April 9, 2022

Mousey – The Tuning Fork: April 8, 2022 (Concert Review)

Mousey brought her My Friends tour to Auckland’s Tuning Fork and made more friends along the way.

One can’t help but noticing that fans still feel bit tenuous about going out to see live music these day but it was a good crowd who gathered at The Tuning Fork to catch Mousey (aka Sarena Close), her band and opening act, Bub. With tables set up and no one standing the circumstances dictated that this was not going to be a full-on rock show, but something a little more sedate.

Not that Mousey and Bub didn’t try.

Bub is led by Priya Sami , of The Sami Sisters and along with bassist Daniel Barrett (also of Racing) and drummer Jana Te Hahn Owen, there was another Sami Sister on stage as older sister Anji filled in on Keyboards for Alex Freer.

But front and center was Priya and she led the band through a quick 20+ minute set beginning with King Of Wands, “our first single ever”.

Anji seemed to fit right in , her keys giving the band an 80s synth-pop vibe.

Jeez Louise, a song about “being a bad drunk”, was another highlight as Priya insisted its, “not about me”.

Had this been another time and place, there would be fans in front of the stage dancing and singing along.

Shortly after 9pm, Mousey took the stage, Mousey being: Sarena (voc/guitar), Chris Close (drums), Terence O’Connor (guitar) and Dave Cloughley (bass).

The set began relatively quietly with album-opener My Friends but then segued into the bubbly jangly rock of One Dollar Wednesdays. The Bench was driven by O’Connor’s guitar riff and Sarena’s impassioned vocal after stopping to peer out into the dark room in an effort to make some connection with the crowd. A few fans screamed out their welcome and the band rocked on.

They reached back to 2019’s debut album, Lemon Law, for Extreme Highs, then, after chatting with the crowd, noting that she was “very pregnant”, Sarena and co launched into Pudding And Pie, an epic, moody tune that feels like the centerpiece of the album and served the same function here as its slow-build got to a guitar-driven climax. The abrupt end of the tune generated a memorable “pin-drop” moment.

Other highlights include My Hands Are Made Of Glass and Stormy Boy.

With Wait For Me closing out the set, Sarena returned for a solo reading of a new song, I Don’t Know How You Sleep At Night.

However, Wait For Me featured a bass solo, a result of Dave losing a maths game the band played pre-gig…with the loser doomed to be the last musician standing as the others left the stage, one by one. Dave’s “solo” was cool and Sarena sharing this and other stories along the way help bridge the dark gap between audience and performer on the night. Let’s hope that soon, we’ll all feel safe enough to get up and have a dance or at least a singalong.