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Chequered Future
By Megan Johnson
The Checks, a new five-piece rock band
from New Zealand, played a full house of 500 at the Little
Brother fashion show party in a warehouse in Auckland
for the Ponsonby Fringe Festival.
First I was disappointed as I expected
them to sound like The Strokes and then I realized I was
pleased they didn’t. They just had haircuts like the New
York City boys and sounded like lads from Shoreditch,
London.
Often compared to The Cramps, I've heard
it said they sound more like early Rolling Stones meets
AC/DC via The Strokes. Definitely a kiwi garage rock feel
with energy to spare and more charisma than Mark Todd's
racehourse.
I wasn’t sure if it was just me or whether
they were repeating their earlier, all original, songs
in the encore- they could’ve played two tracks over the
entire 70 minute set actually and I wouldn’t have known...
but that’s not their playing, it was just all blurring
together for me by then.
Their heavy guitar-based sound was complemented
by an overly enthusiastic front man, who jumped around
the stage singing and was not to be contained by such
constraints as propriety, custom or stages, as he leapt
onto the catwalk to thrash about there for a bit.
The guitarist was the ladies’ favourite
with his pixie-faced good looks and gamine haircut; a
male Audrey Hepburn. When I looked at the fluffy-haired
nodding drummer all I could see was Dougal the dog out
of Magic Roundabout.
The Checks look pretty underage and had
a tray of Red Bulls instead of beer next to the drum kit
on stage, which made me smile. Apparently they went to
Takapuna Grammar and have their affected way of dressing
at such an early age from their parent’s influences from
music they listened to, in the sixties.
The Checks fitted in perfectly to the
fashion show environment and looked like the male models
off the catwalk had picked up guitars and mics and started
playing, in the shiny sharp toed brogues or Chuck Taylors,
and paisley shirts and ties. Even their name, CHECKS,
fitted in with the 1960s theme of the Little Brother fashion
show, and matched the badge pins handed out at the door
with fabric checks.
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