February 3, 2024

Alex Cameron & Roy Molloy – Hollywood Avondale: February 2, 2024

It’s a humid, steamy night in Tāmaki Makaurau, which feels like the perfect time to head to the Hollywood Theatre in Avondale to get a dose of Alex Cameron and his sleazy, sax-drenched tunes.

Cameron’s been a regular visitor to New Zealand, playing one of the last ever shows at the King’s Arms back in 2017, the Tuning Fork just pre-lockdown in 2020, and again at the Hollywood a little over a year ago. Based on tonight’s crowd, he’s clearly cultivated an extremely loyal and enthusiastic fanbase.

Cameron’s career has morphed somewhat over the years, beginning as something of a high-concept performance-act where he adopted the persona of an ageing, failed entertainer. On his self-released debut Jumping the Shark Cameron married his baritone vocals and lo-fi synth / drum machine soundscapes to almost confrontationally grim and sleazy lyrics (“yeah who the hell are you to tell me / That I can’t leave my kid in the car”).

Subsequent albums have let the act drop a bit, with the line between Cameron’s “persona” and Cameron the actual human becoming more blurred. And while this all sounds very niche, he has an ear for a killer pop hook, so much so that he caught the ear of The Killers’ Brandon Flowers, leading him to co-writing credits on half of 2017’s Wonderful Wonderful. And although ostensibly a solo artist, tonight’s gig is advertised as a double bill, with Cameron on vocals (triggering his backing tracks from a laptop on stage) and long-term sideman and “business partner” Roy Molloy on saxophone (more on him later).

Alex Cameron Kicking off with Jumping the Shark’s Happy Ending, and looking sharp in high waisted pants and a leopard print shirt, Cameron cuts a striking figure, pulling shapes and gyrating centre stage while Molloy sits, suited and booted, on a stool off to one side. The lack of a “proper” backing band can sometimes be a distraction for solo artists, but because his musical accompaniment – especially from the first couple of albums – is mostly machine-made anyway, the use of backing tracks works just fine, with Roy’s virtuoso sax doing a lot of heavy lifting on songs like Country Figs and Real Bad Looking.

For an artist whose album / lyrical persona is so droll and deadpan, Cameron is charming and affable on stage, and there’s lengthy banter with the crowd, to the point where it sometimes feels like a comedy act accompanied by music. Molloy is “introduced” after practically every song (“let me tell you about my friend Roy Molloy!”), and the audience, crew and support act are constantly asked to give themselves a hand. This schtick stays pretty funny, and the crowd – all of whom know every word to every song – lap it up. Mid-set Alex disappears completely, and Roy spends at least 10 minutes “reviewing” the stool he’s been sitting on over the last hour. (Looking at setlists from the tour, this is a regular mid-set feature.) It’s an almost Pythonesque moment, but the crowd eat it up.

Cameron is pretty upfront about the lack of new material (although it’s not that long ago that Oxy Music came out) and promises the crowd a return show and new album in a year or so, thanking the audience for funding the new album by showing up tonight. But no one here seems too worried about a lack of new songs, and we get a good mix of tunes from across his four-album back catalogue, including a stunning duet on Stranger’s Kiss accompanied by an audience member brought up to sing Angel Olsen’s part.

There’s no encore tonight – just an acknowledgement of where the set would end if there was one, and then a few more songs, culminating in a triumphant finale of K-Hole, Studmuffin96 and Divorce, followed by more heartfelt thanks to the crowd for turning up and supporting the music. It’s a genuinely nice moment, from an artist who clearly really loves playing live and cherishes his rabid fanbase. I doubt there was a person in the crowd who won’t be back for more next year.

Shoutout also to two excellent support acts, dynamic guitar / drums duo Elliot & Vincent (whose set I caught the last half of) and DC Maxwell, who, despite a myriad of technical issues plaguing his set, married Violent Femmes intensity with Chris Isaak twang over a half dozen or so country death ballads, and dropped one of the best lyrical couplets I’ve heard in quite some time, “Just like Darcy Clay I never shook no babies / but Jesus I’ve been unkind”.

Lawrence Mikkelsen

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk