November 28, 2022

Spring City: Groove Armada and More! November 26, 2022

The festival season kicked off on Saturday with the inaugural Spring City from the Endeavour Live team, and finally, clear blue skies.

Held at Auckland’s Domain, it made for the most stunning backdrop. The line up was small but mighty including Sin, Coast Arcade, Ladyhawke, Zane Lowe, Hot Chip, Channel Tres and Groove Armada.

Not really a first go at a festival from these seasoned professionals so as expected, it was really well organised. It took all of one minute to get inside and although the lines were long for bathrooms and bars, the staff moved people quickly. It was smoothly run and the stage could be seen from all angles perfectly. The sound was also really decent, as it can sometimes be a bit questionable at festivals.

Sin

Well loved George FM host and prominent disco, house DJ opened things up and had curated her sets in-between artists seamlessly. At some points not even realising the music had switched over to the artists. She is always fun to watch play as well, high energy and just a proper music head who contagiously loves what she does.

Ladyhawke

Still to this day, Ladyhawke is underrated and deserves a lot more than what New Zealand gives her. She played a set old and new and the crowd favourite, ‘Delirium’ went off. She was a good addition to an already genre diverse line up and I hope to see her again across the summer.

Zane Lowe

It was incredibly cool to see Zane Lowe in the flesh, a voice, face and name that many of us grew up listening to via various music shows and programmes and it is even cooler to see a kiwi thrive so hard in the field of journalism as he does. Whilst his set wasn’t my favourite, he was enthusiastic and a lot of fun to watch, it was an added celebrity element to the line up and was honestly a novelty to just see him play.

Hot Chip

Hot Chip were cool but it was disappointing to see them only as a DJ set. Their set was fun, it really warmed people up and they mixed in some of their own hits too such as ‘Ready For The Floor’.

Channel Tres

This was why I so badly wanted to be here. Channel Tres paid for $20 at Whammy only a few years ago and I knew then that the Compton born and bred artist would be a well known name in the coming years. He was everything you want from a performer, camp, choreographed and extremely professional. He came onto stage with dancers and wore a sparkly crop top and his signature sunglasses. Highlight was him performing his track with SG Lewis and Robyn, ‘Impact’. He also went on to dominate the after party with a DJ set I will not soon forget.

Groove Armada

Formative to so many people’s music taste, Groove Armada played their souls out. It took me straight back to being a teenager and seeing them play in the Boiler Room at Big Day Out (RIP) which was such a special experience for so many people. They had not one, not two, but three singers with them as well as instruments galore. Playing hits across the board from all their years of music, they even played songs off their new album GA25. They just were perfection and it was a real joy being surrounded by an older crowd who knew every single word. Next to me stood a few younger people who genuinely didn’t know that Groove Armada were playing and expected to hear Superstylin’ and that’s it. They did play it twice but it was just another perfect moment in a perfect set. The encore included ‘At The River’ played live on saxophone and it was the perfect end to a perfect taste of a summer to come.