Existential questions of humanity

Ha the Unclear plays Plato tonight and Dog with Two Tails tomorrow. Photo supplied.
Ha the Unclear plays Plato tonight and Dog with Two Tails tomorrow. Photo supplied.

Ha the Unclear rounds off a series off gigs around the country promoting their single Kosmonavt with two homecoming shows in Dunedin this weekend.

The band, formerly known as Brown and now based in Auckland, will perform at Plato tonight with Thundercub, the Julian Temple Band, and Ireland's Jenny Liston, and then tomorrow at an all-ages show at Dog with Two Tails.

One of the more lush and poignant songs from the band's debut album Bacterium, Look at Your Motor Go, Kosmonavt deals with existential questions of humanity and meaning: What is our place in the universe?, Its worth? and its relevance?, culminating with the line ''We'll die wondering what we are''.

The song's video, produced by Fluke Creative and made with help from NZ On Air, was filmed at Auckland's Karekare Beach and features an astronaut/kosmonavt who has crash-landed on a foreign beach only to find strange human drones inhabiting the landscape.

''The guys that made it are friends of ours from Dunedin years ago,'' songwriter and guitarist Michael Cathro said.

''They've done projects of starscapes and landscape photography and that kind of thing. Their background is kind of in the natural.

''We talked a lot about not being too literal and trying to leave some ambiguity and openness [in the video].''

 

SOLO PERFORMANCE

Liam Finn will perform a cosy stripped-back show at Chick's Hotel next Friday.

The unaccompanied ''No Mates'' Tour will see Finn performing songs from the depths of his catalogue, from as far back as Betchadupa circa 2002, to his current cerebral New York-inspired solo album The Nihilist.

 

TAKING FLIGHT

Lines of Flight, New Zealand's longest-running experimental music festival, returned this week as part of the 2015 Dunedin Fringe Festival.

Over the past three days, the cream of New Zealand's sonic explorers and experimentalists alongside international guests have gathered to perform, with today's final events being held in Port Chalmers at the Masonic Lodge and Chick's Hotel.

Our Love Will Destroy the World's boundless drone and noise will headline tonight's show, with turntable wizard Alphabethead, Baltimore ''sound mechanic''/pianist duo Two To Tutu Too, and Olympus, the banner under which Stefan Neville (Pumice) and Kraus (ex-Futurians, The Aesthetics) write distorted pop oddities also featuring.

The afternoon performance at the Masonic Lodge will feature Bruce Russell and Alastair Galbraith's A Handful of Dust, as well as a rare show from the Sandoz Lab Technicians, Teen Haters, and Hope Robertson's Birdation.

 


See it, hear it

• Ha the Unclear Kosmonavt Release Tour, tonight at Plato with Thundercub, the Julian Temple Band and Jenny Liston, $10 on the door from 9pm. Tomorrow at Dog with Two Tails, Moray Pl with Jenny Liston, $10 entry from 4pm (all ages).

• Liam Finn ''No Mates Tour'', support TBA Friday, March 27, at Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers, $15 on the door from 8pm.

• Lines of Flight Festival final day, today at The Anteroom, Masonic Lodge, Port Chalmers, with Birdation, Teen Haters, Sandoz Lab Technicians, and A Handful of Dust from 1pm. Tonight at Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers with Nick Graham, Rubbish Unit, Two To Tutu Too, Alphabethead, Olympus and Our Love Will Destroy the World, $10 per show. Tickets available from www.dunedinfringe.org.nz


 

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