Following Flying Nun's recent re-issues of The Verlaines' 1985 debut album Hallelujah - All The Way Home and compilation LP Juvenilia, the seminal Dunedin band will perform two sets tonight at Sammy's.
Alongside the current line-up, who still record and release music under the moniker, the classic Hallelujah will be performed in its masterful baroque entirety by the original line-up of the time: songwriting force Graeme Downes, bassist Jane Dodd, and drummer Robbie Yeats.
The show will be only the second time the trio has performed together in many, many years.
The same line-up performed the album last year, and having been present on that occasion, attendance is highly recommended. Cuts such as Lying In State and album closer Ballad of Harry Noryb shone with vitality and a great sway courtesy of Yeats and Dodd, and Downes' lyrical concerns, all biting wit and acidic alienation, also haven't aged at all.
''It feels and sounds like it could have been written yesterday. It's still a unique bunch of songs that hang together really well as an album, and as a sort of listening experience. I'm really proud of it; as proud of it now as I was then,'' Downes told the Otago Daily Times last year.
Flying Nun and American re-issue partner Captured Tracks Records reportedly have plans to reissue The Verlaines' other high-water mark Bird Dog and Some Disenchanted Evening next year, and the band will also be releasing a double live album from 1986 via Dunedin/London label Far South Records, which has recently been working with The Chills.
Another seminal Flying Nun outfit, the Puddle, led by George D. Henderson, will make a rare southern appearance at the show, alongside the Shifting Sands and Deirdre Newall's Tiny Pieces of Eight.
- Singer-songwriter Hannah Curwood has made a late change to her New Zealand tour schedule, the London-based Kiwi moving her Dunedin gig back a day. She now plays at Chick's Hotel, Port Chalmers, tomorrow night, supporting The Puddle.
''We were meant to play on Saturday but seeing as how The Verlaines are playing at Sammy's I thought I'd better head along to that,'' she explains.
''The Puddle have very kindly allowed me to join their bill at Chick's on Sunday night though.''
Be there
The Verlaines perform Hallelujah - All the Way Home, tonight at Sammy's, Dunedin with support from The Puddle, The Shifting Sands, and Tiny Pieces of Eight. Pre-sale tickets $20 from undertheradar.co.nz and Castle MacAdam Wine, Portil, and Too Tone Records. Door sales available.
