Gig Review: Alien Weaponry @ Galatos, Auckland – 02/06/2018

It’s a damp night, it was 8pm and the doors opened. The crowd began to pack in and I’ll admit there was more than I expected. It was awesome to see other musicians there in support as well, along with the boys from Alien Weaponry. To kick off the night there was a short presentation of the VICE documentary on the band. The snippet showed who the guys are, where they’re from and how Alien Weaponry came to be. It is clear there is more to see, and I’ll look forward to watching the full documentary.

After the snippet finished, the crowd moved forward as Average Mars Experience took the stage. I hadn’t heard their music before, but their music was what I would call heavy and ambient metal instrumental. There’s something nice about appreciating the music and not having to actually put words to it. The crowd was rather still at first but then began to head bang along. There was one guy at the front of the crowd who was having a one-man mosh party. Then towards the end of the set the whole crowd became a mosh pit. As the band thanked Alien Weaponry, the crowd kept the energy up and continued raging.

They held that energy as Alien Weaponry took the stage. The crowd packed in even closer to the stage, to get the best view they could. The guys stood strong looking out at the crowd as their intro Whaikorero played out making for a fantastic way to start the set. The crowd was moshing aggressively straight away as they played PC Bro and it was what I would consider a true mosh pit. The crowd were rough, but they helped each other up and seemed to also embrace each other at points.

Alien Weaponry had been “waiting for this night” and after working “3 years to perfect the album”, that night was here. They transitioned to their Te Reō dominated tracks beautifully by playing the instrumental track that “represents a journey” which is clearly what these guys have been on as well. However, this was about the “journey of our ancestors from Hawaiki to Aotearoa”. Things seemed so crazy. The crowd only seemed to get crazier and they guys decided to test that by organising the crowd to do a wall of death during the performance of their most recent single release, Kia Tangata. But to keep it a bit more interactive and light-hearted, Alien Weaponry decided to play a game of Simon Says. “Simon says Raupatu”. “Raupatu”. It was clear what the band wanted when they performed Raupatu and they got it.