Fan Review – Enthusiastic Panther

Well, I’ve just put on 2020-01-16 and am laying on my bedroom floor thinking about the night I saw EnPa in Upper Hutt. We got a First Show debut and a Ticket closer! It was literally FATE that we WENT to Paekakariki for grans’ 80th on the same day they were playing ONLY THEIR SECOND SHOW AND my cousin works at the pie shop they were playing behind, AND he took me over with him to get me out of the house.

I swear nothing in my LIFE has ever meant as much to me as this band. I was RIGHT in front of the cellist the whole time and the whole band was looking into my eyes at some point during the show. I tried to talk Ned into driving me and Pip on a whole ROAD TRIP to see them all over the South Island but of course that didn’t happen and now we may never get another chance again, ever, because now the whole band has left the country!

So much for Enthusiastic Panther being the band of the long white cloud. Why can’t we ever keep anything good? Just when they were building a real fan base at home they fuck off to America to impress the yanks. I mean, I can see going to Canada, I’m going there on a commonwealth exchange programme (hopefully!), Bazza spent 3 months in Toronto on one and said it was absolutely brilliant. But right to Hawaii and California? Honestly!

Saw a reddit thread where some complete nutter Roseann is sleeping with Jesse’s hair!?? She doesn’t even KNOW HIM like I do, I am saving her phone number (250-555-1544) in case anything happens to him. I feel awful because part of me wants them to be happy, but also I don’t want them to sell out so soon in their career, they are JUST getting KNOWN! Hoping they will just come home and spend more time HERE getting famous (OR NOT! They could just settle down with kiwi girls and play locally, nothing wrong with that life right??)

Sometimes a song just becomes your whole world! I’m not taking about a jingly ear-worm that you can’t get out of your head, I’m talking about a song that arrests your attention from the first note, tosses you in the back of the squad car, and doesn’t let you go until the last notes have faded.

I was NOT expecting to find a song like that in a shaky video of some concert footage uploaded by one of my guild mates who lives in New Zealand. (Hi Sammie! Yes, I’ll bring my pally on Thursday’s raid). Sammie said I’d love it and they were right! The song is called “The Wave” and the band is the Enthusiastic Panthers, a Kiwi band that’s… MAKING WAVES! Bwahaha!

As some of you know, I’ve been going through some stuff lately, and “The Wave” just perfectly summed it all up, then wrapped its arms around me and pointed to the way out of all the pain. Every time I listen to it I feel lifted up. So I’ve been playing it, like, all the time. Lol. The melody just holds me close as it blows my mind. The lyrics are my new favorite poem. The drums… that beat powers up my heart. (Their drummer ROCKS!!1!!!). I’ve checked out their other songs and they’re ok, but a little uneven. I think I like Blue Orange second best, but Duke’s Revenge is a track only the band’s mothers could love.

From their website it looked like they only played small venues around New Zealand, but ZOMG!! They just announced US dates on Twitter!!! THEY’RE COMING TO LA!!! Of course I’m going to see them here on my home turf. After that they’re going to play gigs up the coast and yours truly is going to go on a fangirl road trip!
I can’t wait to be in the presence of the band and let The Wave wash over me live!

Mitch and Marie: Drinks are on me for the SF show -which is only fair because this is your notice that I am staying on your sofa.

Suzette: they’re playing Portland and you should go. I can’t make that date, but goGoGO!!!!

Lamisse: I’m coming up for EP’s Seattle snow. Let’s hang out, but please don’t drag me up the Space Needle *again*.