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Live: Steffan van Soest Hit Machine w/ Ed Muzik and the Burning Sensations, Flying Sorcerers

May 17, 2012 at Dux Live

The evening began with the debut Christchurch performance of Flying Sorcerers – a Wellington-based trio of displaced Christchurch-natives, augmented by local musician extraordinaire Simon Nunn.

Playing a brand of country-inflected Indie-Rock, they rushed through a swag of brief, catchy numbers at lightening speed.

Formed by Hit-Machine members William Daymond and Paul Glub and with Margaret Gordon on drums, the 4-piece created a great rapport with the audience.

Ed Muzik (and his ‘Burning Sensations’) have a habit of polarizing his audiences. With lyrics heavy on sarcastic witticisms and a level of irony in his music, he’s found it hard to gather a strong following over the past few years and not without trying.

This would be his last performance (at least, with the current backing band), and so he attempted to pull out all the stops.

Unfortunately his rather skillful bassist and drummer were drowned out behind his own electronic rhythms, and I felt the duet performance of a certain Ace of Base hit single (with Icelandic-born vocalist Hera) fell a little flat.

Steffan van Soest’s eponymous group are more of a semi-regular event than an actual gigging band these days.

With only the front-man and drummer ‘Heavy-Metal’ Simon McKenzie usually available for local shows the group tends to play when their various out-of-town members are around. With Nunn, Glubb and Daymond well warmed up from their opening slot, the 5-piece hammered out a loud and brash set, lacking a bit of finesse but certainly high on fun – a cornerstone of most Hit-Machine shows.

Click here for the full photoset.

Published in the Christchurch Press [25-05-2012]

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