Augustino return to the Wintergarden at Auckland Domain, previously seen there for the video for their 2000 single “The Silent Film”. So, is “You’re Making Me Sober” a sequel? Well, it doesn’t appear to be, both videos have an eerie scifi flavour to them.
Lyrics about booze and other mind-altering substances feature a lot on Augustino’s lyrics. But rather than by going for a more literal interpretation of the lyrics, instead goes in an astral direction.
This time the band are strolling around the back of the buildings, passing a number of people who seem to be set up to watch some sort of eclipse. There are telescopes, goggles, reflecting ponds, and cardboard boxes with slits – very instructional! And just to make things even more unusual, the watchers are all very different groups – an Asian family, a group of Victorian-era nurses and 1940s schoolboys.
All are staring up at a new-moon shaped brightness in the sky. We never see it directly (it’s not safe, you know), but we see it reflected in various surfaces. Finally the eclipse ends and sunshine returns to the Domain.
There’s something reassuringly eerie about eclipses, and combined with ye olde scientific equipment, things get even spookier. It’s like all these people have time-travelled from various points in the past to view the that particular eclipse in Auckland Domain in 2004. But the question is – what are Augustino doing there and why aren’t they using any devices for safely observing the eclipse?
Best bit: the line-up of the cardboard box heads.
Director: James Barr
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… the first 15 minutes.