Reb Fountain – The Powerstation: June 3, 2023

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Reb Fountain at The Powerstation on a Saturday night in Auckland…does it get any better than this?

ArahiThe Powerstation has been on a roll lately hosting acts from The Damned to Weyes Blood. It’s great to see that live music is thriving in New Zealand, both with local acts and international.

Reb’s show is a one-off, not part of a tour and was advertised as her only Auckland show of 2023. So, with a new single, Faithless Lover, recently released, the faithful turned out to catch this very special show.

Arahi

ArahiThe crowd was gathering early as opening act Arahi took the stage. We recently caught him as one-half of Pony Baby (with Jazmine Mary) and as a backing musician for Lady Larisa’s 13th Floor Singles Session.

This time Arahi was on his own, just his voice and guitar and songs from his latest EP, Revelator. He did treat us to his interpretation of Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes, but unfortunately the audience seemed distracted, chattering away while Arahi poured his soul out on stage.  Perhaps a band would have helped as this seemed like a set made for The Wine Cellar.

Reb Fountain

Reb Fountain had no such issues. She commanded the stage from the get-go opening with a new song titled One Way Trip performed solo. The band joined in for Faster with multi-instrumentalist Dave Khan adding some sweet sounding twang with his guitar.

Reb FountainThe rest of the band is Karin Canzek (bass) and Earl Robertson (drums) and they are well-rehearsed, having just come off a European tour.

As good as the band is, they know that Reb is the main attraction and they never outshine the singer, providing understated, tasteful accompaniment to Reb’s voice.

“This is fuckin’ amazing!” Reb exclaims after performing Swim To The Star, noting the strong sense of community in the room.

The show just gets better and better. Hey Mom is a personal favourite while Samson has Reb singing, ‘We are not the smoke, we are the fire’, and that fire burned brightly tonight.

Reb FountainPsyche, one of seven songs played from 2021 album Iris, feelsa like the centrepiece of the 85 minute set, the performance is simply epic.

Faithless Lover sounds fine and bodes well for whatever Reb has in store for us next.

“Well there you go” says Fountain as she and the band close the set with a hypnotic version of Don’t You Know Who I Am.

And yes, there is an encore…Iris and Intermission send us off into the night.

And what a night.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Brenna Jo Gotje

Reb Fountain:

Arahi:

Reb Fountain Setlist:

  1. One Way Trip
  2. Faster
  3. Swim To The Stars
  4. Hey Mom
  5. Samson
  6. It’s A Bird (It’s A Plane)
  7. Hawks and Doves
  8. Psyche
  9. Fisherman
  10. Faithless Lover
  11. Invisible Man
  12. Beastie
  13. Lacuna
  14. Don’t You Know Who I Am
  15. Iris
  16. Intermission

 

Marty Duda
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