Concert Review: Shapeshifter at Spark Arena 14 Aug 2021

Shapeshifter are behemoths as a top-draw live band. Here at home in New Zealand and around the world culminating in the festival of music pilgrimage, Glastonbury. A large fan base is here at the Spark Arena in noisy support and they get a state-of-the-art light show to go with a superb heavy-heavy Monster sound.

P Digsss

P Digsss is the alter-ego of singer Paora Apera. A nuggety block of a man wearing a trademark cap, looking a little like AC-DC’s long serving Brian Johnson. Honest heart-felt emotion when he thanks the big audience. Genuine praise for the support acts JessB and Lee Mvtthews, who have ramped up the energy in the big cauldron and pounded everyone into submission.

Digsss has the leather lungs of the AC-DC vocalist but he has the melodic edge in a more soulful tenor. Keeps it up all night and that is impressive as he is fronting a mammoth instrumental machine. The attack force. Darren Mathiassen drums. Sam Trevethick keyboard synths and guitar, Nick Robinson bass synths and Dan McGruer keyboard synths.

Promoting new album Rituals tonight but they start with previous LP title track Stars. A Reggae Dub beat and a soulful voice with depth.

Follow with Eternal off the same album and deep drum beats anchor the sound of minimalist Dub. Allows Digsss to come up in the mix and showcase his melodic and deceptively strong tenor. He doesn’t have to belt it out to cut through.

When the new album tracks drop, the approach changes.

Found in You. Dub meets Industrial. All three keyboards mesh and the drums are out front and lead.

Ritual. Can’t seem to break free. Drummer fires off precision artillery and keeps it up for the rest of the set. The sound desk is exceptional tonight.

Futures and they sing of blood and spirits. The three machines merge in sound texture. Big flames on the surround screens and smoke envelopes the players.

They reach a peak with Roxxy . Techno attack and the human drums battle with the fast metronomic machine beats. The synths throng with a bit of Desert Metal. Dub Metal.

Ricochet keeps it going with mutant heavy fuzztones from the machines and the singer heroically tries to compete with the thrilling barrage.

 JessB

Jess Bourne is a fast-rising New Zealand Hip-Hop Rap artist and is cementing her value as a strong support act to the heavy hitters. She was on the stage at Six60’s historic Eden Park concert earlier this year.

The backing band is regular DJ collaborator Half Queen and the Funky Drummer. Great booming break beats and the explosive metronomic precision of a Clyde Stubblefield or a Jabo Starks.

Four outrageously fit white-outfitted dancers raise the temperature of the house immediately. Sexy aerobic body rock with the precision of Olympian athletes. JessB herself is a former professional athlete.

Bump Bump is out front and explicit gut-pummeling Rap. Take my own shit and do my own stunts and the dancers seal the deal.

Best Friend sends a cheer around the house. She don’t need no ### / She’s a real fat bitch.

I like the way she has a handle on Old Skool and inverts the misogynistic black humour of the guys into her own weapons of rhyme.

I just wanna lie down/ Break down/ Shake down/ Just wanna shine like a lighthouse.

Finishes her set with a highlight, Bullseye. The dancers are on and everybody’s always got something to say.

Lee Mvtthews

Graham Matthews and Tom Lee are Drum and Bass DJs and therefore purveyors of Dance.

Derived from part of the repertoire of the originators like Grandmaster Flash. Or, emphasis on the engine and minimise the flash. Melody and Pop tones wind their way in there.

They play with a monkish discipline and wind straight into it. Electronic beats and bass drops. A hypnotic Trance Dance.

Female Pop vocals float above and take on crystalline form. Also, deep male vocoder-treated ones.

The beats become like artillery but waged from a computer console. They are bullets and not explosions.

At the twenty-minute mark and something strange happens. It has become relentless and abstract. These guys are masters at merging and melding their sound but it is now like a marathon to get through.

You are listening to the endless sound of a Great Machine, maybe the Large Hadron Collider. Is it really a concert? Taking body shots and being pounded into submission.

Impressive in its own way. The last song is Takeover and some angelic female vocals float back in.

Shapeshifter

The band has been a killer on their brand-new material.

They roll out Dutchies and the crowd respond to an old favourite. Shades of Prog and quite theatrical.

They launch into a medley and I’m not going to try to unpick it. A Blues guitar intro from a real guitar. Transforms and evolves into Metal and sounds unique and unclassifiable. Possibly improvising it, as the drummer holds it all together with metronomic thunder.

They have laid it all out for the crowd but revive with theatrical flair for a double song encore.

Life from the new album and it rolls out with a John Bonham style drum call. The keyboards emulate guitar shredding.

In Colour from the Delta album. They work the opening in similar fashion to the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again. The singer still has some gas left in the tank to get up above and the upper register White Soul tenor sounds a little like Dave Dobbyn.

Let all the colours ignite tonight. Good Night!

Rev Orange Peel

Click any image to view a full-size gallery of beautiful images from our friend Doug Peters over at Ambient Light. He’s got some brilliant shots of JessB and Lee Matthews over there as well.