Live Review: Ash – 30th Anniversary Tour of 1977 at San Fran, Wellington

Ash

w/ Dropper

1977 30th Anniversary Tour

San Fran, Wellington

Tuesday 15 September 2026

Ash’s debut, 1977 was was the first album I owned, given to me by my big cousin. She knew about all the cool music I’d never heard of. I listened to until it fell apart – quietly (…or not so quietly) becoming the soundtrack to my teenage years. I often wondered if a girl from Mars would appear at my window someday, and “Oh Yeah” became a roadmap for first love.

This was my fourth time seeing the Downpatrick trio: the first two during the Free All Angels era in 2003 and 2005, then again at San Fran in 2025. I also had the privilege of chatting with bassist Mark Hamilton a few weeks back ahead of the tour. We discussed their 30-year journey, their three-string bass lore, and their affection for Kiwi audiences.

San Fran on Cuba Street is a low-ceilinged room that suits high-volume guitar acts. I’m pretty sure the vibrations caused a pint glass in front of me to fall during “Angel Interceptor”! You get the full punch of the backline while being right beside the band.

Local openers Dropper gave off 2000s nostalgia, reminiscent of UK bands like Hundred Reasons. Big, explosive energy, with the bassist jumping about on stage. The drummer was giving it heaps, knocking over his funny wee roto-toms and a few cymbal stands, like Animal from the Muppets reincarnated. The singer wore a U2 shirt; it felt a bit on the nose, but at the same time it was a choice that made sense. It was a shame the vocal mic cut out during the third song. The band still sounded great, but they lost a bit of oomph when this couldn’t be resolved. They did a stellar job and I look forward to seeing them again.

Ash made their entrance to the fanfare of The A-Team soundtrack over the PA and launched straight into “Lose Control”, sounding heavy, tight, and direct from the start.

Mark Hamilton was clearly in his element, throwing his frame around on stage left with his trademark three-string bass: a setup born from being a broke teenager unable to afford a full set of replacement strings when the thin G-string snapped. It has long since become his signature style.

Before starting “Goldfinger”, Tim Wheeler paused to share a piece of New Zealand tour history dating back to October 1996. On their very first trip to Aotearoa, supporting Garbage at Auckland’s North Shore Events Centre, the arena’s fire alarm went off right as they struck the opening chords of the song. The entire venue was evacuated onto the street, and only after the fire service cleared the building could the band return to restart their set. Wheeler commented on how there seemed to be a lot more people when they started again. “ I think they just let everyone in,” he grinned.

Thankfully, it went off without a hitch tonight, rolling straight into the melodic “Girl from Mars”.

The first set delivered the full sequence of 1977. “Kung Fu” had the room shouting along to the Jackie Chan refrains “oh wah, ah ah ah ah!” while “Oh Yeah” – my personal favourite of the band back catalogue – served as the emotional centrepiece of the album run. Drummer Rick McMurray held the rhythm section in a prolonged groove, letting the crowd carry the chorus unassisted before the full arrangement crashed back in.

In the second half, they shifted into newer territory with cuts from Ad Astra, starting with their version of “Zarathustra” from 2001: A Space Odyssey (leaning right into their enduring sci-fi geek credentials), before launching into the title track and “Fun People” with noticeable enthusiasm. “Fun People” in particular stood out as a highlight: heavy, quirky, upbeat, and channeling a glam-tinged blend of David Bowie and M’s classic synth-pop hit “Pop Muzik”.

While new material inevitably brings a shift in audience familiarity compared with 30-year-old anthems, the trio attacked the songs with complete conviction, bringing their A game and a noticeable lift in the energy of the room.

The band closed out with some crowd favourites, including “Shining Light”, prompting an immediate, full-voice singalong across the floor. They powered through the title song from A Life Less Ordinary, before they capping things off with an explosive rendition of “Burn Baby Burn”.

