Pine, Fang, Ejector at the Kings Arms

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

To say this triple-bill of indie guitar outfits got off to a quiet start isn't to suggest it took a while to burst into life.

Pine, the trio from Christchurch whose Long Player was one of last year's most charming albums, were up first.

They travel light - drummer-singer Stephen McCarthy is up front playing just a single snare drum with brushes, giving the songs a propulsive pitter-patter.

He is flanked by guitarist Aaron and keyboardist Hannah Beehre and together they are a picture of pop restraint and melodic minimalism. You fear tapping your toes too loudly should you start ruining the live mix.

While busy enough with his singing and rhythmic duties, McCarthy was also a lively, entertaining frontman neatly balancing the shy, slightly shoegazing presences of the Beehres.

While their low-key approach might suggest they're not exactly the stuff of pub gigs, Pine's many good tunes - especially Days on End with its guest rapper - showed even if they can't exactly rock the house, they can sure make it swoon dangerously.

Next was Auckland's Fang, which, live, has evolved from the trio of its two albums into a five-piece with the addition of a guitarist and violinist/guitarist. Even with a fuller-bodied proposition on stage, they still felt a few batteries short in the energy department. They upped the voltage on the fuzzy blasts of Employee of the Month and Telephone, but too many meandering mid-tempo artpop numbers played with little sense of conviction.

To finish, young Wellingtonians Ejector, who some day may get the tag "up and coming" and who look cool in a skinny-guys-with-guitars kind of way, but appear to need some more memorable songs to complete the effect they seem to be after - to become a sort of slacker Shihad.