Show #09

There's not a whole lot I remember about this actual show. The reasons why this was meant to be Operation Rolling Thunder's album release are lost to me now, but perhaps it was due to the difficulty of getting vinyl to happen in a reasonable timeframe. Their debut LP (helpfully titled 'III' in tribute/rip off to Led Zeppelin) had to be mastered twice by the pressing plant before it sounded any good.

I do remember that we were going to go on 'tour', meaning that both Idiot Prayer and Operation Rolling Thunder were booked to play the following night at The Wunderbar in Lyttleton with How to Kill, but State Highway One was literally washed out and closed in multiple places on the day we were supposed to travel. So that show was to be postponed, and never ended up happening at all.

This show was notable for the constant, incessant rain keeping audience numbers at a reasonable, manageable, low number. The Sunley Band opened the night, we followed, the 'Thunder headlined, meaning the number of performers on stage started as high as possible (something like seven for the Sunley Band? I may be remembering that completely wrong) and got almost as low as possible (two for 'Thunder).

Chicks Hotel under Hector was a reasonably loose affair, and the likeable Port Chalmers locals that braved the weather to see the show made it an interesting night. The weird-arse dance moves were a particular highlight, the fact that there was a limited amount of room for doing forward rolls on the dance floor was certainly no impediment to one merry reveller in particular. There was no such thing as a rider for the band though, most venues seemed to be happy to give the band a beer or two for playing, but not Hector. On the evidence of this recording, that same rule did not apply to sound guys.

This was the first time we played 100 Ducks live, having written it the week before. It did not go as well as hoped. The show was okay, though.

Dave, May 2015

The original liner notes are as follows:

"The intention was two-fold; to have a Operation Rolling Thunder album release, and to go on ‘tour’ with them, to the Wunderbar in Lyttleton. Turns out we picked the stinkest weekend ever to do that, two weeks of persistant rain had not let up by the Friday night we played Chicks and it also caused the closure of State Highway One and the cancellationof the Wunderbar show. Dunedin (well, Port Chalmers) was fine though, Tom Bell did an amazing job on sound, and the full Sunley Band were charming right from the off (including a great Mestar cover). Amongst the local rugby types who tried to avoid the door charge, there was some particularly dedicated punters. Strange dancing included forward rolls, back-flips, and the ‘I need to urinate’ dance.

In the end we covered our costs, ‘Thunder were great, and we were okay. Sweet. The ’Thunder album release will just have to wait.

DAVE, JUNE 2010"