Earlier legs of this anniversary tour saw Ash filling much larger spaces across the UK, such as Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom and London’s Roundhouse. In rooms of that scale, the communal singalong choruses of 1977 would be something to hear. While seeing the band in a space like San Fran gives a great sense of intimacy, I think a tour like this is clearly built for bigger venues, where shared nostalgia for the band can carry the trio along through the album they gifted us 30 years ago.
It was exactly what it said on the tin: an opportunity to hear the band play their debut album, a few hits, and give us a tantalizing taste of their more recent work.

Review by Paddy McCann

Photos by Joseph James

Interview with Mark Hamilton, bassist from Ash

As Ash prepare to return to New Zealand next week as part of their 1977 30th anniversary tour, bassist Mark Hamilton got on the line with Paddy McCann to reflect on the band’s origins and the intervening decades since the release of 1977.

“I know we sound the same,” says Paddy, “but I’m actually in Wellington. I’m not just sitting in Ireland pretending.” Hearing them talk, you’d be forgiven for thinking he might be. Paddy grew up in Belfast, about an hour’s drive to Downpatrick in Northern Ireland, where Ash formed. For him, talking to Mark is a bit of a dream come true. “It’s awesome to have a chat with someone whose music I’ve grown up with,” he says. “1977 was one of the first CDs I actually owned. I think I wore it out!”

Paddy mentions discovering the infamous hidden track at the end of the album, “Sick Party”, which features all kinds of random audio of the lads in the studio, including someone vomiting. Paddy had it playing at the restaurant he’d been working at, and everyone was a bit startled when the track came on. “It was just us “messing around in the studio”, really,” Mark grins, “I think we were waiting for Tim to finish writing lyrics. I think a lot of people got caught out like that with “Sick Party””

1977 was actually released in 1996, and Ash are currently on a 30th anniversary tour. They have upcoming dates in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, before returning to the UK for more shows later this year. “What does it mean to still be taking that album around the world?” asks Paddy.

“Every time we get asked to come back, it’s like a total honour,” says Mark. “And we’ve got friends in New Zealand as well, so it’s always good fun. We love the Kiwi sense of humour.” He mentions the long flights and jet lag that are promised with a trip to the other side of the world, but remarks that, by doing the Aussie shows first, the band are “pretty all right” by the time they get to NZ.

Ash formed in 1992 as a three-piece band, with Tim Wheeler on lead vocals and guitar, Mark Hamilton on bass, and Rick McMurray on drums. Aside from the success of 1977 itself, it’s pretty impressive that these three have stayed together all this time. The very same trio who originally recorded the album are still playing together, touring these 30th anniversary shows in 2026.

“What’s the trick?” asks Paddy. “I play music, and I can’t be in a band with anybody without someone falling out.” “I think that’s really the key thing,” says Mark. “Egos or personalities can clash, but Tim and I met when we were 12 years old. We were just children, and we grew up as friends… You become almost like brothers, you know so much about each other.”

It was really only a few years after meeting as kids that the two formed Ash with Rick McMurray, and the rest is history. When Paddy asks if Mark had always intended to play bass, he replies “the concept of the band was first, rather than actually me or Tim having instruments. It sounds ridiculous, but the dream was always to be rock stars of some sort.” Mark references the 1989 comedy film Bill and Ted. “It was really inspiring. We were thinking, “oh yeah, just a couple of guys can change the world.” We came up with the concept of a band before any of us had instruments.”

“There were other guys from school who were going to be in the band, and I was originally going to be on the keyboard. Then the guy who was going to be bassist quit the band before it even existed.” (I bet that guy lies awake at night…) “It became a question of which was more important, keyboard or bass. Then Tim said to me: “you get the bass then.” I was like, “all right.””

