Concert Review: Broods – Auckland Town Hall May 16, 2019

After postponing their March 24^th show due to a scheduling conflict, Broods finally brought their Don’t Feed The Pop Monster tour to Auckland.

It was a decidedly young, predominantly female audience that greeted Georgia and Caleb Nott when they took the stage shortly after 9pm. In fact, I spotted Lorde entering the venue just as the lights went down, settling in just in front of the sound desk…the charismatic pop star dressed down in order not to attract attention to herself.

The Nott siblings were accompanied on stage by two other, un-introduced musicians playing drums and guitar. Caleb took his place behind a bank of keyboards, while Georgia was front and centre, delivering the songs.

And deliver she did.

The 20-song set was loaded with tunes from the new album…they eventually performed all  12 tracks, getting underway with album opener Sucker.

The first few numbers were slower, dreamier affairs and the vocals were a bit difficult to hear in the mix.

But things got better as the evening progressed, with Georgia showing off new dance moves, mostly involving the gyration of her hips.

The success or failure of a Broods gig seems to rest squarely on Georgia’s shoulders. The songs often need something extra in the way of performance to really connect with the crowd and Georgia was on top form tonight.

While most of the sounds on stage were electronically-generated, the musicians did take up guitars during part of the show.

The show itself built to a climax during Old Dog, during which, Georgia pounded out the beat frantically on a tambourine, stalking the stage from one side to the other smashing the drummer’s cymbals with the tambourine along the way. She had worked herself up to a fevered frenzy and the crowd loved it.

During Life After, Georgia appeared on an elevated stage behind her bandmates, looking like something out of a Busby Berkeley film (look that one up, Millennials).

Peach then closed out the regular set with everyone back for a singalong with Couldn’t Believe.

There wasn’t much talk between songs, Georgia expressed her pleasure to be in Auckland and to be performing the new album, and that was about it, but by the looks of the audience’s faces when the lights went up, the music more than made up for the lack of talking.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Veronica McLaughlin:

Broods set list:

1. Sucker
2. To Belong
3. Eyes A Mess
4. Everytime You Go
5. Superstar
6. Why Do You Believe Me?
7. Hold The Line
8. Are You Home
9. A.F.
10. Free
11. Too Proud
12. Falling Apart
13. Dust
14. Bridges
15. Hospitalized
16. Old Dog
17. Everything Goes (Wow)
18. Life After
19. Peach
20. Couldn’t Believe