Reconnecting with The D4 trajectory

Hard-rock Kiwi band The D4 wrap-up their nationwide tour at Gisborne’s Smash Palace with Shihad frontman Jon Toogood. Pictures supplied

ONE of the last bands to play at The Kings Arms before Auckland’s legendary venue closes its doors forever will be hard-out rock act The D4.

Then they head south to rock Gisborne’s industrial subdivision.

When The D4 exploded onto the music scene in the late 1990s the New Zealand garage rock revival act assailed us with hard and fast songs such as Party, Rock n Roll Mother****** and North Shore Bitch. British music mag NME described the band as as the forefront of a rock revolution.

After a trail of world tours and two albums The D4 musicians parted company in 2006. Lead singer and guitarist Dion Palmer moved to New York where he is now a fulltime musician with A Place to Bury Strangers. But when he heard about the closure of The Kings Arms, scheduled for about April next year, he had an idea.

“It dawned on me this could be an opportunity to do a show. The D4 will be one of the last shows to perform at The Kings Arms.”

The band will also perform at the Auckland City Lmits festival then they will tour the regions.

Palmer and Jimmy Christmas assembled The D4 in 1998 and hit the road to massive acclaim.

“That was an amazing time for us,” says Palmer.

“We travelled the world. We rose in the late 90s at the height of techno and clubs. Rock and roll wasn’t cool.”

In his stovepipe jeans and black jacket Palmer couldn’t even gain entry into clubs.

The D4 trajectory began with gigs at the Frisbee Leisure Lounge parties along Symonds Street, followed by inner city pub gigs. They have also played at the Big Day Out and at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

Towards the end of The D4 lifespan band members considered recording a third album “but it didn’t seem the way to go”.

On moving to New York, Palmer formed a band called The True Lovers and now plays bass in A Place to Bury Strangers [sp]. Drummer Daniel “Beaver” Pooley is now with the Jordan Luck Band [sp], Jimmy Christmas formed rock group Luger Boa who have supported Shihad on tour while bass player English Jake is now with garage-soul band Thee Rum Coves.

When he returns to join a reunited D4 Palmer will bring no expectations.

“I want us to sound not dated but I want us to still sound aggressive. I have an idea to take it to the next level. We want The D4 to be better than it was.”

A Place to Bury Strangers has a similar attitude to The D4 but are louder, noisier and more aggressive and use more reverb.

“We’re a bit experimental,” says Palmer.

“We’ll bring some of that extreme-ness to The D4 tour. As a peformer I think that’s my thing, to take it as far as I can.”