Tim and Mark asked Santa for guitars that Christmas. “We thought we were taking the piss because guitars were expensive. But there were mail-order guitars for around 90 quid, and we managed to convince our parents. It was Christmas Day or Boxing Day and we got together. On our first try, we couldn’t play. We just didn’t know what we were doing. It was like, “What are we going to do now?” There was no YouTube you could look up. We started working it out ourselves – if you played the same number on the fretboard, it would sound the same. We just started writing songs, like, on day one. It was only bass and guitar playing, so it sounded ridiculous. We have recordings of those early songs, and they’re hilarious. We had these little two-watt amps powered by nine-volt batteries. They were quiet, little starter amps, and the batteries ran out after like half an hour. We were just playing the same notes over and over, really simple little riffs, but it got us in the mindset of writing our own music, which was really important.”

“I saw you play in Wellington in 2024, at San Fran.” says Paddy. “I noticed you were playing with a three-string bass. Is that something you’ve done for a long time?”

“That goes back to the early days as well. In Downpatrick, there was one shop that sold guitar strings. They sold CDs, sheet music, and bits and pieces; but they only sold bass strings in full sets. You couldn’t buy individual strings. When you’re 13 or 14, the G string is the thinnest string, and it breaks first. It was 20 quid to get a new set of bass strings. When you’re young, it’s just too much money to be changing the G string every time. So, I just left it off and started playing without it. I didn’t use it, so I just didn’t need it. Then it just stuck.”

As for the band’s longevity, Mark says it’s like “a vindication.” “We’ve been plugging away, it’s nice to see things rise again. The last few albums went Top 15 in the UK after maybe a decade of not charting at all. A lot of people say, “you’re that band from the ‘90s or early ‘00s, what have you been doing since?” But we’ve been putting out albums and touring ever since. It’s nice to see the uptake again.”

“Ash songs have turned up in some unexpected places, too,” says Paddy. “I was playing Burnout on Xbox and heard you guys. What are your favourite incidences of coming across your music?”

Mark lists off an impressive resume. A bunch of computer games (including the third Gran Turismo and an NHL hockey game), a Jackie Chan movie called Rumble in the Bronx, and the titular song (“A Life Less Ordinary”) for a Danny Boyle film starring Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz. “”Orpheus” was on the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack. “Meltdown” as well. A fan sent us an edit of “Orpheus” in Shaun of the Dead and it was a brilliant video, but it was just a random thing where I was like “oh, I forgot we were in that movie.””

In Ireland, “Uncle Pat” was used in a Heineken ad. “You could not escape that advert whenever it was running,” says Mark. “It may not be a song that everyone outside Ireland knows, but everyone in Ireland seems to know it because of that advert.”

“I think you played it when you were here last time,” says Paddy. “There were a lot of people calling for it, it may have been an encore.”

ASH 1977 – 30th Anniversary Australian/NZ Tour Dates:

Australia:

Friday 4th September PERTH, Rosemount Hotel
Saturday 5th September FREMANTLE, Fre.Social
Tuesday 8th September ADELAIDE, Lion Arts Factory
Thursday 10th September BRISBANE, The Tivoli
Friday 11th September MELBOURNE, Northcote Theatre
Saturday 12th September SYDNEY, Metro Theatre

NZ:

Monday 14th September AUCKLAND, Tuning Fork
Tuesday 15th September WELLINGTON, San Fran

NZ Tickets On Sale Now From: https://metropolistouring.com/newzealand/ash/

Paddy McCann is an Irish singer-songwriter who’s lived in Wellington for years. You can often catch him playing at Gibbons Hotel on Taranaki Street. He’s also the frontman of blues rock band Aegir and Ran, who play occasionally but have been abandoned by their bassist (one that plays four strings). You can find his music and more information about his appearances on his Instagram, @paddy_mc_cann.

Interview by Paddy McCann

Live Review: Living Colour at San Fran, Wellington

Living Colour were my stand out band of 2017. I managed to interview drummer Will Calhoun early on in the year (one of the highlights of my blogging career). Their Auckland show at Powerstation was incredible – easily my favourite gig of the year. A few months later, when travelling in America, I was fortunate enough to catch guitarist Vernon Reid put on a Chuck Berry tribute night in New York. And then in September they dropped the awesome new album Shade.

