Final hometown hit-out for band before heading to UK
A Wairarapa community concert with a rich history of attracting some of New Zealand’s top acts has scored Drax Project as headliners.
Summer Hummer in Masterton on Saturday, March 9 will also be a chance to showcase top local talent to a wide audience.
LA Women originated in Wairarapa and have found international streaming success with hits such as Hurricane Love and Slow Down.
Band member Zac Emerson fondly remembered coming to Summer Hummer as a young guy enjoying some of the hottest Kiwi acts of the time such as The Feelers and Fur Patrol.
The now Auckland-based band opened for Ladyhawke in 2016, which was another formative experience for them.
“It’s quite cool to be back in the home town for this and celebrate where everything began.”
It will be one of LA Women’s final performances before taking off to the United Kingdom to “give it a crack” on the international scene.
“It’s been a really fun journey in terms of releasing songs, the success has been great and we’re just finishing up a project that will come out later this year that we’re super excited about.”
Emerson said they were planning to release an EP and their live performance was now where they wanted it to be.
“We also managed to build the live set out to a really good spot.”
Wellington band Drax Project is headlining the Summer Hummer this year.
They have established themselves as one New Zealand’s slickest and smoothest contemporary bands.
They have racked up hundreds of millions of listens on Spotify and collaborated with the likes of Kiwi legends Six60 and American popstar Hailee Steinfeld.
Event organiser Stella Lennox said they had a “beautiful and diverse range of Wairarapa talent” to fill out the rest of the line-up.
These bands include: CC’s House, Nari Kerehi, Rampage, Lo Tide and What’s the Name.
Summer Hummer was an annual concert in Masterton in the late 1990s and early 2000s and featured the hottest Kiwi acts of the time.
After a hiatus it returned to the calendar last year with Kings headlining at a new venue at Douglas Villa sports fields behind the lake at Queen Elizabeth II Park.
This year’s event was being staged by Elevate Community Trust with sponsorship from Trust House. Entry is a $2 donation at the gate, or people can reserve a spot at eventfinda.co.nz
Elevate trustee Bob Francis has recently been nominated for KiwiBank Senior of the Year.
He was mayor when the first Summer Hummer 25 years ago and said it was great to see it going strong again after a break of a few years.
“It’s been great and I’ve been helping to raise some community funding and we’ve had a really good response.
“The community angle of this is quite unique and we’ve had great support from promoters in Auckland and it’s a great opportunity to help local bands.”