Next big thing Broods played Dunedin Town Hall last week. The following day, their photograph was in the paper again. Otago Daily Times music columnist and musician Sam Valentine reports on how the other band experienced the show, the support band, his band, Males.
The response I've given to nearly everyone who has asked ''how the show was'', has been pretty much the same: ''It was weird but really good''.
The weirdness started as soon as I arrived at Dunedin Town Hall for our sound check.
Arriving at the venue straight from work (thanks for letting me leave early, Linda!), I was shocked to see a handful of kids already waiting for the doors to open, nearly three hours before showtime.
At most of our shows people arrive hours and hours after doors open, and are never, ever three hours early.
Once inside, I realised how much I had underestimated the size of the Town Hall.
It is huge, and was particularly imposing with the lights dimmed, shaking to the noise of young Nelson electro pop-stars Broods: the band for which my band, Males, were there to open.
Broods is the brother/sister pair Georgia and Caleb Nott. Caleb handles production and backing vocals, while Georgia, with her strong and breathy voice takes the frontwoman role as lead vocalist.
They have performed music together since high school, winning Rockquest in 2011, but in the past 18 months it's really taken off for them.
After meeting Joel Little, now famous for his work as a producer and collaborator with Lorde, while he was a judge at Rockquest, the three began working together, and Broods posted their debut Little-produced single Bridges to music-streaming site Soundcloud in late 2013.
The song, a downbeat, haunting, dreamy piece of nostalgic electro-pop, quickly caught, and on its strength the band signed with major American record label Capitol Records and Polydor in the UK in December.
Personally, both Georgia and Caleb (and their whole team) were very friendly and chilled.
Just really normal people at work, trying to make the temps (us) feel at home for the day.
I've heard of a few instances here in Dunedin of headlining bands literally putting up walls to stop the openers interacting with them, but we actually had to walk through the Broods' dressing room to reach our wee cave in the basement.
In one of those - I imagine quite typical moments - I think we might have been most excited about the prospect of getting a free meal and a rider before we played.
And man, we were not disappointed. Fish, risotto, vegetables, and sparkling water! Cupcakes, a platter, and Mars Bars! A whole fridge to ourselves! I could get used to that pretty easily I think.
Walking on stage was nerve-racking, but I'm constantly nervous anyway.
I think Richard, our singer and guitarist might have managed a little half wave to the dark room, then immediately second-guessed the decision.
People started to scream as they saw us emerge. It made me think of a classic moment at an OUSA Orientation show in 2011, at which my old band played, when part of the crowd left before headliners Kids of 88, having confused them for the second support act, a vaguely similar Christchurch electro-duo called Computers Want Me Dead.
Our set? It was fine. Apart from one brief (and hilarious) moment, all three of us played the same song at the same time.
We were given a strict 30 minutes to fill, but our predominantly short songs combined with nerves meant we kicked it and blew through nine tracks in about 25.
The contrast between Broods and what we do is pretty striking, a gulf we weren't entirely sure how to navigate.
Tex Houston, who we've worked with before, and who will record our debut album in the coming months, helped us out on sound duties.
You can't really mix a scatty three-piece garage band like a broody (they must get this kind of thing all the time, honestly ... ), synth band, so I think he kept us punchy, compact and loud, as opposed to trying to compete with the frequency-filling Broods.
I should also say: teenagers are an incredible audience. I hope we get (and make) the opportunities to play to all-ages crowds far more regularly in future.
They all seem so passionate and eager, yet still extremely discerning about what they do, and don't, like.
Of course, I say this as a barely 22-year-old, but it really did feel quite inspiring to be able to play for just over a thousand mostly very young people.
The reaction has been lovely too, on social media especially.
A week on, we're still steadily gaining Instagram followers (@malesmales just fyi!), and the Tumblr inbox has been more active than ever before with positive vibes.
Broods' set was tight and professional, as you'd expect.
The crowd seemed to connect with the bouncy and charismatic Georgia in particular, hanging on her stage banter and shimmying dance moves.
Bridges definitely still stood out song-wise, and its hook and Georgia's voice were floating around my head, as we packed out our backline and chatted with people outside the show, before heading off to Radio One's Onefest to finish the evening.
