King Missile IV – The Kings Arms (Concert Review) 12 Feb 2015

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It was a small, but enthusiastic crowd that greeted John S Hall and his latest incarnation of King Missile as they took the stage late on Thursday night at Auckland’s Kings Arms.

There had been a parade of opening acts including Lovey Dove, the husband and wife duo of Dan West (guitar) and Azalia Snail (keyboards) who also now make up King Missile IV along with Hall.

The King Missile set was as much like a poetry slam as a rock concert, with Hall clutching sheets of paper and reciting his poems while West and Snail provided musical backing and supporting vocals.

They began with a handful of oldies…Sensitive Artist dates back to the very first King Missile album released in 1987, while Cheesecake Truck and My Heart Is A Flower are from the early 90s.

Hall then slipped into his “That fuckin’ guy” persona to present three new poems. Sunset, Stars and Moon all worked on the same principle…Hall’s character attempting to describe a beautiful scenario, a sunset, the stars, the moon, but using extreme profanity and verbally abusing anyone who dared interrupt his reflective moment.

The concept might seem juvenile and obvious, but incredibly, the more he did it, the more effective it became…drawing plenty of laughs along the way.

That Fuckin’ Guy returned later in the set to riff on River, Bike and Closet and a brand new poem inspired by Hall’s flight to New Zealand on Qantas…Airplane.

We also heard a few more “classics” such as 1988’s Mr Johnson and I’m Open along with Jesus Was Way Cool from the 1990 album, Mystical Shit.

John S Hall comes across as a more cynical version of Jonathan Richman…in fact, he mentioned the former Modern Lover during the set…along with an updated Woody Allen.

After presenting the King Missile “hit”, Detachable Penis, Hall encored with the newly-written Airplane, read off his mobile device and then Martin Scorsese…inspired by seeing The Departed for the first time while flying to NZ. The hour-long set closed with Gary And Melissa and The Story Of Willy, another couple of golden oldies.

John S Hall’s mix of poetry and alt. rock still works after almost 30 years and his new collaborators added just enough musical sweetening to make this latest version of King Missile go down easy.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Isaac Newcombe:

King Missile IV set list:

  1. Sensitive Artist
  2. Cheesecake Truck
  3. My Heart Is A Flower
  4. Sunset
  5. Stars
  6. Moon
  7. Mr Johnson
  8. I’m Open
  9. Jesus Was Way Cool
  10. River
  11. Bike
  12. Closet
  13. Take Stuff From Work
  14. Detachable Penis
  15. Airplane
  16. Martin Scorsese
  17. Gary And Melissa
  18. The Story Of Willy
Marty Duda
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