Genres

Live Review: Biffy Clyro at the Auckland Powerstation

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Biffy Clyro

Powerstation, Auckland

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Last night at my dreams came true.

In the form of three topless bearded Scotsmen, no less!

Biffy Clyro have been my favourite band since I was 15. I finally got to see them live last night. This was the first time the band has played in New Zealand, their performance at Rhythm and Vines in 2009 having been cancelled due to illness.

Biffy Clyro have packed out Wembly Stadium, headlined some of the UK’s biggest music festivals, and toured with rock heavyweights such as Foo Fighters and Muse. Despite this, they are largely unheard of in New Zealand. Not that this was evident last night, with the Powerstation at full capacity, brimming with diehard fans yelling their trademark chant: “Mon the Biff!” (Mon being an abbreviation of “come on”).

The band made a grand entrance. They stormed the stage to a frenzied pre-recorded Scottish shouted chant, one sounding rather like a Maori haka in my mind. If the chant wasn’t enough to rev up to crowd, opening song ‘Different People’ from Biffy’s latest record Opposites made sure to finish the job. The song has a slow build up, but every person in the crowd knew that after a few minutes the band would reach a verse and let loose. And let loose they did.

The show was saturated in energy. The musicians threw themselves around the stage with abandon. The anthems were huge. The ballads soared and the heavier songs were explosive.

“We’re monning as much as we can!” front man Simon Neil shouted to the crowd, “This is our first time in New Zealand, so we’re going to play some older songs. If that’s OK?”  The band then played ‘Wave Upon Wave Upon Wave’ from their 2004 release Infinity Land. This was the first time they’d played it in seven years.

Biffy Clyro front man Simon Neil playing 'God and Satan' solo on acoustic guitar

Biffy Clyro front man Simon Neil plays ‘God and Satan’ solo on acoustic guitar

 

And that wasn’t the only treat for the crowd. The set list was well balanced, drawing from material old and new, acoustic and electric. There was even a B-side thrown into the mix. My personal highlight was ‘57’ from the band’s debut release Blackened Sky.

It was impressive how talented the band was. Each of the three members (front man Simon Neil on guitar, and twin brothers Ben and James Johnston, on drums and bass, respectively) shared vocal duties.  Also onstage were two touring musicians helping to fill out the sound (Mike Vennart on guitar and Richard Ingram on keys). When five musicians can play weird time signatures like that without missing a beat you can tell they’ve had a lot of practise. Just listen to the ‘Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies’ and you’ll understand exactly what I mean. They had clearly spent a lot of time tightening up their playing to get that unified.

It was obvious that most of the audience were long time fans. You don’t usually see that many people singing along with the band at a show, especially when the lyrics are as off kilter as Biffy’s. But the fans were all singing along, many waving Scottish flags about. Vennart, the rhythm guitarist, even changed from his suit into a red kilt that a punter had thrown onstage.

It was a special night for Biffy Clyro fans. It had been a long time coming, but the band more than made up for the wait.

Joseph James

Set list for the Biffy Clyro Powerstation show in Auckland. Note that the actual set deviated from the plan. 'The Rain', a B-side from Similarities was played after 'Victory Over The Sun'. For the encore 'Folding Stars' was played in place of 'Machines'

Set list for the Biffy Clyro Powerstation show in Auckland.
Note that the actual set deviated from the plan.
‘The Rain’, a B-side from Similarities was played after ‘Victory Over The Sun’.
For the encore ‘Folding Stars’ was played in place of ‘Machines’

Album Review: Shihad – FVEY

Shihad FVEY vinyl record cover
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Last time I saw Shihad play was on Boxing Day a few years back in Lower Hutt – the eternal dwelling place of the bogan. The band played a few songs from each of their releases in chronological sequence, starting with their début EP Devolve, and concluding with their most recent album, Ignite. It was a good cross-section of their history, showcasing their sound as it evolved from the speed metal of their formative days through to the more radio-friendly songs of recent years. The downside to this was that as the show progressed it became clear that Shihad’s later releases pale in comparison to their more aggressive early works. In my opinion Shihad had peaked with The General Electric.

This is why FVEY (pronounced Five Eyes) makes me so happy. It’s a nod to Churn and Killjoy, but with the use of production and mastering technologies 20 years more advanced. Listening to the album teaser was enough to make my hairs stand on end. Being able to the blast the finished product on 180 gram vinyl is a glorious experience.

No doubt Jaz Coleman played a part in this. His influence was unmistakable in the brutal industrial metal that was Churn, and lingering traces could still be felt in the raw anger of Killjoy. And once again the Killing Joke singer has returned to the producer’s chair to impart his wisdom. This record was one of the last to be recorded at Coleman’s York Street studios, allowing the band good use of one of New Zealand’s premium recording studios.

