Concert Review: Lil Simz – Spark Arena, May 11, 2019

London Rapper Little Simz brought her groovy & soulful hip-hop scented flow to Auckland last night closing off her world tour at The Tuning Fork. Milan Furniss reports back with this review.

Jessb was first to hit the stage, setting the tone for the night with her charisma and energy. The perfect introduction to Simz.

While most like performances can be electronically-generated I was pleasantly surprised to see an abundance of instruments being set up on stage. Upon arrival It was also clear that Simz music reached a diverse audience with no clear age range.

Eventually bursting onto the stage; Lil Simz was armed with a pianist, drummer, and DJ. Throughout the night Simz went on to perform music from her past three albums Grey Area, Stillness in Wonderland & A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons. 

The 25-year-olds music resonates with many people considering the large variety of personalities and ages however when she announced that she’s ‘-not the only one who goes through shit’,  the audience became one. Selfish, her number one hit off the album Grey area began to play as she further explains there’s only one thing to do, and that’s dance!

Lil Simz experience was truly shown when throwing down to Venom as the crowed jumped throughout the whole chorus together. There were some musical highlights to the set. One being when Simz introduced the Pianist, letting him play a set. Steven on kit did an amazing solo with Simz on syncing. However, the crowd enjoyed when she performed melodies mixing music from the likes of Biggie smalls. The Simz concert went up a gear as she asked “You wanna take it back to north London?”  then became apart of the moshpit rapping her iconic, hard-hitting song, 101fm. The multi-talented rapper jumped on the Bongos just after showing us her talents on the bass and guitar. The young star proved that she is a force to be reckoned with.

There was a brief break and upon return, I was fortunate enough to catch one of the roses Simz threw off the stage.

Lil Simz finished her captivating performance with her song Offence while the whole crowd joined in for ‘I said it with my chest and I don’t care who I offend’. Simz believes this song is about being ballsy, unapologetic and to stand up for what you believe in. The perfect way for the firecracker of an artist to end her last show of her tour.

~Milan Healey Furniss

Click any photo to browse a gallery Milan shot during the show.