Wellington

Live Review: Shaun Kirk at Bodega, Wellington

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Shaun Kirk
w/ Paint The Sand
Bodega, Wellington
Thursday 11 September 2014

Bodega was set up differently last night. There were couches and seats in front of the stage where everyone would usually stand.

This suited perfectly for local opening act Ben Maurice, under the guise of Paint the Sand. His music is designed for chilling back to, comprising of surf-inspired originals and laid-back pop cover medleys. Switching from acoustic to electric guitar in the past year has worked for him, making his set more varied and dynamic. He has added some nice brooding interludes to his set with the use of some distortion and a touch of reverb. He kept the crowd entertained between songs with his self-deprecating humour, checking to see if we were still awake.

It was clear that Shaun Kirk had chops from the opening notes. The sound was so crisp, and Kirk commanded full control over his guitar.

And it wasn’t just his guitar, either. He really was a one-man band, playing guitar, singing, blowing into his harp and playing drums though the use of pedals at his feet. It was a funny sight at times. Kirk perched on his stool strumming the gat and singing whilst lightly stomping on his many pedals. It looked like a leprechaun dancing a jig, hopping from foot to foot. I’m still not sure how he managed to keep balance atop his stool.

Highlight of the night was the song “Chicken and Corn”. Kirk introduced the song with a story about his past. When he decided to become a full-time musician he’d bought himself a Kombi. He’d named it Tracy and painted it orange. He would drive from town to town playing shows to earn money to pay for petrol so he could drive to the next show. To sustain his meager existence he’d sleep in the back of the Kombi and  live off a diet of only peanut butter, bread and tinned chicken and corn. It was tough at the time, but he laughs when he looks back at those times now.

Kirk was a wonder to watch. We were sat down on the floor in front of him, entranced with his innate guitar playing ability and raspy falsetto voice. He channeled the spirit of the greats, like his idol, Tony Joe White, and brought some authentic Blues to lil’ ol’ Wellington.

If anyone in the South Island is reading this, I highly recommend going along to the last few shows of the tour. And while you’re at it, take some cans of chicken and corn to donate to a poor blues guitarist.

Joseph James

Shaun Kirk's pedals. Note the five pedals for drums, as well as a stomp box

Shaun Kirk’s pedals. Note the five pedals for drums, as well as a stomp box.

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

Live Review: Guitar Wolf at Mighty Mighty, Wellington

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Guitar Wolf playing Stinkfest 2013

Mighty Mighty, Wellington

Thursday 12 December 2013

 

When the opening band has two drum kits and a gimp mask, you know that your night will either be really good, or really bad. Oddly enough, Guitar Wolf’s live show came under both categories. The music isn’t exactly what I’d call good, but they put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Japan’s answer to the Ramones; Guitar Wolf are a caricature of all things rock and roll.. The band has the image and sound down pat – clad in black leather and sunglasses and playing at breakneck speeds with volume levels to rival Spinal Tap.

Their set started with the singer, Seiji, asking for a beer from the crowd, which he promptly downed in one go. This set the tone for a wild night. One punter earned himself a spot as guest guitarist by winning a thumb wrestle with Seiji. A human pyramid was formed onstage. There was stagediving. One member of the audience sang his school song into the microphone. Seiji hit plastic balls into the crowd wielding his guitar like a cricket bat.

The music was pretty terrible, a torrent of noise and distortion. A shout of “One, two, three!” was the only way to distinguish where most songs started and finished. It was bordering on impossible to decipher anything Seiji said/sung with his thick Japanese accent. (“Did he just say Mt Victoria is poisoned!?”)
The thing that set this show apart from the rest is the band’s dedication to the rock. No matter how hot they got they wouldn’t remove their clothing. They were all dripping with sweat, but rockers wear leather! It almost seemed cartoonish. Drum Wolf (Toru) was a powerhouse with the endurance of a steam engine, and Bass Wolf (U.G.) held down a solid groove.

They gave it their all, continuously playing faster and louder. And when we thought it was over, the band kept coming back for more and more encores. This show was almost two years to the day since Guitar Wolf had last played in Wellington. And this time was just as memorable.

 

Joseph James

Live Review: Against Me! at Bodega, Wellington

Against ME Bodega Wellington Poster
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Against Me!

w/ Off With Their Heads and The Outsiders

Bodega, Wellington

 Saturday 14 May 2011

Third time lucky, or so the saying goes. After a few failed attempts, Against Me! finally came back to New Zealand for their White Crosses tour. As annoyed as I was when they cancelled the tour last time, the Saturday night show was enough to make up for it.

Local Wellington band The Outsiders were a good choice for an opening act, their shouty style of punk being similar in style to AM! They played a blistering set of punk rock fury that set the trend for the rest of the night. Supporting act Off With Their Heads played well too, but all their songs seemed to sound the same. Not that this is a bad thing, but a bit of variety wouldn’t have hurt either.

Opening song “From Her Lips to God’s Ears” set the crowd off. The highlight for me was “I Was a Teenage Anarchist”, one the major singles from their latest album. I was also quite thrilled to hear “Amputations”, from frontman Tom Gabel’s solo record, Heart Burns. I hadn’t expected the band to delve into Gabel’s solo work to add to their set.

The venue was small, and quite tightly packed. Despite the amount of bodies crammed into such a small place, the heat wasn’t overbearing. The smaller area just made it a better, more intimate show. And, of course, the best part about having so many people crammed into a confined space is that there were plenty of opportunities for crowd surfing and stage dives. The poor stage crew were trying rather hard to keep people off the stage, but many managed to get onstage and yell a few lyrics at Gabel’s microphone before getting pushed off.

The band didn’t move around much, but there was no doubt that they invested plenty of energy into their performance. Gabel was dripping with sweat. And one of the drummer’s crash cymbals got destroyed. All the members shouted the lyrics to the songs with great gusto, as did much of the crowd. A good portion of the audience seemed to know all the words to all the songs, and for those who didn’t, there were plenty of “woahs” and “ba ba da’s” to join in with.

The set was well paced. The band kept the banter to a minimum, and just delivered the goods. Song after song, the crowd was just lapping it up.

The band left for a breather, but after a few minutes of the crowd chanting for more the band came back on for more. Rather than the usual one or two song encore that most bands seem to do these days, AM! played “Stop!”, and then a good four or five songs, leaving the punters more than happy.

This is exactly how a punk show should be: fast, fun and political.
Despite having sung about it during their set, Against Me! certainly haven’t lost their touch

 

Joseph James