Dimmer - First shows, Empire Tavern, 17/18 Jun 1994

"Hey we're called Dimmer we got seven songs and these are them."

Here's the first incarnation of Dimmer, recorded over two winter nights at the Empire Tavern in Dunedin.

Shayne Carter, Lou Allison, Peter Jefferies and on the second night Alf Danielson.

The quality of my personal live tape recordings is variable, and the first night is the crap end of the scale.  The walkman could have been in my pocket, but it's in the room at least.  The recording stops at 27 minutes, which is possibly why I returned the following night to record the second show.  Good thing - better recording, and even complete.  Worth hearing for Carter's stoned banter hahahah.

He spoke recently at the Word Festival to a packed theatre for the launch of his book Dead People I Have Known (here's a review).

Snippets from Shayne Carter's conversation with WORD Christchurch Literary Director and writer Rachael King
Shayne Carter’s rock’n’roll memoir, and stories from someone who was there - Rachael King in The Spinoff, 4 Jul 2019

We talked after for about 5 seconds as he signed the book, when I told him I had this recording.  His reservation was old recordings suffer from not having images. You can conjure your own images and make your mind up. To me it's great raw history.

Dimmer - Live, Empire Tavern, 17 Jun 1994 [AR] - 27 mins
Dimmer - Live, Empire Tavern, 18 Jun 1994 [AR] - 38 mins

I have another show of Dimmer & HDU - Planetarium, Auckland, New Zealand, 1999 .. which might show up here later.