The Eastern is a New Zealand band from Christchurch featuring Adam McGrath and Jess Shanks along with varying other musicians. Formed in 2006, their self-titled first album was released in 2009 and went straight into the top ten in the New Zealand Indie charts. In 2010 their album Arrows launched them into two years of touring. Their third album, Hope and Wire, was given five out of five stars by the New Zealand Herald.

They’ve played everywhere. From Nashville to Timaru and a few stops in between, C-City’s home but Lyttelton’s where the hearts is, they drink with the sailors as house band at the wunderbar, and remember songs shouted across the booth at sun studios, stages in London, rebel pubs in Baltimore, street corners and union meetings in Sydney, sweatin’ out in Clarksdale, they dream of their lost homes in Shirley, Philadelphia, Portland and Brighton and hold every mile between as a place to plug in and play…book stores, record stores, theatre stages, lounge rooms, back rooms, listening rooms, dead rooms, to no people and to lots, they’ve played everywhere and anywhere ticking off show after show offering no sign of tagging out and quitting. They play ‘cause they have too, not because they wanna see their faces in a magazine or in a video or on a chart, or to soak it up in a showcase. They’ll play because they care, about the songs about the show about the folks they meet and the hands they shake. They play like it matters, like it’s all they know how to do, ‘cause it does and it is. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.