News

• share:
• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter
• Pin it!
• Email link

THE FESTIVAL CLUB at the PARADISO SPIEGELTENT

NENEH CHERRY WITH ROCKETNUMBERNINE+
DEPEDRO
PHOX
PASS THE GAT
LAKE STREET DIVE
WHERE THE APPLE FALLS
LADY SINGS THE BLUES
ELECTRIC SWING CIRCUS

4 MARCH –- 22 MARCH 2015
Paradiso Spiegeltent

Throughout Auckland Arts Festival 2015, The Festival Club, set in the shabby-chic elegance of the Paradiso Spiegeltent, will be the place to see and hear a unique line-up of performers so good, so cool and so RIGHT NOW.

NENEH CHERRY WITH ROCKETNUMBERNINE+

(SWEDEN/UK/USA)

Neneh Cherry’'s ‘'80's and ‘'90's smash-hits Buffalo Stance, 7 Seconds and Man Child made the hip-hop goddess a true trailblazer for today’s sassy female pop artists.

Her 1989 album, Raw Like Sushi won her a Brit Award, and she was nominated for a Grammy Award the following year in the Best New Artist category (losing to Milli Vanilli, who later had their Grammy revoked when it was discovered it wasn’'t them singing on their album).

Cherry caused a media furore of her own when she performed Buffalo Stance on Top of the Pops while pregnant.

Now, the cutting-edge star is set to get the Festival Club a-rumblin’' for one very special night. 

Performing a string of new, edgy, don’'t-mess-with-me numbers from her latest, critically-acclaimed album Blank Project – Cherry will be joined onstage by RocketNumberNine+, a wild-jazz, clubland duo from London.

DEPEDRO

(SPAIN)

Jairo Zavala is the real deal.  Spain is the place he calls home, it’'s in his blood and is the original source for his incredible guitar-playing style,– one that is pulled from blues, folk, flamenco, Afrobeat, Latin and rock.

Zavala has taken on a number of guises over his hardworking rock ‘'n'’ roll career, including touring with Spanish stars Amparanoia, the kings of Americana, Calexico, and collaborating with the likes of Bernard Fanning from Powderfinger.  He’'s in Auckland with DePedro, his latest, solo incarnation. 

The DePedro sound is a unique blend of TexMex rock and Spanish-style melodies and vocals, which gives rise to quietly intense, emotive, yearning songs. A balance of the traditional and the experimental, it’'s also shaped by Zavala’s unique instrumentation.

Enormously popular on the touring circuit, DePedro comes to Auckland Arts Festival 2015 fresh from concerts in Europe, South Korea and North America.

"…the fetchingly hoarse-voiced balladeer makes his move from Barcelona to border badlands sound the most natural thing in the world" –-  Telegraph.co.uk

PHOX

(USA)

Phox is a bunch of six friends from the mid-western American town, Baraboo, in Wisconsin. They make music with airy vocals, meticulously madcap arrangements and performance antics that straddle Feist and Monty Python. 

Jam-packed with drums, banjo, guitar, glockenspiel, saxophone and all sorts of instrumentation, Phox’'s sound is replete with sonic surprises.  Mixing simple folk-pop songs with a sprinkling of rock, psychedelia, and soul the Wisconsin-natives are the very definition of indie-pop.

Lead by the soaring vocals of front woman Monica Martin, Phox features multi-instrumentalists Matt Holmen, J. Sean Krunnfusz, Dave Roberts, Matteo Roberts and Zach Johnston.

The quirky line-up has built an enthusiastic fan base since debuting their unique sound just three years ago. With rave reviews for their self named album released in June 2014, and high-profile gigs at South By Southwest, Lollapalooza in Chicago, and iTunes Fest in London under their belts, Phox are the cool kids to watch.

“…"immaculate music…, a sparkling collision of harmonies, horns, banjo, and Martin’s lead elastic vocals” "–  - The Boston Globe

PASS THE GAT

(AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND)

This is way more than your average guitar-party.  Three of New Zealand’'s most masterful singer-songwriters bring together their rich blend of melodies and musicianship and share guitar greats as they take turns ‘passing the gat.’

The perfect remedy for Monday-itis, this show sees celebrated musician and much-loved Arts Laureate, Warren Maxwell ( Fat Freddy’s Drop, Little Bushmen, Trinity Roots), joined by the soulful, rising star and recent Red Bull Music Academy Scholarship recipient, Louis Baker and internationally acclaimed Weissenborn player and multi-instrumentalist, Thomas Oliver.

