24th October @ The Hunter Lounge in Wellington and Black Smoke Trigger emerge to a packed out venue. Flashing lights, smoke, the smell of alcohol and a vocal crowd were there to greet them. A complete contrast to when I was at a beer festival here a few months earlier. The place has transformed since I saw MGMT a few years back, a really great venue!

I was blown away by Black Smoke Trigger, with their amazing energy and plenty of kick ass hard rock tunes. The four piece won the crowd over straight away with their passion and hard driven riffs. You can really hear some of their influences coming through, if I closed my eyes I could hear Slash and co. on stage. I loved the fact that they took a photo of themselves with the crowd, good touch.

Please check them out as they are well worth a listen live and on your favourite streaming platforms.

Next up was Like A Storm, who were glad to be back performing in New Zealand after touring abroad. This was their second to last show on the current tour before heading to America, a very exciting time for the band.

A raucous energetic stage show played out to the audience including a didgeridoo which was very cool indeed. Think of haunting Vikings and you have a good visual. How many metal bands have a didgeridoo? The black clothing, long hair and the way they strutted the stage was mint.

The fans now formed a mosh pit and beer was flowing through the crowd, not all of it in the way it was intended!!!

If you know Like A Storm you know that their songs rock big time and they didn’t disappoint. I think between them they shouted Wellington about 25 times throughout the show, followed by cheers from the locals. The only criticism was that the sound could have been better, the didgeridoo during songs was sometimes lost and the guitars were pretty quiet and muddy. Maybe that’s me though?

They thanked Devilskin for bringing them back to Wellington, which was a nice touch, so too was the photo they took with the crowd. And the drummer was kick ass by the way!! They played Crawling by Linkin Park which was brilliant, and they did a montage of Wellington classics including Shihad, which was awesome.

They also encouraged the crowd to sing loud, if they did they would join them in the mosh pit. The crowd duly obliged and chaos ensued. Definitely worth checking out, rock on!

Anticipation was building for the main event, the crowd getting their breath back after the beating that Like A Storm dished out.

A decade of Devilskin was here and the fans went crazy. Jennie Skulander (vocalist) has an amazing stage presence, especially armed with a smoke gun. That was very cool. The lights also seemed to pick up their game as the light show was brilliant and perfectly in time to the music adding to the already frenzied atmosphere.

The image of Jennie between the guitarists with their bald heads and Viking beards is a striking image and creates an awesome visual. Strutting their stuff and jumping on speakers. The energy levels reached an all-time high.

They played all the classics of course and even managed to squeeze in an epic drum solo. The first time I saw them live was at the TSB arena a few years ago supporting Slash. I was blown away then, and now! How does Jennie sound so sweet with great lyrics and vocal tunes, to then suddenly deep dive into a throaty shout that sounds like one of Daenerys dragons?

They are probably one of New Zealand’s best rock acts at the moment, and I can’t wait to see them again.

Please check them out when you can, well worth the effort!

Overall this was a great night and fantastic to see so many people out supporting HARD ROCK!!

Photos courtesy of Nichole June Productions.

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