So imagine my pleasure when they announced another tour which included a Wellington date. I would have happily flown up to Auckland again to see them, but managed to save the money on flights and accommodation, and got to see them at a more intimate venue!

Curly’s Jewels opened the night with a bang, launching straight into the set with plenty of energy. They’re exactly as I remembered them from when they opened for Skinny Hobos in June, with colourful singer Jel Pollock injecting plenty of character into the show. I noticed that the crunchy guitar tones sounded especially good at times, and should come to the forefront more. There were a few slight hiccups, but they managed to deliver with their brand of fun rock music.

This tour marked the 30th anniversary of Living Colour’s landmark debut album, Vivid. It’s an album that still stands the test of time, both musically and thematically. I remember discussing the political nature of many Living Colour songs during an interview with Calhoun last year, and he suggested that the human rights issues that the band writes about will always need to be fought for – regardless of which government is in power. Issues like discrimination, racism and gentrification are still just as prevalent in society now as they were decades ago.

And of course, the music is still excellent. It’s fascinating how the songs have evolved as the band have played them over the years – speeding up parts, adding different fills and flourishes, adding and extending some sections, and breaking down other segments. Its only natural that the band would change how they play things over such a period. Heck, in a hilarious recent interview with May The Rock Be With You, guitarist Vernon Reid confessed that he plays completely different solos in different pressings of the same song.

Vernon Reid Living Colour San Fran Wellington

Singer Corey Glover is phenomenal, no doubt about it. He can switch from soul to hip hop to hard rock with ease, and this was most apparent during “(Open Letter) To A Landlord”. He really broke the song down, showing off his impressive vocal range with powerful trilling. The crowd reciprocated towards the end, loudly singing the chorus back at the band. It sounded great.

Vivid was the name of the game, but that didn’t stop the band from visiting other albums. They played two tracks from last year’s Shade: “Freedom of Expression”, and my favourite from the record: “Come On”. It’s a shame that the cover of Biggie’s “Who Shot Ya?” got dropped from the set, because their hard rock interpretation of the hip hop classic is fantastic.

Not only did Glover have vocal chops, but good banter too. He had many comical exchanges with Reid throughout the night, the two of them sniping at each other like an old married couple. This is the third time I’ve seen the two of them together on stage, but it’s still just as funny now.

“These are old songs” Glover shared. Reid shot him a look. “No, they are,” Glover continued, “They’re really old and that’s the truth. Some of y’all weren’t even born when these songs came out.” I had a little giggle at that one, seeing that the statement applied to me.

At times it felt like the band verged on overplaying, to the point of doing a disservice to the songs by being too flashy. I guess it’s hard for musicians of that calibre to hold back when they have such talent they can draw upon. But they came here to put on a show, and they sure succeeded in doing so.

My highlight of the set was Doug Wimbash’s bass solo. Wimbash boasted the biggest pedal board I’ve ever seen a bass player use [ironically, master bass player Thundercat has the most minimalist bass pedal setup I’ve noticed]. He dedicated his song to his wife and the lovers in the crowd before launching into sounds I didn’t even think possible from a bass guitar. He created layers using a looping pedal, building it up to an expansive track that swept us away. It was fun to watch too, because he would act out the sounds as he played them, sweeping from side to side as he used his wah pedal, or mouthing the sounds as he accented certain notes.

Doug Wimbash Living Colour San Fran Wellington

Calhoun also had a solo later in the set. You can probably already tell I’m a big fan, but he deserves the praise. First of all: he’s just a fantastic player. He’s all over the kit, tastefully colouring in the sound with all percussive means at his disposal, and throwing in plenty of metal blast beats just to mix things up. Secondly: he’s innovative. He has all manner of weird and wacky custom cymbals, drums and hardware that he helps to design, but his solo takes him beyond drumming when he uses electronic hand drums and modulators. During his solo he took time out from behind the kit to lay down an electronic track with looping pedals, before returning to the drum set to play over the music he’d just formed. A truly next-level musician who thinks beyond the constraints of his instrument.

