Infanteria & School of Rock at Paul Bothner N1 City

Posted on: October 19, 2015

Sat 17 October 2015

As part of ‘Rocktober’, Paul Bothner are hosting free live gigs every Saturday this month at their various branches. Last week that meant N1 City weekend shoppers and passersby were treated to some loud and energetic metal courtesy of Infanteria.

The location, stage setup and the fact that they followed a group of kids from School of Rock made the the entire morning wonderfully Spinal Tap and it was hands down one of the most fun gigs I’ve been to in a long time.

The kids from the School of Rock kicked things off and started drawing a crowd, I was watching with the Infanteria guys who made nervous jokes about how said crowd of moms and kids and random shoppers would react to their set…

With a setlist ranging from House of the Rising Sun to Uptown Funk, the School of Rockers demonstrated some good musical skills, especially the drummer and the ginger guitarist, who blushed then looked pretty chuffed with himself when his impressive solos earned him cheers and applause from the smiling crowd.

“Hello N1 City!” is a winner of an opening line, and the first of many gems including “we’ve never played in a parking lot before”, “this one’s for the mom’s, thanks for being supportive of your kids and shit” and “KFC will never be the same again”, that pretty much set the tone for Infanteria‘s set.

The band were clearly having fun and it was infectious; they owned the whole surrealness of the situation and played like they would any other gig – with no holds barred, crazy energy and all the hair, everywhere. It was glorious.

Those fans there to watch were having a blast in the designated viewing area (across the street, for logistical reasons and also just to make things even weirder) and the casual onlookers displayed pretty much every emotion on the scale – from pensioners stopping to film them on their phones, to moms with little kids in prams, to a guy buying a mattress, to shop workers on a smoke break and people driving by in bewilderment (a little kid in the passenger seat, turning back and staring wide-eyed) or enthusiasm (one guy cruised by at about 10kph headbanging violently) the there were some priceless reactions.

Something so different from the norm and wonderfully entertaining, thanks Infanteria for one of the most fun and memorable gigs I’ve been to in a long, long time.