Category Archives: Gig reviews

Johnsonville Christmas Parade 2012

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Happy Christmas, Johnsonville!

We love the Johnsonville Christmas parade. It’s much smaller than the big central Wellington one, and has a lovely relaxed vibe. It somehow feels very 1950s to me – not big and showy, but much more community-focused and homely. It’s just lovely.

John in his pohutukawa hat, Christian as a Mexican wrestler

John in his pohutukawa hat, Christian as a Mexican wrestler

Many of the band were sporting extra Christmas regalia in addition to our black uniforms – including Christian who decided to wear his Mexican wrestler’s mask just for fun – well, it does have Christmas colours I suppose – hope he didn’t frighten any small children along the way!
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MIA Latin Festival

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The Batucada laydeez kick some ass!

MIA Latin festival 2012 - photo by Phil Ansell

The Festival celebrates the Latin culture through live performances, art & crafts and traditional food stalls, games and children’s activities. As the Festival is organised by the Latin American Women’s Group, we thought it would be a nice idea to send along an all-female version of Wellington Batucada, directed by Carin, in one of her first big directing gigs. Exciting!

Two things were on my mind before the gig. The first was along the lines of “Gulp – we’re playing Latin American music to a real Latin American audience – I really really hope they like us!” The second was “Gosh – an all-girl Batucada gig – I’ve never done one of those before – I hope we can show that – much as we love playing with the boys – we can do just as well without them…”

I needn’t have worried – it was an awesome gig in all respects – not least because the audience was COMPLETELY BRILLIANT – and so, as a result – were we. Continue reading

Batucada school workshop

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St Francis de Sales School, Island Bay

St Francis de Sales School workshop. Photo by Alan Shuker.

Performing at St Francis de Sales School, Island BayIt’s always great to introduce new people to the fabulousness that is percussion and drumming, particularly of the samba variety.

Here’s Darryn and Batucada drummers doing workshops and performance with classes of 7 and 8 year olds at St Francis de Sales School, Island Bay. Brilliant!

Photo gallery

Click on any thumbnail to see the larger version. All photos by Alan Shuker:

Party in Pink

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Raising awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Research

Our own AliCat – as well as being a talented tamborim player – is also a Zumba fitness instructor. This year, she invited Wellington Batucada to play for the participants in the annual Party in Pink, raising awareness and funds for Breast Cancer Research.

This is how it went down…

Photo gallery

Click on any thumbnail to see the larger version. All photos by Alison Childs:

Wellington Phoenix vs Sydney FC

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Waterfront parade from Queen’s Wharf to the Stadium

Surdo line at the Phoenix gameThis was the first time we’ve done anything for Wellington Phoenix in aaages, and we were really pleased to be asked to take part in their new pre-match waterfront parades.

We gathered at Queen’s Wharf and waited for the parade of schoolkids to arrive from Civic Square. Once they reached Queen’s Wharf, we hopped onto the tail-end of their line, and together we all marched along the waterfront to the Stadium. It was a pretty big crowd, all very excited and enthusiastic about seeing the Phoenix in their first home game of the season, as were we. Continue reading

Island Bay Playcentre Fundraising Gala

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How sweet is this?

2012 Island Bay Playcentre Fundraising GalaWe were rather pleased to have been invited to take part in the Island Bay Playcentre Fundraising Gala this year – our smallest ever audience (haha!).

A very small and select group of Batucadans (is that a word? It is now…) was chosen to play this gig – I think the organisers were a bit worried that we might be too loud for the little ones if there were too many of us… and a lovely time was had by all. Here’s a video and some pics: Continue reading

World Fair Trade Day Global Party

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Drumming for a very good cause – and a ninja gig as well!

Batucada tamborimsWellington Batucada was asked to play at this year’s annual World Fair Trade Day, when the World Fair Trade Organisation and its members promote global awareness of fair trade. It’s a great cause, and we were happy to play our part.

In Wellington the event is part of Fair Trade Fortnight – an opportunity to celebrate Wellington’s Fair Trade City status, and show the huge support of Wellington businesses for Fairtrade. Continue reading

Jambalaya 2012 – Wellington Batucada gig

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Quite possibly the best gig EVER

Jambalaya isn’t the biggest festival in New Zealand, but it’s certainly one of the most participatory. A large percentage of the people at the festival are there to take part in one of the immersion courses, which means they’re most definitely up for a bit of participation – and that “up for it” attitude seems to rub off on everyone else, turning virtually every gig into madness and mayhem on the dance floor.

We’d seen a bit of it first-hand on the Friday night when AKSamba played an awesome gig on the main stage. The crowd went nuts, dancing like mad things, and it was altogether rather impressive. I reckon there were probably 50 band members performing – some of whom had been at the immersion course with us – they were wearing their brightly-lit LED costumes and even had the word “AKSAMBA” spelled out in lights worn by a line of drummers at the back.

AKSamba differ from Wellington Batucada in that you have to be invited to join the band – so only the best drummers get an opportunity to stick around after their beginners classes are over and rehearse with the main group – and eventually, if they’re good enough – to perform with the band. This means that technically they’re pretty awesome, and they also play at speed – quite a bit faster than we do down in Wellington.

Having experienced the might of AKSamba in concert, I have to confess I was somewhat intimidated and a wee bit nervous about our upcoming gig the following night. Only 21 of us, our basic (though very cool) black uniforms (no pretty lights!) and Darren our director only just back with us after about a year of travelling the world with his band, Batucada Sound Machine. It was going to be a hard act to follow…
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