Spotlight: Greg Franco's Rough Church NZ Tour with The Fuzzies

Visitor to our shores so many times over the past two decades (eight to be precise) he's been affectionately adopted as "an honorary New Zealander", Los Angeles songwriter / guitarist Greg Franco (Man's Body) is back for an extensive Aotearoa tour. He's playing all around the nation this spring, wrapping up a solo run of shows this week, then reuniting with his Rough Church bandmates and NZ's The Fuzzies for a nine stop adventure — joined along the way by special guests including Psychic Maps, Matthew Bannister's The Changing Same, AJ Sharma, The New Existentialists, Spillkit, The Holy Loner and David Eggleton.

Greg Franco's close connection with Aotearoa music was sparked in 2001 when his group at the time Ferdinand were invited to open for The Clean in LA (read his interview with Harvey Kubernik HERE for the lowdown), getting the ball rolling for Franco's 2006 collaborative album with David Kilgour and Robert Scott Southpawwest. Launching that collection through local independent flag flyers Powertool Records, as well as his 2008 solo album The White Dove of the Desert, Franco has toured here both solo and with indie-pop / post-punk collective Rough Church (who have also released via Powertool), with seven long players to their own name thus far since forming in 2005.

Joining forces with Franco and Rough Church (playing as a trio for the tour) for the November tour, The Fuzzies are the Tāmaki Makaurau trio of Niki Maera (Mary) and Kelly Michael (Tabularasa, Enshrine) with Andrew Maitai (Powertool Records, Joed Out) on drums — who unveiled their hook-packed new album Cupid in August. Super city gig-goers can head along to UFO tonight and give Franco a warm welcome back before his epic spring tour and / or tune in to bFM's Fancy New Band show on Friday morning to hear him beaming out from the boom box. Here are the tour details...

"We sing about rare steamy rain, rolling tumbleweeds and lost poems raging against dying lights of empathy. We put out indie pop jams that get us compared to everything from Minutemen to Pixies".

Greg Franco's Rough Church Trio with The Fuzzies

Wednesday 1st November - Wunderbar, Lyttelton w/ Psychic Maps*
Thursday 2nd November - Barrytown Hall, Barrytown*
Friday 3rd November - Space Academy, Christchurch w/ Tiny Dangers*
Saturday 4th November - Mandy's Waitati w/ AJ Sharma, David Eggleton
Sunday 5th November - The Crown, Dunedin w/ Seafog*
Wednesday 8th November - UFO, Auckland w/ The New Existentialists*
Thursday 9th November - Nirvara Lounge, Hamilton w/ The Changing Same*
Friday 10th November - Cutlers, Lower Hutt w/ Spillkit*
Sunday 12nd November - Common Ground, Featherston w/ The Holy Loner

*Tickets available HERE via UTR

Hit play on Rough Church's 2017 anthem 'Bully My Heart'...

Bop along with 'Koo Koo' from The Fuzzies' new album Cupid...