Concert Review: Graeme Jefferies, Wine Cellar, 4 July 2020

The almost 40-year veteran of indie music in New Zealand Graham Jefferies delivers an enthralling set of Folk Noir to an appreciative and attentive audience in the Wine Cellar on a full moon lunar eclipse night.

Curtain raiser tonight is This Plain, who may actually be Danny? Looks like Paul Kantner, and plays solo electric rhythm guitar.

Plays slow drone guitar riffs with flat vocals to warm up the crowd.

All these thoughts that should stay in my head, is an emo style song with a guitar strum that lifts with a Husker Du guitar squall.

The next song I really like. Guitar squall becomes Psychobilly Goth, kin to the Cramps and their debut album. Dark and doomy.

Next is called Burning, I think. Written about and around the time of the Armageddon bush fires in Australia. Flames everywhere, no shelter here. Brutal Stooges style crunching guitar.

Banter between songs taken up by the importance of tuning. I agree, it shows you care. Rock Chick adds to the entertainment as the audience provocateur and solitary dancer on the floor.

Possibly his live show debut tonight, so will keep an ear out for more of This Plain.

Graeme Jefferies is a long-time New Zealand music stalwart, a Flying Nun alumnus with earlier bands Nocturnal Projections and This Kind Of Punishment.

Gee, that’s a while ago. I have not heard the Cakekitchen band project, the main vehicle for his songwriting now.

Band not present tonight; Graeme is solo and walks to the stage with an iconic Gibson Flying V guitar.

A new album just out, so this is a sort of album launch, he says. First time back in the Cellar for 16 months for him. Praises the audience for being quiet and attentive later in the show.

Album is Trouble Again in this Town released today. A lot of the material is informed from the experiences of the lockdown in Wellington town.

This will be the beginning of what I suspect will be a lot of music trying to come to terms with all the madness, emotionally and psychologically.

Sleep starts with quiet folk vocals and short burst of rhythm guitar riffs.

As we sleep, all the world is dark inside. Everything breaks down.

Superhero is the first to be played of the new material tonight and is dark and spare with bursts of metal guitar shards.

Folk noir is how I would describe the English post punk musician/poets like Wire and the Fall. And the music tonight.

Third song is Too Little Too Late and describes the strange atmosphere of walking the streets in self isolation.  Played with a nice floating melody on the keyboards. Future is here and it looks strange.

Too Hot also on the keys and a vocal reminiscent of Kate Bush.

Fall to Bits is the new album’s opener, and the guitar squall morphs into great riffs bursting out like fireworks.

Trouble in This Town Again also a new one, has a beautiful melody straight out of the Beatle’s Here Comes the Sun.

Praise is given to the PM for keeping the team of 5 million safe, to enthusiastic support from everyone in the Cellar.

East is a special song, written in the early eighties and never played to an audience before. Played on the zither. Something like an autoharp, but can be played with mallets as it is tonight. Super tone like a ringing vibes or xylophone.

Doubt finishes the first part of the set and is described as a punishment song.  Brutal, fast, guitar squalling like Husker Du at their most pissed off.

Back for a good half dozen more as requests are shouted for.

Tomorrow is introduced as a broken-hearted song. Chiming guitar surrounds lovely vocals, and then revs it up a few gears with wall of fuzztone riffing.

The encore set stands out with the superlative guitar playing

It’s a long time since I have listened to Graeme Jefferies. But this was a super show of his special blend of idiosyncratic, arty, folky under-the-radar music.

And again, with the Plague Control dictating isolation, this will be an opportunity for our own great local artists to seize the time and flourish.

Rev Orange Peel

All photos thanks to Dhani Phillips