Review: I Wanna Be Macho Macho

Words by Sibel Atalay (she/they) 

San Fran knew what they were doing when they said “free gigs on Wednesday”. This week, Eyegum provided. A plethora of university students packed into Wellington’s favourite music venue—what's not to love? Going into this gig, I had zero expectations. All I knew was that my friends worshipped these Ned Flanders lookalikes, and I decided to trust them.

Macho Macho: four dudes, one stage. Flashing lights and screeching guitars set the tone for a performance of classically-trained testosterone. I admire a drummer who can drive a song so unsuspectingly—taking over where necessary and pulling back when the time is right. The push and pull in every song left you wanting more.

Whilst somewhat reminiscent of math rock bands like American Football and Surface To Air Missive, Macho Macho’s style and demeanour is unique to the New Zealand music scene.

Their latest release, “Blink”, sums up the sound of Macho Macho. The song is made of very prominent sections which puts classic song structure into the grave. However,  it always circles back to its important vocals. Imagine three Ned Flanders screaming at you, “I wanna wanna dance dance dance like you you you you you you uh oh yeah!” What would you do? Would you run, or would you dance? When that drum break hit, the crowd absolutely lost it.

Their track “What’s the Worst That Could Happen?” features tempo changes combined with sections where the band moves in unison. This is pretty hard to perfect. Witnessing these movements live showed the bands interconnectedness.

You know when each band member is stuck in their own bubble and you wonder why everything feels kind of flat? I can tell you one thing for sure, these Macho men have stage presence in the bag. Each musician has a way of connecting to one another, almost as if they are conversing. 

Near the end of their set, I found myself slightly caught off guard. I love when bands take songs and make them their own. When these guys started jamming “Pump It” by Black Eyed Peas , I was intrigued. There was a lot of jumping, and many freshers were yelling “PUMP IT”. It was glorious.

As per usual, there was an ‘unsuspecting’ encore. Beer was spilled, crouching was forced (thanks Kenny), and the word “man” was said numerous times. Macho Macho outdid themselves. Another successful Eyegum boy band. Surely one day, boys with guitars won’t be the only beings to grace the stage.