Band Together

Would you believe we are still getting aftershocks? It's been almost 2 months since the Big One on the 4th of September. We are up to something like 2,200 aftershocks since then. There was a big one (5.0) just this week. I was at work -- on the 8th floor -- when everything started shaking. Thankfully, no more real damage was done, unless you count the damage to our nerves.

The people in charge of things realise that these constant earthquakes are driving the citizenry batty. They want to make us happy and help us relax. So last month they gave away free tickets to a Canterbury rugby game.

Anyone who wanted to go could just show up and get in for free. We already had season tickets, and were planning to go anyway, so this wasn't really a windfall to us. But it was really fun to go to a game with a packed-out stadium. The Canterbury team doesn't usually bring 'em in by the thousands but it did that day. And it was Quinn's first rugby game. As you can see, he was stoked.

That was last month. Aftershocks are still happening. People need more help to relax and unwind. So yesterday the city put on "Band Together", a free concert for Canterbury. It was held in Hagley Park. It was HUGE. Really, really huge. They said there were 120,000 people there - that's about a third of the whole city. Lots and lots of people.

It was a gorgeous day to sit in the park and listen to music, so we packed up the baby and headed out there to join the crowds.

Quinn was very excited for his first bus ride.

... ok, not that excited. But he perked up when we got to the park. So much to see! There were people as far as we could see. We found a little patch of grass and made ourselves comfortable.



All of New Zealand's biggest musical acts were there, and some smaller ones too. We had heard of the Exponents - their song Why does love do this to me was the theme for All Blacks rugby last season and is quite catchy. We heard Anika Moa, a singer/songwriter and Christchurch native. We also heard something called the Swarm Dance Crew, who might have been American because they kept saying, "helloooo Canter-bare-eee!" (rather than "Canter-bree").

There was a band from Nelson (top of the south island) called Minuit who were pretty good and reminded Gareth of Catatonia, one of his faves. So that was good too.

Then the Feelers came on, apparently a popular act as many people seemed to be singing along. We were not familiar though and did not know the words.

I don't think we can be true Kiwis until we learn the local music. We really need to learn the music. Going to this concert was a good start. We should get online and find us some MP3's to download...