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It’s back – time for Loserpalooza 2025.
Totara St will come alive from midday for 12 hours on Saturday, June 21, with the sounds of 24 bands each playing for 30 minutes on one of two alternating stages.
It’s a mammoth venture, now in its eighth year. Bands used to come from across the country until the pandemic struck. In 2020, with the same organisational skill that led to this year’s jazz festival moving inside in the face of an extreme weather event, promoter Austin Cunningham moved the entire festival online.
Since then he has switched to a line-up of purely Bay of Plenty bands. That’s quite extraordinary when you think of it. Is there another musical genre that could yield two dozen BOP bands? Perhaps if you combined jazz and blues, but even then you’d be short.
Real bands
And I’m not talking about scratch bands assembled at a couple of quick rehearsals for a big show. No, these are real bands: they play gigs, they record and release music, they have songs in charts. And it’s not just a teenage riot. Sure, there’s Sewerside Rats, mid-teen girls delving into 1970s punk, but the average age probably skews closer to 50 than 15.
Sewerside Rats. Photo / Ryan Greenwood
I’m embarrassed to say last year was the first Loserpalooza I’ve attended. I did a 1pm-5pm stint and revelled in every minute. There was a huge variety and with each band only playing 30 minutes nothing drags.
Highpoints were the off-beat pop of chart-topping We Will Ride Fast, the attack of This Is How We Die, who would be sensational with a big light show, Dead Simple, who brought an increasing and impressive energy to their set, and particularly False Waltons. I’ve mentioned before that being pinned to a table by the sheer force of their sound possibly isn’t for everyone. But it worked for me.
False Waltons. Photo / Supplied
False Waltons play wall-of-sound guitar rock and this time are also offering a warm-up gig the night before, on June 20, around the corner at Palace Tavern with Slaying Seas and Swallow the Rat.
So it’s Totara St for me next Saturday, June 21, along with Stunt Clown, Two Skinner, Grown Downz, Skonk, Sewerside Rats, The Slaying Seas, Hoick, Carrion Bride, Somacaine, False Waltons, Dead Simple, This is How We Die, Not Exact, Eddie and the Dreamers, We Will Ride Fast, 5G Meatsuit, Talismer, Cost of Living, The Beatnik Staffs, Token Ceremony, Crate of Chaos, The Foamies, Punktuation, and Threat.Meet.Protocol.
Talismer. Photo / Ryan Greenwood
Interesting venture
If that’s not your cup of meat, there’s an interesting venture at The Jam Factory on June 21. A group of singers at “open mic” nights are collaborating for a group show, hosted by Joanne Melbourne, well-known at such nights and for singing with Mike Garner and others.
There are seven singers, including Lil Wilkinson, Hilary Bradley, Colette Turner, Orna Amir, Trevor Bolton and Sue Windmill, while the second half of the show is an album launch for Ben Lloyd’s new offering ‘Leave No Stone Unturned’. Sounds like a fun night.
Hear Winston’s latest Playlist: https://tinyurl.com/bdfjc7nn