Gig Review: Sidewinder w/Tusk & Awarewolves @ Paisley Stage, Napier – 28/09/2024

Ahuriri’s coolest little venue, Paisley Stage, tonight played host to Poneke heavyweights Sidewinder and Kirikiriroa’s Tusk, with locals Awarewolves providing the third leg of the stool. The combination made for a great night’s entertainment, 3 bands giving it their all and doing their level best to threaten the building’s structural integrity! Thankfully, it survived the onslaught, and will continue to provide a home away from home for the faithful…

On official warm-up duties for the night were local heroes Awarewolves. I’ve previously encountered, and written of, these guys, but that time it wasn’t my luck to catch their full set. Tonight that was different, and glad I was of it too! This is a trio that are fully committed to their craft, doing their best to leave audiences aware that they’ve just seen something special indeed. Their ever-so-slightly pop-tinged brand of metal is quite something and combines well with an evidently well thought-out visual presentation to make for a very interesting package, one that quite clearly has developed a sizeable local fanbase and deserves to get wider attention. At the rate they’re going, that should be coming soon, the more the word gets out!

Next on the bill were Tusk, on their first visit to the area, but hopefully not their last. Their performance belies the pachydermia moniker, being anything other than elephantine! Instead it’s a hard-driving prog-metal sound that emanates, but with less of the pretension that can sometimes plague the genre. Still enough time-shifts to frustrate some of those making their way on to the dancefloor though! To my mind, zero hour of prog-metal is King Crimson’s Red ( go have a listen if you don’t know it!), and Tusk carry that same kind of energy. Longish songs that are powerfully delivered, mixing tempos here and there to keep it more interesting, but never losing sight of the grind! My plus1 rated them as her highlight of the night’s universally great trio of acts. The only fault, if it can be called one, is that the set seemed to be over before it began-such was the intensity of their draw that time slipped away somehow, and before we knew it they were packing up! Got to be some kind of marker of performance in that, coupled with the fact that I hardly made any notes as they were playing-too busy enjoying!

Building on the momentum, Sidewinder took the stage, to a brooding and atmospheric intro, hitting their stride immediately with the bluesy groove of Wasted Space. To those who are familiar with the term FAFO, it was apparent they weren’t here to Fuck Around, but for us to Find Out how good they are! With a deliciously sludgy sound that evokes the spirit of such pioneers of stoner rock as Kyuss, this is a band who’ll draw you in close, and then blast your eardrums-in the best possible way, of course. All overlaid with powerful vocals, at least the equal of more widely known names such as Devilskin’s Jennie Skulander and given extra visual impact by enigmatic projected imagery. A winning package, one that had the too-small audience on their feet, getting in to the blissed-out psych-metal vibe. And made time fly by, quickly extinguishing their planned material and having to drag out, for the demanded encore, a song last played 6 months or so ago!

To sum up, a truly entertaining night of pile-driving metal from 3 quality acts, all playing in different parts of the same musical sandpit, but all equally committed to the same cause: that of providing a break from the daily grind, to come together with like-minded souls and get in to the groove!