Combined, these guys have such a genre-defying repertoire, there’'s no telling where their guitars will take you next.

Supported by Creative New Zealand.

LAKE STREET DIVE

(USA)

If you'’re not one of the over 1.5 million wowed viewers of Lake Street Dive’s funked-up Facebook video cover of I Want You Back (Jackson 5), it doesn'’t matter.  Lake Street Dive are coming to the Paradiso Spiegeltent so now we can all share and like them in the real world!

After meeting as fellow students at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music ten years ago, this quirky and irreverent all-American line-up has been belting out their special brand of classic soul, R&B, jazz and British invasion pop on trumpet, upright bass, electric guitar and drums while gathering an ever-growing group of loyal followers. 

Named after a street populated by dive bars  in band member Mike "McDuck" Olson’s  hometown of Minneapolis, Lake Street Dive was formed in 2005 after it performed a song written by upright bass player Bridget Kearney,  and submitted to the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. The song won the Jazz category; with the cash and one thousand CD's prize, Lake Street Dive recorded their debut CD, gathering rapturous reviews and legions of fans in the process.

The four-piece outfit, led by the let-it-all-out vocals of Racheal Price, rocks their live audiences with an unstoppable joy and pure fun topped off with virtuosic instrumentals.

They’'ve headlined the Newport Jazz Festival, toured throughout Europe and regularly appear on US television including The Late Night Show with David Letterman and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Rolling Stone magazine described them as ‘one of the 10 new bands you need to know.’

“"Fine-tuned dynamics, gorgeous harmonies....classic soul...How many ways can you say something is extraordinary?” "– -  Blurt Magazine.com, USA

WHERE THE APPLE FALLS

(AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND)

Iconic New Zealand musicians pair up with their parents for a special concert that celebrates whanau, whakapapa and legacy in lyrics, in Where The Apple Falls.

How much of a musician’s craft, experiences and sound are shared by his or her children? Get some intimate insights into the dynamics that have shaped some of our greatest artists and share the magic of music that binds and spans generations with spine-tingling performances from Whirimako Black and Ngatapa Black, Will Crummer and Annie Crummer, Tigilau Ness and Che Fu, and Mara TK and Billy TK Snr.

MC’'d by Nick Bollinger, this is an intimate and very special look inside the lives, traditions and familial ties of the crème of New Zealand’'s contemporary music community.

Supported by Creative New Zealand.

LADY SINGS THE BLUES

(AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND)

One hundred years since her birth, Billie Holiday’s legacy endures. From God Bless the Child to Strange Fruit, Lady Sings the Blues to Love Me or Leave Me, Holiday'’s unique sound, stance and delivery live today in the music of singers the world over, inspired not only by her story but by her very personal treatment of every song she made her own.

For one special night, some of Aotearoa’s finest female vocalists will perform songs by the Lady herself and other legendary vocalists she inspired. Join Ladi6, Hollie Smith, Whirimako Black, Annie Crummer, Julia Deans and Ria Hall, singing the songs that have shaped and continue to shape generations, backed by the Lady Sings the Blues band, led by musical director Dixon Nacey.

Supported by Creative New Zealand

 ELECTRIC SWING CIRCUS

(UNITED KINGDOM)

Expect a daring fusion of saucy '20's swing and stomping electro-beats from Electric Swing Circus. 

With an explosive sound that reverberates back through time, this hot UK sextet hotfoot their way through everything from break beat and house to reggae and ska, all with their own unique style of sassy swing and attitude.

A full-time, touring band on the international circuit, the typical live ESC set includes electric double bass, vintage samples, gypsy-jazz guitar, keys, live drums and dirty synths and electro beats, making for a consistently inventive, sonically-varied and impulsively jolly show. 

Fronted by ex-pat Kiwi singers Bridget Walsh and Laura Louise, who sung together at high school on Auckland’'s North Shore, the ‘vintage remix’ style of the band has reverberated worldwide, and in the brief three years since forming, ESC have become sell-out favourites for everyone who likes to get up and dance.

“…" a whirlwind of colour, energy and contagious beats; an all-singing, all-dancing party that bursts into action with the slightest of nudges" - ” – noisecannon.com

www.aaf.co.nz

PARADISO SPIEGELTENT SHOW DETAILS