I'm glad I'm not organising a festival at this time of year.

As I commented a few weeks back; there are a few nervous promoters out there at the moment and as summer goes on and the weather gets increasingly iffy it gets more and more risky to organise anything outside.

But we're now into March.

There's a sort of unspoken timetable that outdoor festivals stop after Easter, which makes no sense really – given that Easter changes dates by a full month so is hardly a reliable guide to weather outcomes. So it's just this month we have to worry about.

At summer's end

Already the signs of summer coming to an end are all around us. Nights are getting longer and the Gourmet Night Market at Mount Maunganui finishes this Friday, much to the relief of Mount bars and restaurants who have been suffering on Friday nights as a result of people choosing to eat cheap takeaways from the park.

But summer hasn't ended yet.

There are still festivals to be attended and one of the most groovy ones I've come across is a newly-minted day out in Katikati featuring an impressively hip line-up of quirky pop outfits from all over the country. It takes place on Saturday, March 12.
They're calling it Live Music at the Lettuce Inn though, as those with a finely-tuned ear for puns might have guessed, the Lettuce Inn is less a venue than a state of mind.
Taking place amongst the avocado trees at 33 Sedgemoor Lane in Katikati, the festival kicks off at 3.30pm (gates open at 2.30pm) and features four acts that don't normally get down this way, all of whom boast sterling indie-pop credentials.

Headlining the show is Auckland four-piece Paquin. You can tell how astoundingly cool they are by a quick glance at their website. First of all, take note of the URL, which is www.paquin.tv.

That's technically from the country of Tuvalu though the story goes that some guy paid the country a flat fee (of between $15 million to $20 million) to have exclusive rights to market it and sell domains with the .tv extension. Why? Because having ‘.tv' at the end of your URL is cool.

Also...well just look at the site, an epic of minimalist cool. As you'll probably discover, clicking on the EP cover, which is basically the only thing there, will take you to the band's Bandcamp page, where you can check out music and more from Paquin's 4 EPs. It's classy, imaginative electro-pop and well worth a listen.

Another obscure Paquin fact: singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer Tom Healy is also the bass player with Auckland's Model Train Wreck, one of my favourite Kiwi bands, and plays guitar for Jamie McDell. (That'll come in handy for future editions of Kiwi Musical Trivial Pursuit...).

A creative genius

Okay. Also on the bill are a band which has made fascinating music since 2006, though they're really the brainchild of one man, Edward Castelow. He's the creative genius behind Dictaphone Blues, which began as a sort of 'bedroom project” in Christchurch. His first releases, early singles ‘Spooky Room' and ‘Taken Aback', found favour on independent radio which required creating a band for live occasions.

Now a four-piece based in Auckland, they've released two albums, the latest being ‘Mufti Day'.

As to their sound, I can do no better than quote the perspicacious Graham Reid: 'With widescreen production Phil Spector might admire, hooks big enough to land swordfish, half-familiar melodies, and cannoning drums behind stacked-up jangle guitars and sweeping synth-strings, Dictaphone Blues is a sheer delight and only the hardest heart won't be amused, seduced and delighted”.

You can hear them too on Bandcamp.

Musical trio

And I haven't even mentioned six-piece band from Wellington, Moses, and their unique brand of ambient-psychedelia, or Paul Cathro, a musician and songwriter from Dunedin now based in Katikati who'll have his own three-piece band.

Organisers advise bringing picnic chairs, sun hats, and good attitudes.
Tickets are $13 for pre-sales (on undertheradar.co.nz) or $20 on the door. Or you can get a $35 family pass.

Email contactmokonui@gmail.com for details. And kids under 12 are free.