Dimmer - The Farewell Shows

Shayne Carter will bring down the curtain on his decade and a half old Dimmer project with two special New Zealand farewell shows at the end of May.

Dimmer plays its final shows at the Kings Arms in Auckland on Thursday May 24th and Bodega in Wellington on Saturday 26th.

Special guests for both nights will be Beastwars.

With key members heading overseas and a string of recent retrospective shows under his own name, Carter said it felt like an appropriate time to bring to a close this particular chapter of his career.

I feel like Dimmer has become tied to a certain section of my catalogue of songs. Ive always had a policy of playing only material associated with whatever project Ive been involved in and I guess the decision to put the Dimmer name to bed frees me up from that.

Carter will continue to perform under his own name, probably in the three piece format he used for his recent Last Train To Brockville retrospective shows. Hes currently writing a new album which he enigmatically refers to as a piano album so far…which is interesting as I cant play piano.


Dimmer has released a series of enigmatic albums following their first emergence way back in the 90s with the now classic Sub Pop single Crystalator.

That record was followed by a near five year silence as Carter painfully pieced together his back shed epic I Believe You Are A Star, which is rightly regarded as one of the best New Zealand albums of the early Two Thousands.

Star was followed by the Award winning Youve Got To Hear The Music in 2004 and the 2007 album There My Dear which saw a return back to the more live, band driven sound of Carters earlier days. That shift was confirmed with the twin guitar sound-a-thon of the Degrees Of Existence album in 2009.

I guess this is like the second installment of the Last Train To Brockville show, says Carter, Kind of like the Last Train To Te Atatu Peninsula or Richmond Road.. a chance to look back over more than a decades worth of music. The Dimmer band covered quite a lot of stylistic ground in its time, so itll be fun deciding what to pick out.

Carter will be joined for the final Dimmer shows by long time co-conspirators, Gary Sullivan (drums) and James Duncan (guitar) and more recent signee, Vaughan Williams (bass) who has toured and performed with the band over the last two years.


DIMMER - THE FAREWELL SHOWS with special guests BEASTWARS

KINGS ARMS THURS. 24TH MAY

BAR BODEGA SAT. 26TH MAY

Tickets from Under the Radar - www.undertheradar.co.nz