SATURDAY 10 MARCH
BAR BODEGA
HELLSERPOPPIN
By Charlette Hannah
Last night there were three bands playing at Bodega, The Matt Langley Band who I've already reviewed, Miss Conduct, and Hellserpoppin. Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear Miss Conduct, as I just couldn't sit through Hellserpoppin. They lost me from the first moment lead singer Joe stepped on to the stage with a beer bottle in his hand, which he proceeded to nurse for the three songs I endured, and started swearing about something. Ok, so this is rock and roll right? But is it necessary? An image can't carry a band (although Westlife would beg to differ) and if the music falls down, drinking and swearing probably is all that's left. The first song started weakly, with a half decent guitar riff being overshadowed by the bass. Joe went from standing on stage and humming to screaming. There was no build up, and no power in the music. The drummer merely kept time, though he was solid and kept time well. Metal/punk/rock music really needs good strong interesting beats to hold it together. The guitarist was so quiet I could barely hear what he was doing. By the second song they had warmed up a little, and the singing improved. I think Joe has a good voice, but on the whole the band seems slightly misguided. From their website: "We give eternal thanks to our followers for always holding such devotion, in our hearts you are the loving masses against smoky lights and the Hellserpoppin symphony. You channel our venom; you are the water to our thirst, the lifeblood in our veins. And we extend it to you all always."
Like I said, I couldn't listen to a whole set.
12 comments:
I thought Hellserpoppin was great...
Hellserpoppin are a really tight well practiced band and I thoroughly enjoyed their set Saturday night.
You are entitled to your opinion, however if you had taken the time to listen to a whole set you would have been able to put the band into perspective. A song or two can make an impression but a whole set/album can give you an overall view of a band, you could then write an informed review.
Hellserpoppin have an aggressive style comparable to Mudvayne or Kill Switch Engage. There have an interesting choice of song structure not keeping to conventional pop methods. Joe adds a whole new element to the band with melodic vocal lines and spine tingling roars.
There exceptional guitarist (Jeremy) adds another layer with superbly simple licks accompanied with the use of Wah Wah and delay giving a Tool like vibe.
The Rythum section keeps it simple with hooky bass lines and strong beats.
All and all I feel that Hellserpoppin are a very good band.
(There thats a review. Next time take an English lesson and look up the word redundancy! in terms of grammar.)
TW The Conduc
I'm not sure why you're trying to give me grammar lessons, but thanks for commenting!
"I guess I didn’t want to stick around to talk to them which would obviously have clarified the information!"
- maybe you should have stuck around for the whole set before you made your assumptions.
I'm Jeremy the guitarist from Hellserpoppin and very proud of our band! We are all hard working passionate musicians / artists (like yourself I'm sure).
It's always interesting to see other peoples views...it's just quite funny how yours was so negative about us. I must admit, this is the first time someone has bad mouthed us...probably not the last, oh well!...but thank the stars there's more positive vibes coming back to us.
Thanks anyway for taking the time to check us out.
All the best for you,
Jeremy
JEREMY! I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABY!!!11
^_^
Miss C
It's very true that I might not have got the full Hellserpoppin experience by not staying for the whole set - but that was my point, I didn't want to stay. There are many bands I can sit through and some I can't. Obviously by these comments Hellserpoppin have a loyal fan base (very loyal by the looks of one comment), which is awesome, keep rocking!
charlette, u are a hater. F*** off back to parachute festival
The only reason I've allowed this comment through is to let everyone know that this is not what I want for this site and I won't let any more nasty comments through. I don't know what the reference to parachute means as I've never been and I'm not religious. This is supposed to be a forum for mature discussion of live music in Wellington. Please refrain from getting abusive towards me or anybody else, even if you disagree with us.
I saw Hellserpoppin, and while i'm a big fan of this sort of music, I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the guitar was so quiet? Soundguy?? if this was deliberate, then it didn't work at all for me. and I agree about the beer bottle etc...old hat...otherwise they were pretty good
I Thought Hellserpoppin did a great gig on sat night..... but the thing that proves that was the fact that they had everyone up and dancing..... this speaks volumes!!! Enough said!!
Man, I am SOO sick of bad soundys! Tip for bands, get your own soundy that you can trust with controlling your sound, and keep him/her for ever.
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