The Music Awards

Wednesday was my red carpet debut at the 2008 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards!!

It didn't really hit me until I got there how freakin' cool it was going to be. It was open to the public, via $60 general admission tickets. They let the "industry" (that's me!) get seated at their tables before opening to doors to everyone else, by way of a red carpet, and the fans were all lined up alongside it, watching everyone go in. When we were walking in, the MC guy (I don't know who he was) was like, "The Rip It Up crew in the house!!!" and people cheered. It was so exciting.

The opening performance by Tiki Taane was sooo cool, I think especially from the point of view of a non-New Zealander. Tiki is Maori, and it's like, his thing. He performed his newest single "Tangaroa," with 40-odd members of his iwi (tribe) dancing the poi and doing the haka (traditional Maori war dance) in traditional garb on stage with him.

Really disappointingly though, most artists weren't there! With the exception of the artists who actually performed, pretty much no one accepted their award in person. And most had some random crew member accept it on their behalf, so I saw no Finns, which was disappointing.

The Flight of the Conchords at least made acceptance videos for their four awards. Prime Minister Helen Clark presented the International Achievement Award to FotC; that was pretty cool. Also, Michael Franti presented some awards, including the Best Aotearoa Roots album to Tiki Taane. That was cool; he's American and I saw him this summer at Mountain Jam. If you want to see who won everything, read this.

I had SO MUCH FUN with the Satellite Media people, and everyone looked fantastic, and I felt fantastic. And I got a SWEET bag o' loot, including two pairs of thong underwear, a Moro bar, and a pound of coffee! So exciting, free stuff is.

The afterparty was crazy, and I got much free alcohol, which was great. Freaky mimes in drag floated around the arena, performing magic tricks and dancing weirdly in everyone's personal space.

In all, it was just a pretty incredible experience, almost entirely worth the next day's hangover.

See photos here. Also included in that album are pictures from Wellington, which deserves its own entry, which will be written sometime in the near future... definitely after I watch Snakes on A Plane on TV right now.