March 14, 2021

Concert Review: Emily Edrosa, Ben Woods & Louisa Nicklin – Whammy Bar March

Music of sombre moods and melodrama. Arty and theatrical. And then there was your abrasive Power Pop from headliner Emily Edrosa. A night of expansive genre-bending music leaking out into all areas but kept together by disciplined performances.

Auckland has just been unbound again from lockdown restrictions but there is definitely an air of being punch-drunk and reeling with vertigo tonight. Introspection and release combine and the atmosphere is mellow in the Underground venue.

Louisa Nicklin

Louisa Nicklin starts tonight’s with a slow, moody Folk tune, Slicing. She draws from a broad palette of musical genres, encompassing classical composition to Jazz and variations on Pop. Last time I saw her she was solo with a Rickenbacker guitar. Tonight, she has brought along bass and drums.

Sick of This. Powered by a nice melodic rolling guitar riff. The lyrics speak of increasingly fraught psychodrama.

To Be Fine is her most recent single released two weeks ago. Starts slow and ponderous and builds into a dark, ambient Folk song with cool Jazz colourings.

Similar themes on following two songs, Unkind and Place to Share. Introspective lyrics with a detached and expressive vocal which becomes a little fraught and unhinged. Similar to Alex Chilton especially around the time of Sister Lovers when he has making Pop music laced with mental instability. But surrounded in a beautiful package.

Moody theatrical noir with elements of Jazz and catchy rolling guitar riffs.

The Residue is psych pop with some folk. Nicklin has a fine controlled vocal style which pulls you along slowly as she wanders into oddness and psychodrama.

Velvet Underground influence is not far away. Pour It Down starts with an introduction similar to Heroin. A haunting song and she manages to get deeper vocal tones similar to Nico. The music picks up pace with nice ringing guitar tones.

Ben Woods

Ben Woods is a musician from Lyttleton who also works in a similar fashion with sound. Along with bass and drums he has a lap steel guitar player who also does gadgets and effects.

Tied to All starts acapella with a voice slow and sombre. Then the guitar comes in slowly and what was nice and melodic initially, ends up wailing to close the tune.

Hovering introduces JY Lee to the stage for some saxophone noir. Cinematic mood music which is broken up by brief showers of static.

I especially enjoyed new single Body Rhyme. Opens with a hypnotic electronic drone cribbed from Suicide’s Rocket USA. Jazz melodies abound and the singing from Woods builds into a nice soulful angst.

The band is warmed up now and they keep expanding out.

Teething creates a cinematic presence like a David Lynch movie. Guitar starts with a Western twang which works up to tones of dread and foreboding. Incantatory vocals. Other characters appear, dreamlike and hallucinatory.

Speaking is Pop Minimalist and sung like a mutant Buddy Holly whilst the drummer starts by using books to play before switching to sticks.

Romancy begins slow and ponderous like wading through a swamp with atmospheric effects from the gadget stand. Builds into a nice tender vocal and ends sounding like a classically structured Pop song.

Slide guitar introduces Trace Reel and the band now sounds in more conventional Folk territory with a nice melodic tune to finish. Completed by a soulful saxophone solo.

Emily Edrosa

Emily Edrosa was a founding member of Street Chant more than ten years ago. Rock’n’Roll with a punk attitude then.

On stage tonight and she is backed by TOOM, which is the duo Dorian and Nic.

Promoting her first solo album, Another Wave is Coming, released last November. Emily has spent the last 5 years in Los Angeles and the new work is a culmination of that.

She Agreed is a story of a relationship surviving despite massive obstacles. I tried to flush her too. Then explodes with thunder and clanging guitar riffs.

Power Pop informed with a classic Punk attitude. The sound goes back to the freewheeling slam of the Buzzcocks or the early Elvis Costello. Not surprisingly, Elizabeth Stokes from the Beths also helped in developing the album sound.

Action snarls with that classic UK New Wave sound. As does Spec and Wade Thru. The drums sound tribal and brutal throughout.

The Corner of the Party. Emily calls this a dance tune from an earlier EP. Doesn’t hold back on the venom. Calling me a cunt/ Which son of a bitch is leading this witch hunt?

Finishes with maybe the best song of the set tonight, NCEA. An opening guitar riff taken from Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant. With the drums giving a rhythmic kick you can pogo or slam dance to this. And halfway through it transforms into melodic Power Pop.

Energetic music matched to scathing lyrics with little held back.

Quite different styles from all three acts tonight. But each had a commitment and intensity to their bring to their craft. It is astonishing that here is one of the few places in the world to be able to experience this in a live venue still.

Rev Orange Peel

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Marty Duda