04/05/2025

Reb Fountain – Auckland Town Hall: May 3, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

Reb Fountain put on a show for all to see last night at Auckland’s Town Hall as she closed out her How Love Bends Album Release Tour on this third day of New Zealand Music Month.

Opening act Pete Moriarty graced the stage on his lonesome, looking suspiciously like Dave Khan headed to the library in his reading glasses. My inkling was confirmed in Pete Moriarty’s first couple moments of gorgeous slide guitar licks.

Dave Khan is the multi-instrumentalist in Reb Fountain’s band & collaborator with countless other Aotearoa folk/indie musicians; here he is Pete Moriarty, and he is steering the musical ship on his own.

Pete Moriarty built layers of sound as he shifted in his seat between a lap-steel, keyboard, violin and an array of buttons and knobs. Made use of electronic beats that pulsated like a heartbeat, while a pre-recorded vocal sample repeated words of affirmation and an insistent assertion to connect with love.

Pete Moriarty warmed the stage in the truest sense of the word.

The half hour set was a single, consistent piece of music. The arrangement morphed from one segment to another. Initially meditative and reassuring, before shifting into something more sinister and apocalyptic. Complete with a change in the lighting from pale blue to blood red.

The performance recalled ambient and electronic artists like Max Richter and Jon Hopkins. I hope Pete Moriarty commits his music to a recorded album soon. I’d love to take this trip again on a pair of headphones.

Reb Fountain

No stranger to Reb Fountain, I was curious about how the new material from How Love Bends translated on the stage. Unlike the previous two, it’s an album that has taken me a little more effort to appreciate. The sound is more clinical and tightly wound, favouring unconventional textures and tones over the more natural dynamics of a band in a room.

At 9pm Reb Fountain joins the stage after her band has laid down the several bars of the opening track, He Commands You To Jump Into The Sea. The verses are near spoken word. Reb Fountain’s hands adding a visual melody of their own.

The next three songs are also from the new record. I respect the play of a band serving a large slice of new material up front. It indicates willingness to challenge and evolve at the risk of losing a measure of audience excitement. The Town Hall audience leans in attentively, seemingly along for the ride.

Forever effectively shows the many qualities of Reb Fountain’s voice…drawn out lows, tenacious falsettos, words delivered in rapid fire defiance.

The title track slows things down to emphasise the hook I’m ‘gonna wear you out’, sung with impressive backing vocal from her band. Reb finger-picks an acoustic guitar, adding a sense of space and lightness to the live arrangement.

While introducing Hey Mom, she specifies that their purpose tonight is to simply connect with the audience. And connect she does. Hey Mom is a song that caries palpable weight with themes of hurt, grief and love. In my house, the song has never failed to make my 8-year-old cry and draw close for a hug before the song’s end. A parallel of this same response occurs across the room as Reb sings the acapella middle eight. As an audience member, you can feel the shift when a room of people let go of their stray thoughts and step fully into collective attention.

Reb and her band don’t waver as they burn through highlights from the back catalogue. Samson, Beastie, and Lacuna sound heavy. Demonstrating rhythm section Karin Canzek, & Earl Roberston’s ability to switch between alt-rock loud/quiet dynamics.

Fisherman goes full Bad Seeds with Reb prowling the corners of the stage while Dave Kahn lays down a thick bedrock of screeching violin and grimacing facials.

The single Come Down is served with added bite thanks to a sharpened electric guitar tone. Bodies are moving in chairs, and the song is clearly familiar to the audience.

An energetic cover of John Lennon’s Working Class Hero successfully entices people out of their seats. The band’s take on this tune felt so fresh; Earl Roberston switching out his snare for a drum pad and a bass tone so thick from Karin Canzek that it could have powered an illegal rave. On paper this arrangement shouldn’t work, but they absolutely smashed it.

The encore boasts a tasteful version of Faster, before the band ramps things up again with a How Love Bends cut named Nothing Like. This was my personal highlight of the set. It’s a lightly driven and catchy acoustic rock number on record, but in the live setting it was scorching. Complete with a drum build up beneath an entire verse before the band releases into a full Crazy Horse inspired jam, Dave Khan dipping and bending through an overdriven guitar solo, earning his largest applause of the night.

Can I start a petition for the How Love Bends live album please?

Don’t You Know Who I Am closed the night in a suitably massive fashion. People already standing in their seats, now making their way down to dance in the shadows at the front of the stage and the aisles.

My general rule of thumb is to catch bands in small venues for the best show experiences. That doesn’t apply here. The combination of an impeccable sound mix, increased volume, a big stage and sheer musical chemistry made this show feel larger than life. I left with a sense of awe and appreciation for this group of musicians who tour our doorsteps frequently. I’ve said this probably ten times in the last several years, but this really was the best Reb Fountain show I’ve been to.

Chris Warne

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