One day after celebrating her 33rd birthday with a show that streamed live from Wellingon, Pip Brown, aka Ladyhawke, brought her Anxiety tour to Auckland. With rumours around that sales of the Masterton rocker’s second album were sluggish here in New Zealand, I was curious to see how well attended her Auckand show would be. No worries, as it turned out. A healthy line had already formed along K-Road as the doors opened to the studio at 8pm.
This being a Saturday night, things got going a bit later than usual, with She’s So Rad taking the stage at around 9:30. The vibe was celebratory as Pip and her band finally hit the stage at 10:40 with a favourite from her first album, Back Of The Van.. Then came three songs from Anxiety…the title track, Blue Eyes, with its catchy nan a nan a na chorus and the more aggressive Girl Like Me.
Pip paused briefly to address the audience before launching into Professional Suicide from her debut album. The set list was fairly evenly balanced between the two albums…with seven songs from the first and nine from Anxiety.
The most notable aspect of a Ladyhawke concert is how straightforward it it…there are no flashy lights, no elaborate costumes or, God forbid, choreography, just the songs delivered in a gimmick-free, honest manner. Pip is also relatively quiet on stage, not really interacting with the audience much apart from a few tentative “thank yous” and song intros. This is, undoubtedly, part of her charm, but it also lead me to wish there was a bit more show biz is her presentation. She and her band performed solidly but unremarkably, putting all the emphasis on the songs.
Fortunately, Pip has written some good ones and the 75-minute set whizzed right by with the entire audience jumping up and down, singing along to My Delirium by the end.
I seem to remember Ladyhawke’s set at the 2011 Laneway Festival bristling with quite a bit more energy than what was on display tonight. Maybe, that was simply the thrill of hearing her songs live for the first time. No matter, Pip and her band (guitar, bass, keyboards, drums) put on a solid, professional, if not overwhelming show.
Marty Duda
Ladyhawke set list:
- Back Of The Van
- Blue Eyes
- Girl Like Me
- Anxiety
- Professional Suicide
- Magic
- Dusk Till Dawn
- Black White & Blue
- The Quick & The Dead
- Love Don’t Live Here
- Cellophane
- Vanity
- Sunday Drive
- Paris Is Burning
- Gone Gone Gone
- My Delirium