For the encore, Reid was about to launch into a spiel, but caught himself and just offered: “You’ll know when you hear the guitar line”. Sure enough, he played the recognisable chords to Soundgarden’s “Blow Up The Outside World” and nothing more needed to be said. Chris Cornell’s death impacted rock fans around the world, so this rousing tribute came as no surprise.

It was their second cover of the night, the other being “Memories Can’t Wait”, by CBGB’s contemporaries Talking Heads.

They finished the night reinforcing just how diverse and able they are, transitioning from the furious thrash metal of “Time’s Up” to the infectious funky call and response of “”What’s Your Favourite Colour?”. Both songs were extremely fun to dance to in their own ways.

I watched the crowd disperse after the show and noticed that a number of notable NZ musicians had been in attendance, such as Rhian Sheehan, Steve Bremner and Jakob drummer Jason Johnston. To me, that’s as good as any indication that Living Colour have got the goods – if some of the best in the game show up for the gig.

And it was damn good. Sure, there were a few technical hitches, but Living Colour are some of the best musicans I could name. I’m still shocked that they came to play a small bar in Wellington, but I’m stoked that they did.

Living Colour Set List San Fran Wellington — The set list.

Words and photos by Joseph James

Lost Between The Sound: An Interview With P.O.D’s Marcos Curiel

Marcos Curiel has lots to be grateful for. He’s the founding guitarist of P.O.D (Payable On Death), the San Diego nu-metal crew formed in 1992 who boast three Grammy nominations and over 12 million record sales. He strikes me as modest, downplaying his achievements and humbly attributing any success he’s had to his fans and “the beauty of music”.

When I ask him about the longevity of his band, he deflects the focus away from the band and towards his fans.

“We are very gracious and thankful for this and to fans that are so loyal. Whether in South America, Europe, here in the states or even Australia or New Zealand. People still come up see us doing our thing and we are still riding that wave until that wave stops.”

But he’s also quick to credit his band members and crew for P.O.D’s success as well.

“I think a lot of it comes from our upbringing – having the same sort of background – basically coming from nothing. And just aspiring to want to play music for people and just doing it, acting out on it and building a following. We were independent before we signed to a major label and kept saying that there was an audience there for what we were doing. It encouraged us to continue to do it and encourages us to keep doing it today even though we are 25, 26 years deep.

“We are definitely a second family on the road. We were basically teenagers when we started jamming together. Now we are full on grown men with kids and families of our own. P.O.D is our second family, you know what I mean? We’re probably together more as a band then we are with our own family sometimes. You know, we travel the world together. We are in an airplane, we’re in a bus… we are always travelling together as a band and with our crew”

Curiel is also a fan of New Zealand, having come several times in the past decade. Last time they co-headlined with NZ act Rapture Ruckus. Before that they’ve toured with Disturbed and played Edgefest. He begins the interview just gushing about our country.

“Given the opportunity, if I had to leave the states and go somewhere else to live and I always say New Zealand. . . Maybe I could even retire there.”

In recent years P.O.D have tried new directions, putting out an acoustic record (SoCal Sessions, 2014), and a concept album (The Awakening, 2015). I ask if the latest single, “Soundboy Killa” will be part of any upcoming album and Curiel admits that he isn’t sure at this stage.

“Well that is kind of a transitional single kind of thing We put that kind of to let our fanbase know that hey we’re working on new music, we’re still here – you know what I mean? I don’t even know if that’s going to make the record. Some people are like ‘That should go on the record!’, and we’re like ‘well… you never know…’ We’ll figure it out.

“Actually, we just signed a new deal with Mascot Labels. And they’ve taken us on, and hopefully releasing the new album in the summertime here in the States. We’re currently writing and working on pre-production which started in November. We were in the studio last week and we’re working through December, but we’re taking time off for holidays and we’re going to jump back in in January and head on tour here in the States. And jump back in and hopefully record that record in March and drop it in the summer.

