T’was the last night of New Zealand Music Month, so what better way to celebrate but with Wellington’s Black Seeds at Auckland’s Power Station. This was the first of two shows at the venue, and it being Thursday, there was a less than capacity crowd out on Mt Eden Road. No matter, a good time was had by those in attendance.
First up was Jennifer Zea. The Venezuelan-born singer celebrated the release of her debut album last Thursday with a big band featuring Nathan Haines in Britomart. This time, she had only two accompanists, but still managed to generate plenty of Latin love. There was an abundance of dancing in the crowd.
That dancing continued, in a slightly different form, when The Black Seeds took the stage. The eight-piece band was in fine form from the get-go. The emphasis was on new album, Dust And Dirt. The band played eight songs from the new disc along with a smattering of tunes from Into The Dojo, On The Sun and Solid Ground.
Barnaby Weir and Daniel Weetman shared the front-man duties, although it was Weetman who made the biggest impact, urging the crowd to clap and sing along. The horn section sounded particularly good on the evening, especially sax player Jabin Ward.
The band played for almost two hours. This may have been a bit too long. Several fans were seen leaving at about the 75 minute mark…this was a work-night after all…although many of them were actually dancing out of the venue. The remainder of the crowd continued to enjoy themselves. After a steamy version of Turn It Around that concluded the regular set, the band returned with two songs from Into The Dojo (Heavy Mono E and The Prince) before closing out the festivities with Take Your Chances from 2008’s Solid Ground.
No doubt tomorrow night will see a bigger crowd and a lot more dancing.
Marty Duda
Click here to view a photo gallery of Michael Flynn’s shots from the concert:
