All the Fun of the Quest

They were, in fact, presents lovingly wrapped in fancy paper and passed out to an eager crowd clearly made up of school mates from Te Awamutu College and Hamilton Boys High School, where these young fellows hang out between gigs. Cute gag. Local rag the Waikato Times reported the win with a front page headline: ‘The Good Fun stun contest with good sound’. Perhaps it was less the contest and more the band that was stunned, judging by the hesitation and looks of disbelief being exchanged between band members, at the announcement of first prize.

Rockquest co-creators, long-time protagonist Glen Common and now Nelson city councillor Pete Rainey, with the help of event manager Matt Ealand, once again put on a great night, showcasing the nation's best high school bands to a sell-out crowd at Founders Theatre. As history suggests, each finalist proved themselves worthy, expertly delivering their own uniquely interpreted musical works to a keen audience, which included a double helping of supportive parents.

Nelson’s talented, slightly Quaker-esq, Peasants of Eden were runners up, with third place honours going to Otumoetai College’s charming Malcolm Jack (it’s a band name), who were a real delight. Hyphenations aside, their well-crafted, non-conformist alt-folk, and perhaps slightly hippie look, seemed to perfectly match their organic musical arrangements.

The Smokefreerockquest competition, remarkably in its third decade, remains an iconic part of the NZ music industry landscape. Each year it manages to produce a supply of acts that, in time, go on to success in a national music industry context. As NZ On Air's Brendan Smyth pointed out in his speech at Saturday’s pre-show VIP function, many of the acts at the top of their game in NZ music, once featured Rockquest finals but weren’t winners in their own right. Perhaps the most pertinent comment of the night came from Die! Die! Die! frontman, Andrew Wilson, who marveled aloud at the ever-increasing quality of the young artists now competing for the title.

I’d have to agree, having observed the likes of young Massad (Barakat-Devine) sing beautifully and play Founders Theatre’s Steinway with an ease that belies his age - he took out the ‘ Best Song Award’ in the comp.  Dinosaur Goes Rawr were also worthy of a mention, delivering what I though was one of the best performances of the night, although overlooked in the judges. On the subject of great performances, showpiece performers Kids of 88 were hugely exciting and auto-tune or not, J Williams was something else, as were C4 presenter Drew’s robot moves – he’s annoyingly talented.

Die! Die! Die! tested a few eardrums during their guest slot finale (my iPhone said 107+db), any parent's audio-trauma quickly soothed with the appearance of TV3’s Samantha Hayes who presented one of the awards in that dulcet tone of hers.

The 2010 Smokefreerockquest National Final event in Hamilton was enjoyed by what is believed to be a record crowd, and heralded by the organisers as the most successful event yet. Plans are to move the event into the newly built Claudelands Arena in 2011, which should be an experience in itself.