Pickle Darling

Seeing Pickle Darling and Fruit Juice Parade at Moon tonight. Realizing for the first time that Moon has a tribute photo to Bruce Cathie, NZ’s own fringe mathmetician, ufo-ologist. I love the local pride for Aotearoa weirdos.

Played Fox in the Forest with Angelica while we waited. Drank “party pils” that was strikingly bland, and an over-sweet cider.

Fruit Juice Parade played such a good set. Their music feels like slowly developing a specific hue, and then dropping it when it feels right. There are no bridges, no clear chorus, no explicit dynamics...but the songs feel organic and surprising. They drop teh song at just the right moment, so the slience itself feels like a coda. I just love having NZ emo, especially the emo that nears a type of ambient music (like Christie Front Drive).

Pickle Darling came on and we crowded to the front. We stood next to a bona-fide super fan, a young man with a low-bun and a cardigan dancing with a heavy sway to each song. He’d seend them in Christchruch and now came up here, following them up the islands like they were the Dead. He brought two local friends and before each song he’d say “now this one is a banger”. But no Pickle Darling song is a banger. They all sound like a soap bubble, floating above a full sink of dishes, that you watch in the soft afternoon light as it travels its short life across the kitchen and pops. A melancholy soap bubble is a hard feeling to translate live, but they did such an incredible job of it. A dreamy, special, well-loved, beautiful sounding show.

Pickle Darling’s live set was Lukas(pickle Darling) playing guitar, Mousey playing keyboards, and Cameron playing all the other instruments. Had a realization that Cameron was the artist behind ‘Warm Morning’, this incredible album of piano songs that Ilistened to each mornign for a good two month period last year. Was able to thank him for the album after the show, and he was surprised to meet a real-llife fan.

I first heard Pickle Darling in NY, and was obsessed with their song Mouthful. They were the modern NZ band I knew and loved, and now got tto see them in my new hometown. It feels real good.

Also, after, the bus came right away and all seats were available. A lucky night!