Fly My Pretties has become something of a New Zealand institution, a local super group. You know they can always be depended on for high quality entertainment, and their ability to rope in many of our top musicians, as well as the best up and coming artists, means that their sound retains a freshness and that Pretties sound at the same time.
The fourth evolution of the group toured the country last November, and now that the recordings have been released those who missed out can enjoy the experience.
The show has been released as a CD and DVD package – the CD simply being the audio of the show, where the DVD has the show plus a short documentary, photo gallery and a couple of clips from the live show.
It’s the DVD that impresses most, as you get to see the interaction between the different musicians and the visuals that accompanied the show (courtesy of Auckland artist Flox). It’s impressive to see 16 people come together after a few practices and put on such an amazing show.
While the show is a great blend of bluesy rock (Doorstep Blues), funk (Turnaround) and folk (Underneath The Stars), there’s a couple of tracks that fail to fire because they sound too similar to previous FMP songs.
That said, there are some amazing tunes to make up for it – the LA Mitchell and Anna Coddington tracks in particular show the talent that these two bring to the group. Aaron Tokona’s tracks, where we get to see him strike rockstar poses as he wrestles fuzzy riffs from his guitar, are also fantastic.
This release is a great showcase of the huge amount of talent and experience in New Zealand and a reminder of why Fly My Pretties is so popular here.
Fly My Pretties are New Zealand's favourite live collaborative group starring a selection of the country’s finest contemporary musicians, all set to a visual backdrop.
Since its inception, Fly My Pretties has grown to become a local legend of music that continues to reach people all over the world. Fly My Pretties first entered New Zealanders’ hearts and minds in 2004, with the idea from The Black Seeds front-man Barnaby Weir and Mikee Tucker (Loop), to assemble a talented and exciting group of Wellington-based musicians for a special project.
The objective: To meet, exchange ideas, and then perform and record the results in front of a live audience. Fly My Pretties performed their first season at Wellington’s Bats Theatre over five nights. It was a hit, and Fly My Pretties became Bats most attended event of 2004. Likewise, the album Fly My Pretties - Live at Bats achieved platinum-status, received 6 B-Net nominations (winning Best Pop Album), and was released internationally in the UK.