The Raskolnikovs with Slim Chants and Al Witham
St Peter’s Hall, Beach Road, Paekākāariki.
8pm Friday, May 27th.
Long-running Wellington band The Raskolnikovs bring their highly danceable faux-Russian polka rock to Paekākāariki this Friday May 27th. If you partied with sailors from Russia’s Pacific fleet at the celebrations in a Vladivostok bar the night Stalin died, you’ll know what to expect.
Formed after a fateful meeting in Wellington’s botanical gardens in 2003, the band features an instrumental line up of accordion, guitar, bass, violin and drums, and a newly added horn section. Named after a character in a Dostoevsky novel, this folk band that thinks they’re a rock band – or possibly a rock band that looks like a folk band – plays songs inspired by real and imaginary history, literature, murder and tragedies at sea.
With three CDs under their belt, The Raskolnikov’s have now released an appropriately cutting-edge vinyl EP entitled At the Hour of Sunset, the band have also released a music video for the song Old School Man of the World: a lament for the lost places of Upper Cuba Street, lost time and lost loves. You can view the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1xLEGRZ888
Two support acts will join the Raskolnikovs, one from Wellington, the other from Wellington Road. Paekākāariki local Al Witham is a singer, songwriter and electric guitarist playing raggedy-arse swamp, stomp and grind blues with blood on its nose and mud on its feet. He sings mostly originals that address this earthly mess we call life. Making an all too rare appearance is Wellington outfit Slim Chants bringing their cheerfully dark cow-friendly alt-country to the Kāpiti Coast for the first time.
