The Beths - Auckland, New Zealand, 2020

Released 17th September 2021.

The anticipation is there in Elizabeth Stokes solo guitar riff under the opening lines of Im Not Getting Excited: a frenetic, driving force daring a packed Auckland Town Hall to do exactly the opposite of what the track title suggests.

As the opener of The Beths Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 expands to include the full band, the crowd screeches and bellows. Its a collective exhalation, in one of the few countries where live music is still possible.

The album title, and film of the same name, deliberately include the date and location, lead guitarist Jonathan Pearce says. Thats the sensational part of what we actually did. In a mid-pandemic world, playing to a heaving, enraptured home crowd feels miraculous.

In March 2020, everything seemed on track for another huge year for The Beths. Home after an 18-month northern hemisphere tour, they had just finished recording sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers an