I confidently welcomed the arrival of summer last week – perhaps a little prematurely.

It certainly seemed that way over the weekend when I nearly missed the gig I was off to because the raging winds brought on a five-hour power cut here at the Watusi Country Club.
Chris Priestley is performing ‘Unsung Heroes' tonight at the Katikati Folk Club.

And power cuts are so boring. I vote electricity humankind's greatest invention. Eva.
But I did finally make it out to the Mauao Performing Arts Centre at the Mount and enjoyed a fine night in the company of Brilleaux and Auckland band Riverhead Slide.
Mostly though I wanted to check out MauaoPAC in action, and the newly revamped concert venue there is fantastic.

Mezzanine memory

If anything, it reminds me of The Powerstation in Auckland, but perhaps that's just because of the mezzanine floor.

Both the acoustics and the sight-lines to see bands are excellent, which is the most important thing and having the extra height from the mezzanine makes the room feel very big and airy. A great spot for a show.

And there are a few things coming up. Next bash is local band Sidewalk Empire, who will be there on Thursday, December 4, along with Vinylbiscuit. Sidewalk Empire is a six-piece whom you probably won't have heard since they've been going through line-up changes and the long-promised EP that they've been recording has been postponed a couple of times while they let new members bed in.

Folk to funk

Nonetheless, they've now got the twin guitars of Curtis Reid and Andrew Gillions – their fifth and sixth guitarists respectively – swapping lines in front of the Kildare brothers' (Jeff and Steve) rhythm section. Add in keyboards from Melissa Van Der Spek the vocals of Nina Thompson and you have a band that promise music ranging from folk to funk.

Meanwhile, Vinylbiscuit are a new rhythm and blues four-piece based in Waihi.
Unlike Brilleaux, whose R&B is of the British kind, Vinylbiscuit are more in the American funk and soul vein.

They haven't played live much yet but have a bunch of original songs that – according to their publicity – are 'Groove-stepping anthems that shout: ‘I'm free, I'm me, and you better get used to it'.” Doors open at 8pm, tickets are $10.

Guitar workshop

Before we move on, a couple more things at MauaoPAC. On Tuesday, December 2, there's a Martin guitar workshop with American singer/songwriter/guitarist Diane Ponzio. It's at 7.30pm and is free. I've seen her before a couple of times and she's really, really good at all three of those things that I mentioned. Well worthwhile.
And Kokomo have just announced their 2014 Christmas Party at MauaoPAC on Friday, December 12. They,re promising a veritable extravaganza, with guests including Marion Arts, Andy Craw, Mike Garner, John Michaelz and Aaron Saxon.
For more information check out www.taurangamusic.com.

Unsung Heroes

And how about a gig tonight? Katikati Folk Club's final 2014 concert is at Katikati Bowling Club featuring Chris Priestley, accompanied by Nigel Gavin and Cameron Bennett.

This concert goes under the name Unsung Heroes, the material for which – songs and poems featuring colourful characters from New Zealand's wild colonial past – was written by Chris, and was a finalist in the 2013 Tui Awards' folk category.

Chris himself is a fascinating guy who has been an integral part of the Auckland music scene for many years. As well as being a composer, guitarist and singer he was one of the founders of Real Groovy Records and established famous Auckland live music cafés Java Jive and The Atomic Café (they've both gone now).

Meanwhile, Nigel Gavin is New Zealand's most ridiculously over-talented guitarist and has been a member of The New Zealand Jazz Quartet, The Nairobi Trio, and The Jews Brothers amongst many others. He's alarmingly brilliant.The final member of the trio, Cameron Bennett, plays guitar, fiddle and dobro. Unsung Heroes starts at 7.30pm; $15 for Folk Club members, $20 non-members.