18 Aug 2003 // A review by Shade
Venue: Fat Ladies Arms, Palmerston North
Start: Evermore: 9:15pm, Elemeno P: 10:30pm (doors open 7pm)
Date: Thursday 14 August 2003

The evening started with us standing around outside in the cold air silently begging for the doors to open. After being lucky enough to see the bands rush past us on their way to dinner, we stepped into the warmth of the Fats about 7:15pm, and over the next two hours the room filled up to a sell out crowd – we knew that this was one gig that was going to rock.

Evermore opened to the ever-increasing crowds at 9:15pm and the place went off! The music was loud, Evermore rocked away and the audience loved it. The audience was moving to the music and bumping against everyone else (worth a mention is the three drunken guys in the centre of the audience that were jumping all over each other – they were crazy!) The whole atmosphere was mind blowing; music so loud you can’t hear yourself think and the floor was shaking under the movement of everyone’s feet. Evermore certainly set the scene and left everyone literally begging for more.

At approx 10:30pm Elemeno P made their grand entrance and opened to a wicked crowd rush – everyone wanted to get as close to the band as they could. With the audience singing along to all of the Elemeno P songs, crowd surfers being told off by the bouncers and the stack of speakers very nearly collapsing (and being held up by a bouncer for the remainder of the evening), this was without doubt a night worth remembering.

Elemeno P played all the songs that everyone knew and loved – songs that are currently (deservedly) receiving radio airplay and songs from their debut album Love & Disrespect. Favourites among the crowd included Every Day’s A Saturday, Verona and Fast Times In Tahoe. The only downfall of the gig was that it was held on a Thursday night, but it was definitely a gig worth going to. The night was overwhelming, awesome and mind numbing; I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

The grand finale was when Dave, the lead singer of Elemeno P, took to swinging from the rafters – leaving us all to calm down and realise that the night was over and there was no more to be heard.

Pop music: an expression of the current consciousness of what’s happening. An onomatopoetic description for sure, a boom, a bang that jolts and shakes things around, it can shift and change into many forms, its chameleon nature becomes seductive. Phil Spector called the stuff he did "little symphonies", encapsulated stories about life that has just as much resonance as the high brow classical form he borrowed from. Pop music is the sound of the actual, all the little details of how we live our lives, the soundtrack to our reality.

Elemeno P make pop music that bangs, guitar power pop with big choruses that is an invitation to a party next to a pool with lots of girlies, where the summer is endless and school or work is but a distant memory. Choice.

Dave Gibson describes the band as "We’re just happy people" and Dave is indeed a person full of the jollification that life can bring. But don’t let that cloud your perspective, he has a solid background in musical performance. Playing in a variety of acts: Queen City Big Band, hardcore band Nickel and in 1998 toured Eastern Europe in a band called Elephant, where he broke his back - the fun has to stop sometimes. He’s also somewhat of a of a media veteran, having appeared in numerous commercials and featuring in the film The Locals and also a stint as a radio DJ. Surprisingly finding time to complete a commerce degree, he’s a man who knows what to do and how to do it.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Elemeno P

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