Radio One 91FM

Here’s the scene: I’m at Pearl Diver, sitting with my floral gin on a comfy couch, waiting for some hardcore music. I realize my friend and I are the only people there under 30 years old. The air smells like cigarettes and Soft Bait is about to perform their new single.

The Tāmaki-Makaurau based band has set out across Aotearoa to promote their new album, Life Advice. Their lead single, New Leaf, is the calling card of this post-punk, dad-rock band that hosts bold, striking vocals and a distinctly Kiwi vibe.

With Seek Help! opening, Soft Bait had some fresh Ōtepoti voices starting off their night. After a performance by Space Bats, Attack!, a seasoned band that has known many a gig around Dunedin, the crowd was primed and ready for the main event.

The intensity of Soft Bait’s vocals, their quirky lyrics, and the plethora of moustaches in the crowd made this gig incredibly interesting. Imagine your cool aunt having fun in the most punk way ever-you have a pretty good visual of what Pearl Diver was like on Saturday night.

Whether you were there for Seek Help!’s sick guitar riffs or the song about a ‘heavy metal man’ written by Soft Bait, Pearl Diver delivered a successful gig once again. Stream Soft Bait’s lead single, ‘New Leaf’ on their new album ‘Life Advice’ now.

As the newest Radio One addition, I was super excited for Dankfest. I tried to convince my parents to come along to their usual haunt, The Crown, but was sadly turned down when I mentioned: "dank". To a couple of boomers, the only thing associated with dank is 'unpleasantly damp, humid, wet or cold', so I can see why I was rejected.

I arrived and, as usual, had forgotten something; earplugs. While I am a newbie and usually go without, Kristina had kindly yelled at me earlier this week about the importance of not going deaf. I was stressed for a moment before my saviour - Isaac - kindly gave me some spare from his hat (which was super dope).

With earplugs in and excitement to see some good music I started my night at dankfest. The first act was Strings Speak Mountains, who was super excited to hear play live - and even though I have 'seen' him play live at the Radio One for a live-to-air, I was without headphones, so all I heard for 15 mins was bass. He was awesome to see (and actually hear) and was a great first act to stir up the crowd.

I haven't actually been to a hardcore gig either, so I was excited to see a mosh in person. Seeing Fastplant and Strap and the mosh pits they created was so cool. I was keen to enjoy it from the side up until Strap, where I was trying to ask Ben if he wanted to go past me and into the mosh. I should have expected what happened next due to the fact that no one could hear each other, when Ben wrongfully assumed I wanted to go into the mosh and I was shoved in. 

Knowing me, I immediately ate shit and went down. But moshers support each other, and I was kindly lifted off the ground by three people. I returned to the safety of the edge of the pit, and as Ben was trying to apologise, I swung him back into the pit as payback. Safe to say I learnt my lesson about trying to talk to people with earplugs in, but I definitely had fun for the 3 seconds I was part of the pit. Next time I reckon I'll try again with purpose and not with platformed docs on.
Overall, I had a really fun time seeing a different side of the music scene in Dunedin and meeting lots of kind people! 10/10 would go again. Thanks Dankfest! Now I pose the question: are you in it for the dank or for the fest?

Credit: dunedinsound.com

Credit: Hannah Hemi

Credit: dunedinsound.com

Credit: dunedinsound.com

Credit: dunedinsound.com

Credit: dunedinsound.com

Credit: Hannah Hemi

Credit: dunedinsound.com

Last Saturday marked the end of the Makeshift Sustainability Festival - a month-long programme of events focused on repair-based skills. These were workshops on the basics of a variety of hands-on skills or crafts - carpentry, electronics, sewing, screenprinting (on secondhand clothing) and more. The ultimate goal was to connect people looking for these skills to existing sustainability initiatives spread out across Ōtepoti that might have been unheard of to some - such as Te Oraka (on-campus thrift shop that runs night markets and gigs!), Stitch Kitchen, Com2Tech and Cook Brothers Construction. 

The final event of the Makeshift Festival was a DIY screenprint-your-own-merch gig. The idea was to print onto your own existing clothing with the logos of the local bands that would play later that evening, like riot-grrrl icon Vagina Dry, alongside U-No Juno, SPLINTER and STRAP. 

The hope was for an event with a total punk DIY philosophy - print it yourself, and re-engage with your existing but unworn clothing in your wardrobe. In doing this, you can take back some control and some autonomy over what is ultimately an overflowing landscape of clothing - unfortunately perpetuated by the encompassing system of capitalism and colonisation. Sometimes this sustainability thing can be overwhelming to think about, or do something about. We wanted to make this event as something small to look forward to - despite the current political and environmental climate!

After the screenprinting session we had our four band line-up play live. Crowd-favourite U-No Juno had amazing stage presence as always. Their set included their enchanting, Dunedin-sound reminiscent single Skyscrapers, with lead vocalist Ramona inviting the crowd into movement with her lulling and rocking to the song’s rhythm. They were followed by hardcore three-piece STRAP, who brought the crowd rocking up a notch. Their set launched a moshpit complete with vigorous crowd circling, energetically matched by the vocals and instrumentals. Next up was iconic Vagina Dry, whose frontwoman El brought absolute raw energy, warranted rage and emotion into the lyrics on women’s rights, white privilege, consent, police brutality AND David Seymour. Their single Brutalised is the best thing ever live, by the way. We concluded the night with SPLINTER, with their music catalysing what can be described as a turbulent, violent rocking ocean of crowd energy, complete with moshing, crowd halves like waves colliding with one another, circling and crowd-surfing. 

