THE DEAR HUNTER will perform in New Zealand for the first time, playing a career spanning headline set at shows in Wellington and Auckland.
Known for charismatic frontman/songwriter/guitarist Casey Crescenzo’s series of concept records and forays into prog, rock, folk and everything in between, they have built an ardent following worldwide which have seen them sell out theatres across America and Europe.
It’s been almost a decade since Casey Crescenzo brought The Dear Hunter – both the band and the character of the same name – to life with his 2006 debut full-length, Act I: The Lake South, The River North. Although it was evident from his stint as singer of The Receiving End Of Sirens, the record revealed Crescenzo’s incredibly inventive and ambitious musical flair, something which has been evolving ever since. The two albums which followed – 2007’s Act II: The Meaning Of, And All Things Regarding Ms. Leading and 2009’s Act III: Life And Death – cemented him as a maverick, idiosyncratic talent whose music, while fitting a modern aesthetic, was also from a bygone era.
Anachronistic and timeless in equal measure, the narrative of The Dear Hunter existed in both the past and the present, its detailed plot standing simultaneously as an age-old and new age fable. As that tale progressed, so did Crescenzo’s art, his experimental compositions blurring the line between different genres to create a sound that was – and still is – unique to the band. But then, halfway through the six envisioned Acts of the Dear Hunter narrative, Crescenzo’s attention shifted. Between 2010 and 2011, the band recorded a series of nine four-track EPs known as The Color Spectrum. Later released as a single volume edition, each EP was a musical interpretation of a color from the visible spectrum, showcasing the increasingly far-reaching ambitions for Crescenzo’s musical vision and his inventive interpretation of the world around him. Two years later, the more mellow and straightforward fifth full-length Migrant showcased a different side to the songwriter’s talents, and he subsequently composed and recorded his first symphony Amour & Attrition. With such a storied musical repertoire, it’s clear Crescenzo is no ordinary musician.
In 2015 and 2016, Crescenzo returned to the narrative of the anti-hero who shares the band’s name, applying all of the knowledge and experience of the last ten years to new chapters picking up where the story left off.
The personal growth that Crescenzo has experienced in his own life has shaped his songs.
“Looking back on the way that it started,” Crescenzo remembers, “the story was rooted in such an intensely bitter place I was able to demonize whoever I wanted through the fiction of it. If I had written it all as a younger man, I think it would have been bitterness from the beginning to the end, and there would have been no room for my growth or the growth of whatever character I’m putting in there.”
Six years later, following the trials and tribulations of the pandemic, The Dear Hunter released Antimai, their eighth studio album. The album is the first record in the band’s sci-fi/fantasy-themed ‘Indigo Child’ saga, introducing the titular city and its geographical and social structure on a fictional world.
His live band is an extension of the presentation of these records – completed by Nick Crescenzo (drums, percussion), Robert Parr (guitar, keyboards), Nick Sollecito (bass), Maxwell Tousseau (guitar, keyboards) and Aiden Earley (keyboards).
Following a sold out North American tour, the band will finally make their long awaited live return to Australia in May 2024 and for the first time ever, New Zealand in June 2024.
The shows promise to be a treat for long time fans of the band who have been hooked from the start.
One listen, and you probably will be, too.
