A couple weeks ago I went to Auckland, New Zealand for three days and spent much of the duration holed up in my hotel room in a feverish state of crippling jetlag. Turns out that travelling literally to the opposite end of earth for 72 hours wasn’t the smartest idea.
What made it slightly less feverish was hanging out with a genuinely lovely, lovely band. What made it a little bit exciting was the fact that the aforementioned band are both A) Really great, and B) Going to be massive very soon. I’m of course talking about The Naked And Famous.
Here’s a little rundown of some of the highjinks we got up to around their hometown, in the brief windows where I was able to actually stand up:
After a Number One single, they were playing two sold out nights at the big hip Auckland venue the Powerstation. As this is New Zealand we’re talking about, their answer to Brixton Academy fits 1000 people. Live TNAF are a very different proposition than on record, far closer to M83 and Nine Inch Nails, and less like Passion Pit than I’d anticipated
Their buddies the Kids of 88 were playing before them
The is the gang coming offstage and being a bit emotional on the second night
This is us looking around their practice space, which is adjoined to an art gallery
We took a drive up to a big hill and frollicked
And had one of those crazy Chinese meals where they cook the food in front of you on a big metal table