Overall, the most rewarding thing for me to see as the organiser/producer was how happy, rapt and electric people’s expressions were. Not once was the audience stationary. Phones were out for video capture, with eyes lit up and locked in on the stage, there was reciprocal energy passed back and forth through pushing and movement, the heat was rising, overall vibes chaotic and alive and sweeping and encompassing. 100/10 gig, would screenprint again. 

But back to the topic of clothing - there are enough clothes on the planet to clothe the next eight generations! I sincerely urge readers to think about the possibilities for the clothing you already own and restyling - can a skirt be a top, a scarf a top? How many outfits combos exist in your wardrobe that are yet to be discovered? What things can you start wearing as accessories that aren’t even meant to be accessories in the first place? Op-shopping is better than buying new, but ultimately also another cog propping up the machine that is overconsumption. Look for quality - how are the seams, what is the material made of, will this garment work with your other garments, will you wear it a lot, will it last ten, twenty, thirty more years, will you find new ways to style it, will it stand up to harsher weather (especially in Ōtepoti)? These are the kinds of questions we need to ask rather than stopping at the act of op-shopping and calling it a day - unfortunately, buying secondhand doesn’t address the structural issues that facilitate an unquenchable need for novelty. If you are buying for the feeling of new through secondhand, what is that underlying emotion you are hoping to soothe? Don’t just buy, curate. Buy less, choose well. Be intentional about what you wear. Ask questions always, and understand the production of something as much as you can. What you wear is a protest - that is the punkest thing you can do!

Credit: Sonia Antakusuma

Credit: Sonia Antakusuma

Credit: Sonia Antakusuma

Credit: Sonia Antakusuma

Credit: Sonia Antakusuma

Credit: Sonia Antakusuma

Last Friday I got the privilege to see Vera Ellen live at Pearl Diver. Because of my limited time spent listening to the band, everyone else who attended the sold out show seemed to be very much “in the know” about this highly praised group from Pōneke, and I was about to find out why. I definitely understand the hype generated from their newest album ‘HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT TIME’ released on the 1st of May this year. There’s no denying that they're a talented group, with amazing individual brilliance as well as electric chemistry with one another.

To kick things off, was the incredibly talented Phaedra Love, who was performing songs from her latest ‘Good Bad Not Evil’ EP. Oh man, chills. And that's not because of that fever going around campus at the moment. If you're keeping up with the Dunedin music scene and Phaedra Love is not on your radar, what are you doing with yourself? Get your ass to Bandcamp, get down to your local, wherever you watch your gigs, and listen to that EP stat, that's an order.

Onto the main act, and what an unforgettable show. Vera Ellen (the band, in this case) had some of the best stage presence I've seen yet, you would think they practically lived on stage the way they carried themselves. Even though the album is technically listed as alternative/indie rock, it really varies in the sound and pushes different styles throughout the tracklist, so it never felt dull or repetitive, which I respect heavily. I would love to hear them branch out into other genres, I feel that they could be unstoppable in any direction they head into. The band also never seemed to take their foot off the gas too, keeping the same level of quality and energy that they were just teeming with from the start, all the way until closing songs of the album such as ‘getting told off by mum’ (my favourite).

I'll always say this, but seeing bands play live will always be better than listening on streaming, and especially in this case it reigns true. The punchy swooning riffs and Ellen’s lush emotional vocals are just something you have to hear for yourself. Don’t get me wrong, give the album a listen, it is well worth your time, but it's a whole different feeling hearing it in person. It's that gut feeling you get where you’re fizzing while it's happening but so… comforting at the same time. Even though I was probably one of the only ones in the crowd who hadn't heard them before, it felt like I had always belonged.

Credit: Ethan Montañer

Credit: Ethan Montañer

Credit: Ethan Montañer

Credit: Ethan Montañer

Credit: Ethan Montañer

Credit: Ethan Montañer

ALBUM REVIEW: Static Dress - Injury Episode
review by Ethan Montañer Aug 13th 2026

Wear your emo bangs loud and proud.

Injury Episode, the long-awaited second album from UK post-hardcore/emo group Static Dress, is a masterclass of blending nostalgic influences into a forward-thinking, cohesive vision. I always found this group to be one of the most compelling bands in the so-called ‘revivalcore’ movement, with their slick songwriting and immersive visual identity. A breath of fresh air from the hyper-polished arena metalcore of the 2010s, they distill and reinvent 2000s post-hardcore, emo, metalcore, and alt-rock for a new generation. This new album sees Static Dress at their sharpest, as they pull from a broad set of influences (some more identifiable than others) to create a fluid yet gripping listening experience.

The tracklist is varied, but never does Injury Episode lose any sort of cohesion. The track …hospice is a cathartic singalong that won’t sound out of place at a My Chemical Romance concert, while the searing Male-bomb hints at the earlier stylings of post-hardcore royalty Glassjaw. Underoath, a legacy act to whom Static Dress are often compared, contribute a perfectly fitting vocal feature to Nostalgia Kills (one of the record’s most punishing tracks) while Adult Diamond sees vocalist Olli Appleyard retreat into a vulnerable yet gorgeous soundscape, before the album ends on the absolutely soaring human props and Treading.

Equal parts catchy, cathartic, and crushing, Injury Episode is undoubtedly Static Dress’ finest work to date, and is a must listen for fans of the nebulous melting pot of 2000s emo/screamo/post-hardcore/metalcore. Reaching beyond just simple nostalgia-bait and cheap sonic retreads, Static Dress expertly demonstrate how a band can wear their influences on their sleeve while still crafting an audiovisual identity that is entirely their own.

Fav Tracks: Nostalgia Kills, Adapter, dull.blade.disguise