“It’s been pretty cool, because we usually get one producer to do the whole record and on this album we’re working with different producers and different production crews. We’re working with HEAVY – they’ve done stuff with Sublime, The Dirty Heads. .. Just a bunch of different artists. And we’re working with Cameron Webb – he’s produced NOFX, Pennywise, Motorhead… He’s actually the producer of Soundboy Killer.

“We’re just trying different things, man. We’re at a stage in our career that we don’t really have to go out and say ‘hey, look at us, we’re a band.’ You know who we are and you either like us or you don’t. We have freedom to be able to experiment and do what we want, how we want to do it. Which, quite frankly, is pretty awesome.”

One interesting fact about P.O.D that draws attention is that they collaborated with the then-unknown Katy Perry for their song “Goodbye For Now” back in 2005. This remains a seemingly hot piece of trivia, despite the fact that the band have also collaborated with many other artists from acts like In This Moment, Suicidal Tendencies and Bad Brains.

Curiel wasn’t part of the band during that period, so never actually met her. He tells me what he knows about the collaboration though.

“They were working with Glen Ballard for Testify and she was one of his protegés – so to speak – that he was trying to get up and get out there in the scene. She was always hanging around the studio and wanted to go on a track. The guys became friends with her and she actually performed on the song on The Jay Leno Show, I believe. That’s how that all came to be. She will occasionally tweets about the band, tweet out how much she loves ‘Alive’ and certain songs. That’s pretty cool.”

POD are known as a Christian band, which earns them flack from both atheists and churches. In my experience, non-believers are often quick to condemn anyone of faith. And many conservative churches dismiss POD because of the company they choose to keep, playing along the likes of Marylin Manson and at metal festivals such as Ozzfest.

Marcos virtually scoffs when I ask him about this. “Do you know what’s crazy about that? I call it scenester stuff,” he explains, “I know vegans who are in hardcore bands, and I’m like, so what… you’re only gong to play with hardcore vegan bands? No, they’re playing with all different types of bands – you know what I’m saying?

I understand, I explain, my friends in Declaration AD used to get similar criticism. People would question their motives, asking things like “Why would a band of Christians choose to play alongside death metal bands? This strikes a chord with Curiel. He proceeds to explain that he tries to write music for all walks of life, not just Christians.

“Christian people maybe want to hold themselves to be the poster children, but that’s not what we’re called to do. We want to write music that inspires everybody. And so we took an approach that we’ll play most of the shows, because we want to play for everybody.

“But as far as being caught in the middle – we don’t look at it like that. We are a band of faith. Definitely we have our personal beliefs. We try to write music that connects with multiple cultures and different types of people.

“I think that’s the beautiful thing about being an artist. There’s people who are gonna understand your art, and some that won’t. The thing is, we’ve never really tried to become, at an early age we were a little more – so to speak – old in the faith. We never knew there was metal, or punk rock or any kind of scene that was a Christian scene. The band that we referred to as a major influence was U2. We’ve always look at them as inspiration. They had Christian roots and have written songs that are very conscient of humanity, or being positive in general, and we’re taken that approach – obviously playing a different style of music.

“And when we went to Singapore we found ourselves playing in front of Muslims. And they were singing ‘Alive’! And we were like ‘What the heck!’, we were tripping out at it. But at the same time, that’s the beautiful thing about music – it’s universal.

“What we get our inspiration and a lot of our confidence. First of all, it comes from that Chrstian faith, but we don’t go out and say ‘Hey, we’re this and that’s who we are.’ We’re just a rock band, man, that wants to inspire . We have our struggles and try to write songs about those struggles and we try to encourage all walks of life.

“The Beastie Boys, towards the end of their career they all about Free Tibet, and Jay was a Buddist, and they were playing with everybody, from Pearl Jam to Jane’s Addiction.

“You know how it is. Music should be universal. People have certain beliefs that drive their music, and that just happens to be ours.”