Coleman can still be heard in this record, both musically and thematically.  Title tack ‘FVEY’ sounds like it could comfortably be part of Killing Joke’s 2010 release Absolute Dissent, and some of Jon Toogood’s lyrics resemble those of the songs on Killing Joke’s MMXII.  Anger, distrust of the authorities and conspiracy theories seem to be common themes throughout.

It’s raw but at the same time clean. They’ve captured the heaviness without muddy distortion. Not an easy feat, seeing as how the guitars are drop-tuned so ridiculously low. Frontman Jon Toogood has described the record as “intense” and “blistering”. He’s not wrong.

Where did the band re-discover this energy and determination? The album title FVEY points towards paranoia over our international spy network. Maybe something to do with a fat German millionaire buying off our politicians? No doubt Shihad are riled up about various social injustices, and FVEY is the creative by-product of these feelings.

I’ve always loved Shihad. I own every album and watch them live every time they come to town. It was always a given that I’d be buying FVEY. But this time round I feel safe recommending this album to my friends, not something I could have said about the band’s recent outputs like Ignite or Beautiful Machine.

Killjoy-era Shihad is back in form. And with an accompanying tour promised; I find this very exciting.

 

Joseph James

Live Review: Ellie Goulding at the Wellington TSB Arena

Ellie Goulding Broods
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Ellie Goulding

w/ Broods

TSB Arena Wellington

Monday 9 June 2014

Brother/sister duo Broods proved to be an ideal choice as tonight’s opening act. It was a homecoming of sorts for the two, who, along with their drummer, played a half hour set of sparse synth based music that complemented Goulding’s electropop brilliantly. Although the sampling sounded a bit weak to start with, once the mix improved they played a suitably dynamic set. Broods is quite a departure from the siblings’ previous band, The Peasants, and judging from crowd reaction they could well follow down the path just recently paved by Lorde.

If Broods gave a taste then Goulding gave the full combo deal, demonstrating how well the style of music can be played with a full band. Goulding herself proved adept on both guitar and drums, showing her to be more than just a pretty voice that can gyrate across a stage. She started off strong with hits like ‘Figure 8’ and ‘Starry Eyed’ before changing down a gear to a stripped back song. She then stripped it back even more for a short acoustic set of songs with just guitar or piano for accompaniment. An Elton John cover preceded a lull in the set but the pace picked back up eventually, providing more opportunities for the crowd to move about.

From there on in it got better and better, with Goulding appearing more comfortable to “be silly” onstage, as she told us in her polite English accent. The audience in turn seemed to receive each song better than the last, until the band finally concluded with the song ‘Burn’.

This is one of the better setups I’ve seen at this venue. The stands at the rear were set up, making the arena appear fuller. The lights and screens were impressive. Goulding had the goods. Enjoyable and diverse, she demonstrated that an excellent concert can be put on without the overly excessive price of admission that her popstar contemporaries charge. She has the voice, the charisma and the stage show without the diva attitude to match.

 

Joseph James

Live Review: Run the Jewels, Danny Brown & Earl Sweatshirt at James Cabaret, Wellington

Earl Sweatshirt Run The Jewles Danny Brown Wellington James Cabaret
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Run the Jewels, Danny Brown, Earl Sweatshirt

James Cabaret, Wellington

Tuesday 28 January 2014

It’s only January, but tonight was promising to be the biggest Hip hop show of the year. The triple bill of Run the Jewels, Danny Brown and Earl Sweatshirt was almost too good to be true for hip hop fans, and the hipsters in their bucket hats attended in droves.

Run the Jewels proved to be a good opening act. The crowd were worked into a frenzy as MCs EL-P and Killer Mike tagged between themselves alternating lead duties. I was a bit confused when they talked about their DJ being born in Wellington and being raised by Koala Bears, but all was forgiven when they pulled an especially rowdy fan up onstage and sat him down for “time out” so that security wouldn’t need to deal with him anymore.

Danny Brown was arguably the biggest draw card of the night. Known as the rapper with the funny voice and having been touted as the next big thing by overseas press, Brown delivered on the hype. His music was bass driven and required a lot of chanting from the crowd, an interaction that the audience was happy to oblige. Brown lapped it up, continually poking out his tongue and throwing the goat.

Compared to Brown’s incessant bass driven music, Earl Sweatshirt’s set seemed far more stripped back, especially when he started spitting lyrics a cappella between his other songs. Sweatshirt’s set was a lot less structured than the first two bands and he would get the crowd to vote on if they wanted to hear old or new material. He later admitted that he’d only written about 20 songs, so we’d heard just about all of them anyway.

My personal highlight of the night was when Odd Future collaborator Domo Genesis threw a bucket of fried chicken into the audience and watched the crowd fight over the fried chicken. “Yeah! Rip each other’s throats!” shouted Sweatshirt.

An interesting insight into the world of hip hop. I just hope that they’re not all serious.

 

Joseph James