Newly reformed glam metal band Push Push are sprawled in the sound studio of the Depot, the landmark art space that has played a part in Auckland's North Shore music scene since the mid 90s.Bassist Steve Abplanalp, guitarists Andy Kane and Shayne Silver, drummer Scott Cortese, and mile-a-minute frontman Mikey Havoc lounge across couches as they scramble to put together a setlist. The five 40-somethings, who haven't been in a room together for 20 years, are reuniting for a run of shows with English novelty rockers The Darkness and tomorrow, they'll play a warm-up show to press and family. It will be their first gig in 24 years and a lifetime since their short run at the top.The hard hyper-rock quintet were still circling their late teens in 1991 when their hallucinatory anthem "Trippin'" struck; a revelatory bout of hair metal landing on the Kiwi charts at a time when local music was widely ignored. "Trippin'" spent six weeks at number one, first wiping out The Righteous Brothers' sop-romp "Unchained Melody", then returning to dethrone The Steve Miller Band's "The Joker" for a month.Mikey Havoc remembers being inside a service station on the way to Invercargill for an instore appearance when he heard the news that the band had knocked off Steve Miller for the number one spot. 900 people ended up storming the instore, causing the windows to bulge and the band to take shelter on the shop counter. "Trippin'" would spend 26 weeks in the Top 50. The next rock track to reach number one would be "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Just over one year and a platinum-selling album later, the band was done, burned out and scattered across the Tasman.Continue reading on NOISEY.
Just over one year and a platinum-selling album later, the band was done, burned out and scattered across the Tasman.Continue reading on NOISEY.