March 18, 2020

Hot Potato Band, Tuning Fork, 17 March 2020: Concert Review

Saint Patricks’ Day, we have foregone Corona for Guinness. What more to celebrate than a hot potato, in fact ten hot potatoes, a whole Hot Potatoes Band. They are a ten-piece New Orleans inspired horns and drums band from Sydney – one of the few live shows that have not cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions.

I caught half their set at WOMAD over the weekend and was keen to see them in a more intimate setting.

Opening the show, and at least 15 minutes earlier than anyone would have expected was Mahaana.

This was virtually a last-minute arrangement, the original Australian support act having been sacrificed in the current climate of madness.

I believe his name is Mahaana Maelava and he is a young Polynesian man from the heartland, South Auckland. He is a big guy and he has a classic soul voice of the sixties to seventies era, but not confined to that as we hear. He is unaccompanied and plays an acoustic guitar.

A song which is possibly Maybe I’m Just a Fool sounds early seventies pop-soul. The next has a human beat-box opening and the vocals take on some jazz colour, reminding me of George Benson.

An original song Gotta Move has a reggae rhythm and then moves into South African style vocals. Love Kills, also an original, has a guitar riff nicked from the Doobie Brothers Listen to the Music.

His soul voice comes from the era of American Top Forty when I was going to church. Church being Radio Hauraki for three hours on Sunday mornings, so I look forward to seeing Mahaana again.

The Hot Potato Band hit the stage and it is crowded. A ten piece, there is Ben on vocals, Anne on bass or baritone sax, trumpet, trombone, alto and tenor saxes, three drummers, and the Sousaphone player.

They had lots of room to leap around at the big Brookland Oval stage at WOMAD. Here they are more cramped but they adapt.

Drums and sousaphone are the engine room of the band and they are superb. The sousaphone replaces the bass player and supplies the bottom.

They open with Positive Vibration and the sound of the horns is Stax, or to be more inclusive the Memphis soul horn sounds of the sixties. They remind me of the Mar-Keys, the Bar-Kays and the Average White Band.

Ben has a very good white soul voice and probably is reminiscent of British singers like George Michael, Paul Young and possibly Dave Wakeling.

Sousaphone man deserves a special mention. He plays an instrument that looks like mutant toilet plumbing. He must have the lungs of an elephant and the aerobic fitness of a marathon runner. He also participates in the leaping about.

Avocado Song is served up for the Ponsonby Mt Eden contingent.

The music is predominantly riff-driven with no soloing. It is tight, with the super propulsion from the back room providing the foundation.

I say that and then Watch the Trees Grow, off their new album, is more jazz with some sax solo, and the band have a chance to stretch out.

Another new one is It’s Your Own Body which starts out ska, then with Bo Diddley drums before moving into a Stevie Wonder style sound.

A slow song next (for them), Silver in the Moon does give a chance for trombone and trumpet to feature.

The audience tonight are generally young, diverse and ready to dance. Some would have been at WOMAD and so have been primed. Repeated requests for the singer Ben to get his gear off, this comes solely from a group of young guys.

Little Bird has a classic white soul vocal, all the horn musicians have brief opening cameos and then move into a soul funk riff echoing Cadillac Assembly Line as written by Sir Mack Rice and performed by Albert King.

Just Let It Go has a cowbell intro and then the drums excel with African sounding rhythms.

Give the drummer some! Simon Ghali is the leader and mostly responsible for putting the band together.

The microphone is well above his head as he steps up to talk. He thanks the audience and gives praise to Tim on the sound. I totally agree.

The closer is This is How it Should Be.

We have raced through 75 minutes of a very tight and disciplined band and a very happy audience.

With the madness, hysteria and panic that is engulfing the world and its governing bodies, I really hope there is still some avenues where we can all find some rationality, sanity and a raising of the spirit.

~Rev Orange Peel

Click any image below to browse a gallery of Hot Potatoes Photos and another of opener Mahaana Maelava. All photos by Rachel Webb.