The Big Muffin Serious Band are an anarchic busking-style ukulele-based skiffle band. Photo / Supplied
The Big Muffin Serious Band are an anarchic busking-style ukulele-based skiffle band. Photo / Supplied
Two of the Waikato's much-loved retro indie-folk-pop bands – Sylvia's Toaster and The Big Muffin Serious Band – have joined The Meteor theatre's Reignite season line-up, designed to get arts and performance up and running again after the trials of Covid-19.
The two bands, both based in the tiny Waikato settlement of Te Pahu, 30km southwest of Hamilton, have joined to put on an evening of light-hearted musical entertainment.
Together they will present Alive at The Meteor, on Saturday July 4, at the theatre in Victoria St, Hamilton.
Alive at The Meteor is intended as a celebration of emerging from Covid-19 and all the upheavals and disruptions that this entailed.
Sylvia's Toaster play lesser-known folk and dark pop tunes from the '60s through to present day. Photo / Supplied
Their show is to help "re-open The Meteor after the months of lockdown and social distancing, and to give audiences a jolly good night out."
Sylvia's Toaster describe themselves as a 10-piece "post-modern ukulele noir band that is charming, colourful and quirky, with an eclectic array of instruments and fantastic vocals".
They play lesser-known folk and dark pop tunes from the 60s through to the present day, all with a hint of tasteful chaos.
Big Muffin Serious Band are "an anarchic busking-style ukulele-based skiffle band, who play a mixture of ironic rearrangements of rock classics and obscure ditties from the 1920s and 30s, and tell tall stories from The Incomplete History of Music".
Tickets for Alive at The Meteor are $15 full price, $10 concession, with bookings via The Meteor website.
Ihirangaranga on June 27 is an immersive multimedia work, showcasing toi Māori. Photo / Supplied
Three local works are being showcased in Reignite:
• Sorry For Your Loss on June 19 — a one-woman play by rising talent Cian Gardner about her own life story, which was developed by CNZ and Creative Waikato's Incubator project in 2019.
• Ihirangaranga on June 27 — an immersive multimedia work, showcasing toi Māori, through modern composition, taonga puoro, spoken word and live painting, by local practitioners Jeremy Mayall, Horomona Horo, Michael Moore and Regan Balzer.
• Hood Street: The Musical — July 25 — A catchy musical comedy show by four of Hamilton's most proficient musical theatre talents — Kyle Cheun, Nick Wilkinson, Courteney Mayall and Nick Braae — about life in Hamilton's infamous bar precinct.
'"These performances will be filmed by a multi-camera crew, with live sound and video mixing to create a high-quality recording, with a small live audience," says theatre manager Deborah Nudds.
Hood Street: The Musical on July 25 is a catchy musical comedy about life in Hamilton's infamous bar precinct. Photo / Supplied
"The videos will then be streamed via the Boosted Live website by The Meteor for one performance and the donations received will go towards sustaining our creative space."
Throughout the Reignite campaign The Meteor is also hosting a range of other small-scale local events including touring stand-up comedy from rising star Joe Daymond, and Liam Malone, the gold medal Paralympian is scheduled for June 25.
The Meteor is also hosting the YMCA'S New Found Sound, a free musical talent show for youth aged 13 to 18, on June 26.
Reignite: The Meteor ends with a July school holidays kids' show, Destination Earth by Courteney Mayall.
