Hear that? ... It's band comp season

Oh I do love a good band competition and Christchurch seems to be veritably swimming in them at the moment. It can only mean that one; there’s enough bands working out there to warrant all the effort and two; that there’s a big enough market to support all the new sounds being produced. In fact there’s over 500 local bands currently listed on CHART the Christchurch Music Industry Trust site. How fantastic is that? Well pretty blimmin' fantastic actually - what a great environment for young bands to enter into.

It seems to me that the amount of venues with regular slots for original music has been off tha hook this year - it’s just so great to see after years of dreary covers bands being the only live music you could find most nights. Not that I have anything against covers bands but it’s great to see original local music pulling good crowds and riding high for a change.

Spring will see band competitions kicking off this month at Zebedees with Rapid Storm for bands under 20yrs and then Roundup at the Dux de Lux next month. The only problem I foresee is that the grand final of both these competitions are on the same night. But if you look on the bright side the good news is that there’s gonna be two great gigs on Saturday Oct 2nd at Zebedees and the Dux for your viewing and aural pleasure. You just need to plan carefully if you want to see both.

I’ll be heading to the Dux because, as I may have mentioned, I LOVE a good band comp and I can’t wait to see who will be in the Roundup final this year. Previous winners include Sleepy Age, Von Klap, The Tiger Tones, Bang! Bang! Eche!, Slipstream, The Undercurrents, Shapeshifter, The O'Lovelys, The Deceivers, The Insurgents, Heavy Jones Trio and P Bass Expressway - who will be next?

I should also mention that UCSA had their band comp recently which it was taken out by Von Voin Strum. Well done guys!

And this news just in - Chartfest Band Search winners Custard Bear have made the Smokefreerockquest Final. Whoop! They'll compete with 7 other bands in Hamilton on September 11.

Watch my blog and I'll keep you posted on who's entering Roundup this year, how the heats at Zebedees are going, and how Custard Bear get on at Smokefreerockquest.