I feel that the way he concludes the interview is incredibly indicative of his character: positive and humble.

“We’re excited to get down there. We love your country and everything about the culture – the energy – and we cant wait to get down there and perform. Bring some Southern California vibes down there!”

P.O.D Australia/ NZ Tour Dates

Saturday 14 April Auckland The Studio

Sunday 15 April Wellington San Fran

Buy tickets for New Zealand: https://metropolistouring.com/pod-nz/

Tuesday 17 April Melbourne 170 Russell

Wednesday 18 April Adelaide The Gov

Friday 20 April Sydney Factory Theatre

Saturday 21 April Brisbane Eatons Hill Hotel

Sunday 22 April Gold Coast Coolangatta Hotel

Buy tickets for Australia: https://metropolistouring.com/pod/

P.O.D links:

Website: http://www.payableondeath.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POD/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/POD

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/POD/

Live Review: Opeth at The Auckland Powerstation

Opeth – Sorceress World Tour

w/ Caligula’s Horse

Powerstation, Auckland

Thursday 2 February 2017

It has been 11 years and 3 studio releases since Opeth last played a show in New Zealand. And from the excitement outside Auckland’s Powerstation, we can definitely assume that they are long overdue.

19:00 The line outside stretched well over 100 meters as we came waltzing up to the gig, prompting a quick detour to Galbraith’s pub across the road for a pint. Once inside we were hit by a strong wave of B.O courtesy of the black t-shirt brigade. High spirits and freshly poured beer in hand helped to focus our remaining senses. We did, however, move outside just in case, meeting up with many well socially lubricated excited fans with tales of sold out shows and the hunt for extra tickets.

20:00 Doors open and the black sea crashes through the gates. Once inside, the merch booth is already pumping out t-shirts. Its only competition is the beer flowing from glass bottles and into plastic cups. One gladly partakes.

Caligula’s Horse: Beckoning the Crowd

Caligula’s Horse

Having seen them just one day prior at Wellington’s Valhalla, I was keen to see what Brisbane Prog-rockers Caligula’s Horse could bring to a larger venue. Playing with a true sense of passion executed with precision, their Brisbane sound translates well to a house packed with Kiwi metal heads. Soaring vocals and blazing yet nuanced dueling guitars showed Caligula’s Horse’s professionalism and judging from the crowd’s reaction they will most certainly be welcomed back to our shores.

Too much of the creature made us lose track of time but the short break after Caligula’s Horse four song set sent us one more time back to the bar rubbing shoulders with the ever-increasing sea of people. I managed to secure a great spot right next to the sound desk ensuring that I would make the most of the acoustics of the venue. And it provided easy access to the bar. Standing in the crowd empty-handed just did not feel right.

From Darkness comes Light

Opeth

Opeth walked onto the darkened stage greeted by the deafening cheer of the crowd. Crimson and silver lights flashed. Little dampened the sound of the audience as Opeth ripped into the title track off their latest release, “Sorceress”.

The well-rehearsed set is filled with a mix of old and new continuing with “Ghost of Perdition” – a personal favourite of mine – before moving on with “The Wild Flowers” (also from their latest release). Not a band famous for an overly energetic performance, the set is highlighted with Mikael’s dry humour, often followed by sensible chuckles from the rest of the band and audience alike. A well-balanced sound is at points dressed up with some silky smooth lead guitar tones (Frederik is unmatched for the night).

Frederik is ripping it up!

The one low point of the night came when it was time for Mikael to announce their last song for the evening. A large portion of the crowd started to boo but was quickly turned into a cheer when they were told that it was bad form. The set ended as it quite often does with a perfectly performed rendition of the song “Deliverance” from the album of the same name.

All in all a fantastic night was had by all. Our night ended on Auckland’s Queen Street, where we were treated to a show by a 17-year-old male who was taking a joy ride in a forklift that he had stolen. We filmed this young man and sent a video through to stuff which can be viewed here.

Words by Mathias Hallberg.

Photos by Joseph James

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