Concert Review: Michael Morris & The Slow Loris – Whammy Bar January 7, 2021

The sun went down, the wind kicked up and a slight drizzle trickled down on Auckland’s K-Rd as Michael Morris & The Slow Loris brought their Pseudoephedrine Single Release Tour from Dunedin to Auckland.

It was a small but lively crowd that gathered at Whammy for bit of musical relief. At least one of the young ladies in the crowd may have taken the Pseudoephedrine single literally as she danced frenetically for the duration of the show.

Quinn The Human

Up first was Auckland band Quinn The Human. This guitar-slinging quintet may just be the least pretentious band I have seen in ages. They don’t play alt.rock or indie rock, or glam or metal or any hyphenated genre…its straight up rock and roll sounding very old school and very good…imaging Blue Oyster Cult meets Queens Of The Stone Age.

Lead vocalist Rusty Steele certainly has the chops and speaking of unpretentious, he was at the bar ordering a brew before the rest of the band had finished playing. Not sure if I’ve ever seen that before.

Michael Morris

With approximately 25-30 folks in the audience, Michael Morris and his  band (Ryan Finnie/drums & Benton Glassey/bass) laid down a solid, riff-based groove that kept the young dancers on their feet.

Set opener Be Set Free is a four-on-the-floor rocker that led into the bluesy boogie of new tune La Ba Da.

The band showed off their musical dexterity with more new material (Seagull) along with the sludgy Landslide from their 2018 debut album or EP.

The band, especially its recording entity is pretty much Michael’s baby. Having just arrived back in NZ, I believe this is the first tour with Ryan and Benton. If so, they sounded tight and looked like they were having fun.

Morris’ voice can certainly hit those high notes (comparisons to Geddy Lee and Dio are welcome) but he and the band mix it up, keeping thing fresh and interesting.

Pseudoephedrine, the single in question, came up about half-way through the hour-long set with two well-received new tunes, Radio Romeo (next single) and Road Rage rounding things out.

Then, to shed a little light on their influences, Heart’s Barracuda was reeled in to close out the night.

Both bands deserved a larger audience than showed up on the night. Hopefully next time around folks will be back from the beach and ready to rock.

Marty Duda

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