Performance | Wellington Batucada

Wellington Sevens 2013, day 1

Superheroes ahoy!

Oh how we love the Wellington Rugby Sevens!

For two full days every February, utter madness and an intense need to dress up in ever more radical costumes overtake the good people of Wellington, and we come together to create the most colourful and flamboyant Sevens tournament anywhere in the world. We rock!

Wellington Batucada has had a role to play in the Sevens every year since 2003, and 2013 was no exception. This year for the first time we decided to dress up in our own Sevens-inspired costumes to do our waterfront performance and parade, rather than wearing our normal uniforms – and the theme we chose was Superheroes. Continue reading

Wellington Sevens Parade 2013

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Sunny Sevens are here again!

Wellington really turned on the weather for the Sevens this year, eh? 10 perfect sunny days in a row with no wind – it’s like a miracle!

We had a fun time taking part in the Sevens Parade again this year. For a change we were assigned to lead the Argentina team’s float, which in Sevens is the closest you’re gonna get to Brazil 🙂 and the lunchtime crowds lining the streets were in good voice as usual.

Here’s a bit of a taster of what went down… Continue reading

Batucada Xmas Party, San Fran Bath House

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Rockin’ the ‘Bat House’

It was quite a surprise to be asked by the San Francisco Bath House to do a gig just before Christmas – it was quite short notice, but what the heck? It’s not every day you get asked to headline a gig, after all… plus, the proposed date was The Day After The End Of The World, and who wouldn’t want to celebrate that? (Assuming we were still here, of course!)

As we now know, the world didn’t end on the 21st (hooray!) so it was all systems go on the 22nd!

The San Fran Bath House has quite a modest-sized stage, so a small group of 15 of us (plus Tim C and Darryn directing) had been selected to play. The venue got a noise control complaint during our afternoon sound check/rehearsal, so we were definitely going to be loud enough! Continue reading

Join us at our Xmas Party show @ San Francisco Bath House

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Wellington gets a Brazilian for Xmas!

On Saturday 22nd December Santa is coming early, bringing the most explosive Xmas party! The heart of Rio De Janeiro is right here in Wellington this Christmas with Wellington Batucada.

This powerhouse ensemble creates breathtakingly complex walls of sound. The throbbing heartbeat of the surdo drum underpins rattling snares, layers of hand-held percussion instruments such as agogo bells, ganza shakers, tambourims, and the panting, surreal shrieks and moans of the cuica friction drum.

Joining the carnival will be Crazy Fat Brazilian: Elaine Abras sings and plays guitar, Matt Smithers on electric guitar beside Darryn Sigley on drums, and Paul Mouncey on bass.

So join us for a sweaty dance hall samba party!

No cover charge – Show starts at 8pm.

Event page on Facebook

Phoenix parade, Wellington waterfront

Go the Phoenix!

Our second gig of the day, following on from the Santa Parade earlier on in the afternoon. Go us!

We’d initially thought we would have to RACE across town from the end of the Santa Parade on Manners Street, to the start of the Phoenix Parade at Queen’s Wharf. Fortunately for us, we had plenty of time, so the band strolled along the waterfront, pausing for an impromptu ninja gig to salute the Sea Shepherd’s ship Bob Barker, which is currently in Wellington getting supplies and preparing for another battle with the Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean. Continue reading

Wellington Santa Parade 2012

Fun in the sun

As is (almost) always the case, Wellington really turned on the weather for the annual Santa Parade. Blue skies, sunshine and not too much wind. Yay!

We gathered on Stout Street as usual, took some pics and did a bit of a warm-up, and then we were off! Big crowd this year, and very enthusiastic, which was fun.

We’ve learned from experience that one of the most important aspects of our performance during the Santa Parade (for the parade marshalls at least) is that we keep up with the float in front of us. Continue reading

EFTPOS Christmas party

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Getting jiggy with EFTPOS at Mac’s Brewbar

In addition to the many parades we’re invited to play in as a larger group, Wellington Batucada also does corporate gigs from time to time. These are generally invite-only in terms of who gets to play, as they require a smaller group of the more experienced and skilled performers from the band.

This was my first corporate gig, and I felt very honoured to be included.

Performing as part of a small group of 14 is quite different from playing with 30-40 other drummers in a parade. For many of the instruments, such as surdos 1 and 2, agogo, timbau and chocalho, there’ll only be one person who’s playing that instrument, which means there’s definitely going to be nowhere to hide – you really need to know your stuff, and be confident playing it. Continue reading

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

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!
Continue reading

MIA Latin Festival

The Batucada laydeez kick some ass!

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

It’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!