The New Loungehead – Ponsonby Social Club, 4 June 2022: Concert Review

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The New Loungehead having been dormant for a quarter century, break out of suspended animation courtesy of nefarious viral DNA/RNA hacks to emanate their mutated selves at current Jazz mecca, Ponsonby Social Club, for two sell-out shows.

Five squeeze themselves onto a stage packed with ordnance and artillery. Dan Sperber guitar, Isaac Levi Tucker drums, Chip Matthews bass and Godfrey De Grut keyboards and clarinet. Four original band members and new recruit Antonio Karam percussion.

Award-winning album Came a Weird Way was released in 1997 and Casual Carnage from that LP opens the evening. Soft drums and a creeping bass. The sounds seem to bubble and overflow out of a cauldron of simmering Funk. A faster Latin tempo from the bongos adds spice to the gumbo.

The New LoungeheadsThe rhythm section is dominant and rules the evening in a well-drilled and irresistible musical assault. They sound like the great Sly and Robbie pairing of old with a good dose of Latin swing and some eccentric Lee Perry percussion touches.

It all moves along in Dub style. On Badger the guitar steps forward with a melody that ascends and spirals out in Eastern cadences which seem to borrow a little from the fabulous East-West and Michael Bloomfield’s guitar at the pinnacle of the Butterfield Blues Band.

Pull of the Tide. The guitar plays cool R’n’B with Jazz overtones, riding on a sinuous Funk rhythm, reminding a little of Robert Cray. I’m drawn to you like a magnet /To steel.  

The music is as much visceral as cerebral and meant to let your backbone slip, but try getting a Jazz audience up and dancing. There are a fair number of beards and cool jackets in the room. An Anima Witch Spirit does lead the dancing which gets some people up eventually to do the Shuffle Nod.

The New LoungeheadsThat sets the stage for Too Late or Too Soon. The bass slides and bends on the intro. It becomes a Snake Dance with crystalline keyboard tones and a soulful guitar.

The evening is evenly divided between new songs and old. A stand-out is Ike Just Do It off that first album. It begins with a bright Sixties Folk Rock melody line. The clarinet adds a soulful solo which leads into a mystic Oriental guitar on the bridge. The tune goes out in a meditative mood.

The drummer marshals the front line on Spangly Ballad and lays the path for cool and swinging Pop Jazz which sounds like Brubeck with a few gear changes as a little acid kicks in.

The band have been flying from the start and they finish at a peak with Pocket Love and Waiting for Candy Apple. The bass leads and is dominant throughout. Atmospheric washes and waves as the guitar rises up with dripping liquid metal Jazz.

Finishes on a seductive rhythm-heavy Lounge music.

Enthralling show from a band which are in peak form despite the long layoff. The New Loungehead pay tribute to the venue which has been at the forefront of sustaining great live shows over the last two extremely fraught years, especially so in Auckland.

Rev Orange Peel

               

Rev Orange Peel
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