August 17, 2023

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox – Aotea Centre: August 16, 2023

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox produced a flawless start to their “Life in the Past Lane” tour of New Zealand and Australia with a perfectly orchestrated playlist of covers – all transformed by their trademark swing retro vibes. The 13^th Floor’s Carin Newbould was there to witness this unique ensemble’s latest offering, with photos by Chris Zwaagdyk.

Jason Slade

It’s hard to imagine a more confident, impressive opening act than Jason Slade. He walked onto stage in front of a packed Kiwi Te Kanawa Theatre and proceeded to enchant the crowd with his beautiful tone, wide range and soulful song selection. This Auckland-based performer accompanied himself on guitar and had the crowd relaxed and smiling throughout his 20 minute warm up set.

Jason moved effortlessly between nicely-crafted originals such as Seek, Sugar and Not Like Them, to the warm familiarity of Sunny and a moody interpretation of Seal’s Crazy. The crowd would have been happy to have heard more, had they not been totally wired in anticipation of Postmodern Jukebox.

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox

The show brought to mind the famous Forrest Gump quote “Life is like a box of chocolates…you never know what you’re going to get.” In the case of Postmodern Jukebox, you have an idea of what to expect – modern hits transformed through vintage interpretation – but no idea of which members of their revolving cast will feature or what this latest iteration of their repertoire will include.

Postmodern Jukebox It was the first night of their “Life in the Past Lane” tour, but you’d never have known it. The entire show was slick, fun and masterful, with a tight band and outstanding vocalists. Freedom Young worked double duty as MC and singer, opening the show with a swing version of Rihanna’s Umbrella and later in the set covering Morgan Wallen’s country hit Last Night, in a very un-country fashion.

Postmodern Jukebox favourite Stella Katherine Cole supplied melodic performances of Flowers, Uptown Girl and The Cardigans’ Lovefool, before having fun with All About That Bass, featuring much booty-shaking from her fellow performers!

The vocal performances were punctuated by impressive tap dancing from New Zealand’s Bayley Graham, who no doubt came to Scott Bradlee’s attention as a semi-finalist on America’s Got Talent. Bayley’s personality shone through as he tapped his way through Umbrella, the Super Mario theme tune and an instrumental medley which ranged from Sweet Georgia Brown and In The Mood to O Sole Mio and Uptown Funk.

Powerhouse singer Tia Simone is a joy to watch. First providing a sultry rendition of Toxic – which highlighted the brass section beautifully – Tia later wowed the audience with her unique interpretation of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, impressively doing the splits in her evening dress during the trombone break!

Postmodern Jukebox The excellent trombone player featured heavily, with the only other member of the slightly ambitiously titled “horn section” providing sax, clarinet and jazz flute input. The remainder of the band were a drummer, guitarist and electric double bass player, who also featured as singer in a lovely version of Besame Mucho. The pianist was outstanding, starting the encore with a rendition of Yesterday which metamorphosed in styles from classical to ragtime to jazz and was enthusiastically clapped along to by the audience.

Stella and Tia were joined by Effie Passero for Burn and Wannabe, with the Spice Girls hit transformed in a fun Andrews Sisters boogie-woogie style. Effie is a truly outstanding singer, with operatic elements to her voice and a massive range, shown firstly in a paso-doble inspired I Was Made For Lovin’ You and later in Hallelujah. It’s a song that has been done to death (and often murdered on the way), but Effie performed it sympathetically, with nuance and incredible depth of feeling. Her final verse, sung acapella, gained her a standing ovation mid-show. I’d say it was the standout, except that she trumped herself with the final song of the night – the encore feature of Radiohead’s Creep. If you weren’t there, do yourself a favour and Google Effie’s version. It was amazing in range, power and emotion, leaving the audience on a definite high.

Postmodern Jukebox

The retro vibes throughout the show were charming, the music toe-tapping and the choice of repertoire was, as promised, innovative and delightful. Overall, the Postmodern Jukebox provided a fabulous playlist of enjoyable entertainment, with a great deal of fun along the way. It’s no wonder audiences come back time and time again – I’ll definitely be taking another dip into the chocolate box to see what their next tour dishes up.

Carin Newbould

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk

Post Modern Jukebox:

Jason Slade:

Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox is performing in Rotorua, Hamilton, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch. Link to tickets https://www.tegdainty.com/tour/life-in-the-past-lane/