Concert Review: Neko Case – Spiegeltent Aotea Square March 18, 2019

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Neko Case brought her latest album, Hell-On to Auckland’s Arts Festival for our consideration. The resulting concert was surprisingly underwhelming.

I say “surprisingly” because I’ve seen Case perform a number of times and she’s always put on a riveting show. This one, at the Spiegeltent, planted in the middle of Aotea Square felt listless during the better part of its 80 minutes.

At first I thought perhaps the band hadn’t toured together much as they began with a tentative version of Pitch Or Honey. But research reveals that is not the case…they spent most of last year on the road and have just come off of three shows in Australia.

And the band itself is full of highly-respected players, most of whom have recording and producing careers of their own. For the record, they are:
Jon Rauhouse – electric guitar and pedal steel, Rachel Flotard – guitar and backing vocals, Lex Price – bass, Johnny Sangster – keyboards and guitar, Kyle Crane – drums and Shelley Short – backing vocals and guitar.

Yet, as they moved from the opening song to Last Lion Of Albion, I couldn’t help but feel that I was watching a band going through their sound check rather than the actual show. They all seemed to be playing fine, but something wasn’t clicking and the energy coming from the stage seemed minimal.

Of course, these are strange times here in New Zealand, and perhaps the recent shootings in Christchurch cast a pall over the show. But my feeling was that wasn’t the case as Neko, whose voice was sounding as strong as ever, visited tunes from the past such as Margaret vs. Pauline from 2006’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood and Deep Red Bells from 2002’s Blacklisted.

Case, wearing a pair of tights with skeleton bones on them, commented on the humidity, “This is the greatest climate for Jon and mine hair”, and later noting that it looked like “a spider hatching out the back of my skull”. As the show proceeded, things seemed to begin to gel musically beginning with Curse Of The I-5 Corridor as Case cranked out a metallic guitar riff.

Finally, after observing that Rauhouse’s pedal steel looked ready to topple off the stage, the band launched into This Tornado Loves You and everything changed. The crowd sensed the difference and cheered as Rauhouse soloed.

Suddenly if felt that a completely different show as Neko joked with vocalist Rachel Flotard and then turned up the heat with Halls Of Sarah.

By the time Hold On, Hold On was finished, it felt like things were just getting started, but the reality was, this was the last song of the set.

And despite the fact that it was only 9:30 and that Neko and her crew had previously played up to 5 songs during her encores, we were only treated to two…The Pharaohs and Ragtime.

But they were accompanied by some of the most entertaining stage banter of the evening as Neko described how each of the band members might taste as they were introduced. Backing vocalist Shelley Short got the vote for most delicious as she had just had a dinner of gummy bears and Manuka honey.

So, it was something of a frustrating evening, with Neko Case and her band finally coming to life just as they were about to leave the stage.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

Neko Case set list:

  1. Pitch Or Honey
  2. Last Lion Of Albion
  3. Deep Red Bells
  4. City Swans
  5. Margaret vs. Pauline
  6. Maybe Sparrow
  7. Winnie
  8. Bad Luck
  9. Curse Of The I-5 Corridor
  10. Gumball Blue
  11. Oracle Of The Maritimes
  12. Hex
  13. This Tornado Loves You
  14. Halls Of Sarah
  15. Hold On, Hold On
  16. The Pharaohs
  17. Ragtime

 

 

 

 

Marty Duda
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