like that happens to you," he says. "You can even be articulate about things, you can even write and stuff like that, but you're literally a crazy person." Unlike when his father died, Arthur's death profoundly changed Cave in an entirely different way. Sadly, in 2022, his oldest son, Jethro, also died unexpectedly at 31. "There has been a kind of transformation, I think, to be able to see, ultimately, that the world is a good place," Cave says. "That the world fundamentally tilts towards goodness." We are all, essentially, creatures of loss. - Nick Cave In 2018, Cave started his project The Red Hand Files, which invites his fans to write to him with their questions. He says he receives hundreds of letters a day, many of which are incredibly vulnerable, soul-searching and grief-ridden. "It's unbelievably moving and The Red Hand Files had a huge effect on changing my view of the way the world actually is," he tells Power. "We are all, essentially, creatures of loss." With his sensitive, empathetic and thoughtful responses to his fans, Cave is a far cry from the angry young man he once was. "I feel that the idea of touring now is more a form of duty, of something that I feel is sort of valuable on some level," he says. "I think that there is a possibility through music to offer people a transcendent experience…. I hope these ideas sort of leak out in the world, as something that I learned through the death of my child. That the death of my child has some — it's a terrifying thing to say — some value."
