19 May 2020 - 0 Comments

Poisoned Livers started from the necessity for playing punk rock and drinking beer.

In 2015, having recently moved back to Auckland, drummer Simon and vocalist Snowy discussed the idea of starting a new band together as both their previous groups had disbanded. They had previously played together in Dust Up At Dawn, who were active between 2008 and 2013, releasing some EPs, so knew they had similar music tastes. They gave friend, guitarist and fellow punk/hardcore lover Craig a call to see if he was interested in the occasional Sunday session, as long as it involved beer and rowdy music, and over the following months a theme of fast paced high energy punk rock formed. Returning to Auckland from a stint at Hamilton University was Casey who happened to also play bass, knew Simon and Snowy well, and the line-up was complete. Poisoned Livers formed into a tight knit group that watched as many bands play as they played themselves.

Their first live performance was a themed house party, where dressed as a bunch of scary clowns the loaded four played to their first noise control visit. Shortly after this, Craig had the opportunity to move to Australia and decided to leave, which left the band close to breaking up. Not wanting to give up on a good thing, Snowy quickly gave friend and former Dust Up At Dawn bassist Tom a call to see if he wanted to take over guitar duties. Tom had started out playing lead guitar for Celebrity Doll House before being asked to fill in on bass with Dust Up At Dawn. That fill in spot turned to full time after two months of rehearsals, and he was with the band for three years until they folded. Not long after that, Tom joined Naquadah bringing phat bass tones, then moved onto Dirty Riot until he joined forces with singer songwriter Jax Stone and formed the mighty Motorboat. However, during all this time, Tom was craving his first love, guitars, so when he got the call from Snowy it was the right time to move on. Tom Is endorsed by Carparelli Guitar’s from Canada, and Grover Allman Guitar picks from Australia.

At the next band practice there was two guitars to make the transition easy and keep the momentum going. The resulting farewell house party had the band playing in the driveway to its second noise control visit, where Snowy made the officer a little nervous by signing the complaint in just his birthday suit.

The highlight of their short live career to date is playing with Queens of the Stone Age, with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen saying that Poisoned Livers has amazing stage energy, sound and presence, and even stroked Tom’s blue beard! They were also stoked to be asked to play at Wastefest but still enjoy playing the odd house party, which is great for cutting loose but bad for breaking gear.

The band describe their music as Stoner Punk. The music tastes and influences are quite varied with each band member, so it’s a bit different from a mainstream genre, and is a heavy driven hard rock sound with a few quirks and a bit of pace every now and then. Influences come from the early American punk of Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Fugazi and later in the genre Cancer Bats, The Bronx and Gallows. Metal from the classics and current metal heavies such as Mastodon and Every Time I Die also feature in the rotation during road trips.

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