June 21, 2021

Concert Review: Drax Project at The Powerstation 19 June 2021

Drax Project kicked off their tour at Auckland’s Powerstation and proved where there’s smoke – there is fire! The 13th Floor’s Jemilah Ross-Hayes files her first review.

The room is buzzing as people enter, excited, dressed and ready for a groovy Friday night. The Powerstation looks just as fresh out of a movie as it always does, stage lights popping and ever so slightly revealing the stage set-up. Black cloth covers what looks like three different drum kits, leaving us curious and anticipating. People lean over balconies and crowd close to the stage before the opening act begins, hoping to save their prime spots on the dance floor.

The last and only time I have seen Drax Project live was when they opened for Ed Sheeran in 2018. They nailed the opening slot for that, so I was looking forward to seeing how they had progressed in the last few years, now headlining their own show.

Aacacia

Aacacia opened the evening, her pink shirt standing out on stage and clean, clear vocals reverberating around the space. Pure pop sound backed by a full band groove supports her deep lead vocals encourages the crowd to begin toe-tapping. The audience seems familiar with the lyrics of her songs, screaming the lyrics alongside her most recent release, Pictures. She bows and exits the stage as the crowd cheers.

Mitch James

The first black cloth is lifted to reveal Mitch James‘ drum kit. He starts the set with high energy, running and jumping all over the stage. The band behind him supports him tightly, filling out the soundscape and mixing well with his acoustic guitar. Most of his songs centre around a classic pop structure with big catchy choruses and tight groove verses but man, it sure does work.

Nice builds and big bridges get the crowd moving and screaming even louder than before. Despite not being familiar with his music, I sang along with the hook after the first listen with no problem. Welcoming Ji Fraser from Six60 to the stage to sing their song Finest Wine. Mitch tells us that Ji “has watched me grow from a boy to a man.”

Drax Project

The crowd well and truly did go wild as a smoke machine fills the air with anticipation, the lights go dark, and the crowd waits for Drax Project to enter the stage.

They started the set off with Firefly, full energy, full noise and the room is immediately filled with voices singing along to the chorus. Aacacia joins them on stage halfway through; she is featured on the original track alongside Fetty Wap.

The first three songs blended seamlessly together, and we all can’t help but think, “yeah right” when Shaan Singh takes a moment to thank us for coming to the show and says that this is the “First show of the tour so they’re just brushing off some cobwebs”.

The back of the stage features a raised platform which Sam Thompson takes advantage of for a guitar solo during Hollywood, whilst Shaan takes stage right to rip a Sax solo.

A few more wicked sax solos by Shaan, drum fills by Matt Beachon, Guitar solos by Sam Thompson and bass licks by Ben O’Leary later, they pulled out a cover like no other of Pony by Genuwine, a song I heard them perform the last time I saw them but wasn’t mad to hear again.

For this song, both Shaan and Ben took over the keys, which there were two of on stage. Somehow Shaan still managed to sing and play the sax during the song. These guys sure are multi-instrumentalists.

Midway through the set, they welcomed Jerome Kavanagh on stage to play Taonga Pūoro for their song Tukituki Te Manawa written in Maori. It was a beautiful song and a really enjoyable moment in the set as the acoustic, stripped-down song created a nice contrast with the rest of the set.

Again, the lights go dark during the next song’s intro, and they jumped right back into high energy with Sidebit.

Those sax solos sure do get the stank face going.

“Ben does not know how to play the piano, he learned to play the piano for this song only”, Shaan intros into Fashion Sense.

Woke up Late; one of their first releases seemed to be a well-known classic within the audience.

For an encore, they performed what they called a Busking Melody, a mash-up of different songs that Shaan and Matt used to play busking when they first started. I hadn’t put the pieces together until this gig that Drax= Drums + sax, as that is all they were originally. The rest of the band joined for a final encore, and the crowd danced all their last party juices out.

Before they left the stage, they wished us goodnight. “As always take care of your mates we love you, peace”, and we went on to get home safely.

~Jemilah Ross-Hayes

Click any icon to view a full-size gallery from each artist. All photos by Tara Ranchhod.

Drax Project

Mitch James

Aacacia

Set list

Firefly
Over It
Only Us
Hollywood
Relax
Brain
Pony
Prefer
Toto
Crazy
Tuki Tuki
Sidebit
Medley
Fashion Sense
Woke Up Late
Catching Feelings
Cry Me A River