Boney M – Bruce Mason Centre June 16, 2017

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Seventies disco hitmakers Boney M brought their 9-date New Zealand tour to Auckland last night. With shows in Dunedin and Christchurch generating bad reactions from fans, the 4-piece group had their work cut out for them.

Concertgoers in Dunedin and Christchurch complained that the group showed up late, played a too-short set, and, instead of an opening act, featured a DJ, who played music no-one wanted to hear.

To everyone’s credit, those issues seem to have been addressed. Opening last night’s show was Kiwi soul singer Bella Kalolo (the Boney M DJ did make an appearance, but his music choices seemed relatively benign), The group took the stage at the appointed time and they performed for well over an hour, as opposed to the 50-minute set reportedly delivered during those earlier shows.

This version of Boney M features original member Mazie Williams and three other performers (2 female, one male). And while Mazie never actually sang on any of the group’s big hits, that didn’t seem to detract the fans in attendance who were ready to get down and have a good time.

In fact, they may have been having too good of a time. Quite a few of the audience members were openly intoxicated and, in fact, the couple next to me actually lost their balance and fell face-first into the empty row of chairs in front of them. No one from the venue seemed to notice and they eventually regained their ability to stand on their own two feet and continue partying like it was 1977.

The show itself was pretty much a quick run-through of the group’s greatest hits.

There were no live musicians…the four singers bumped and grinded their way through songs like Daddy Cool, Ma Barker and Belfast…singing to a pre-recorded track.

The audience was more than happy with that. They rose from their seats from the first notes of set-opener Sunny, and remained standing for most of the one hour and 10 minutes the group was on stage. One wonders why the seats were there to begin with…this probably should have been a general admission show with plenty of open space provided for dancing.

The main set consisted of 10 tunes over the course of just under an hour, with some of that time being filled up by extended between-song banter…repeatedly introducing Mazie Williams as “the founding and original member”.

Also, time was filled singing Happy Birthday to a young boy who was brought on stage to show off his dance moves during Rasputin.

The group returned for an encore….singing 1979 hit Gotta Go Home and then, repeating Ma Barker, a song performed earlier in the evening.

But hey, no one ever claimed that disco was a musically substantial genre, and the group did a pretty good job of replicating the hits and the look of 1970s disco clubs in general…there was a disco ball, plenty of big hair and flamboyant outfits…many worn by the fans.

And the fans did seem to have a good night out, although some of them may be feeling a bit rough today.

Marty Duda

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

Boney M set list:

  1. Sunny
  2. Hooray! Hooray! It’s A Holi-Holiday
  3. Daddy Cool
  4. Ma Barker
  5. Belfast
  6. Malaika
  7. Brown Girl In The Ring
  8. No Woman No Cry
  9. Rasputin
  10. Rivers Of Babylon
  11. Gotta Go Home
  12. Ma Barker

 

Marty Duda
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