What with school being very stressful, Vanessa being more than six months pregnant and money being a little tight lately, most weekends have been spent inside. Other than the Princess Chelsea show a few months back there have been plenty of reasons not to lave the house.
One reason to the leave the house waa Cut Off Your Hands’ first live show in ages. They’re a band I’ve always really loved seeing live, and You & I is one of my favourite New Zealand albums of all time – great songs, great production courtesy of Bernard Butler. (There’s a theme here.) In an act of supreme self-confidence, the band began by playing virtually all of their new album, Hollow, to an audience completely unfamiliar with the new songs, followed by a quick run through the ‘greatest hits’ in the second half of the set. The new songs sounded excellent on first listen – less abrasive and more melodic, with nice vocal harmonies. Their current press sheet mentions the influence of The Triffids and The Go-Betweens, and there’s certainly something very Postcard-y about new single You Should Do Better. 2011 has already seen the release of some excellent New Zealand albums, but this one could be the deal-breaker.
Cut Off Your Hands at the King's Arms
