Nessa Barrett – The Powerstation: December 19, 2023  

Nessa Barrett has spent a grueling year touring the globe, seeking to solidify her place as another interstellar pop princess. As is often the case, New Zealand is the end of the line.

Our man Eddie went along to witness Nessa’s tour finale at Auckland’s the Powerstation, he stood in the midst of the crowd and absorbed the exchange of energy between Nessa and the crowd, the lighting the swish audio technics. Happily, he came up with some reflections of his own…

Arriving at Nessa Barrett’s gig, I was immediately struck by the passion and angst this artist provokes and attracts in her fan base. There was a large crowd full of life, mostly female with plenty of enthusiasm. I confess I had not been aware of Nessa until I saw she was coming to NZ, it seems I was the exception however – the internet strikes again and in strikingly short timeframe Nessa has attracted a global audience of fans who clearly identify with her vibe. And what a vibe it is, more on this shortly.

Oliver Cronin

The show opened with slick vocal tones of Oliver Cronin and his 4 piece band. It was a great start to the night. R&B flavored melodies floated out on Oliver’s voice, which has an understated power, curling it around a procession of wavy, slightly poppy punchy numbers. There were some catchy vocal harmonies coming through from the band and the songs stood up well with some solid production quality. The crowd clearly enjoyed it and didn’t hesitate to accept the two old school disposable cameras Oliver threw out, requesting them back at the end of the night with some fun pictures for him to develop. Why not I guess – though I did smile when later in the night one of the cameras was thrust towards our very own photographer Michael Jeong. He wisely declined.

Perhaps I’m being churlish, but I did struggle with the reliance on a backing track which added a bass (absent in the band), and a lot of synth sounds and vocal layering. This was a feature of both acts of the night and while I appreciate its value, it does lock the performance in, restricts impulsive creativity and occasionally leaves me feeling at times, like I’m simply watching good karaoke.

Nessa Barrett

A brief interlude and it’s time for Nessa and answers to my question going in – how do you convert a music career based on a voice, a look and some gritty themes into an engaging live show?

The answer was  you lean on those things! Nessa opened with her song American Jesus which gave us a good idea of what we were getting. A conflicted, beautiful, fragile, sexy and yet exotic persona. She certainly has star power with her coy and doll-like movements and a voice that sits impossibly between husky and high frequency. It’s quite a package and it clearly hits its target in the crowd who cried her name.

Nessa was joined by an enthusiastic tattoo clad drummer and guitarist who often added a Chris Issak type strum, which reminded me of a Tarantino movie. We should also acknowledge the 3 invisible audio technicians whose names we later learned were Connor, Hannah and Tim. They deserve a mention as their influence was significant – I’ve made my point about backing tracks, the vocal effects were also notable, projecting the afore mentioned understated voice of Nessa into angelic choruses using reems of reverb and chorus effects. It works, but at times I found it hard to hear her true voice underneath it all.

The thing about Nessa is, she is strikingly honest about some of the struggles she has lived through. The songs, one by one leave little to the imagination, they are not shrouded in metaphor, she says it how it is. Love, hate, death, struggles with personal mental health are all explicit. This is probably why Nessa has captured the audience that she has, people relate. The songs themselves have a catchy and well-groomed style, often building into euphoric choruses which get the crowd pumping. This was aided by a stream of black and white 40’s and 50’s footage projected behind her throughout the gig, often lending a macabre and introspective if slightly surreal atmosphere to the aesthetic. It all adds to the unsettling but compelling aura this artist puts out.

We were given about 12 songs in the night, including a very broody cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. Crowd favorites included – Girl in New York, Dying on the inside and I hope you’re miserable until you’re dead being standouts. Nessa spoke sparingly between numbers but reassured us all many times that she loved us and expressed her appreciation that she gets to write songs about her life and people relate to them. People do relate, this is undeniable. The show wrapped up rather abruptly and we were released into the night with much to ponder.

Nessa has earned a well-deserved break after a big year. I trust she will see more success in the years to come if she sticks to this formula. Musically it won’t break new ground but it will speak to a generation and that’s no less significant.

Eddie George Kitchin.

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Michael Jeong:

Nessa Barrett:

Oliver Cronin: