Synthony At The Domain – April 2, 2023 (Concert Review)

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SYNTHONY showed up at the Auckland Domain a day late, after promoters heeded weather warnings for Saturday’s original date, to avoid the dance festival turning into a Glastonbury rain-and-mud-fest.

Many punters were annoyed. There was a lot of discussion on the Facebook page about refund terms, attempts to resell tickets, and annoyance about the prospect of a Monday at Synthonywork recovering from New Zealand’s largest outdoor rave. Sneaky Sound System and Miss Connie sneaked away for the revised date, but P-Money jumped in to join a stellar Sunday line-up of some of Aotearoa’s finest, including Kimbra, Shapeshifter, Savage, Tiki Taane and Sir Dave Dobbyn.

The set up and logistics were great, other than the woefully inadequate number of food stalls. Arranged in fenced areas, there was provision for dancing at the front, sitting further back, family and VIP areas and – as a pleasant surprise to hardened festival goers – a decent number of clean loos.

It appeared that most people didn’t want to give up too much of their Sunday afternoon though, as DJ Dick Johnson opened up with only a few punters dancing in front of the huge, impressive stage.

They were just starting to grow in ranks and enthusiasm when Sir Dave took to the stage – a strange addition to a dance-focussed programme.  Dave tried hard, but both he and Kimbra struggled and killed the mood somewhat. The “big names” weren’t needed for an audience who were really only there to drink, singalong and dance to an upbeat vibe.

Sachi

SachiLuckily, as people started arriving in greater numbers after 5, Sachi came on to save the day. Having previously opened for Rudimental and playing at Rhythm and Vines, this young Auckland based duo knew what they were doing – and what the audience wanted. Mixing their original tracks such as Take Me Back with covers including Harry Styles’ Watermelon Sugar High and Daft Punk’s Around the World, the boys were clearly having the time of their lives.

Dressed in white jumpsuits and sporting highlights reminiscent of Wham!

in 1984, they danced, drummed and got the crowd to give a shout-out to one of their grandmas who had come to boogie. To be fair, Nanna was probably younger than some of the punters there, with many concertgoers leaning toward the older demographic… more Gold Cards than Ubers being used for the journey home from the Domain, maybe?

KimbraThe main focus of the night was Synthony No.4, performed by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra – a curated setlist to follow on from their previous concerts. Opening with Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now, their performance was fabulous throughout the evening. Conductor Sarah Brace-Williams gave it her all, dancing along; there were lasers, fireworks, plumes of smoke and fire to accompany a pretty solid run through of quintessential dance tunes, from Sunchyme to Sandstorm.

Guest singers were wheeled out one at a time between instrumental pieces, with Savage performing a great rendition of his hit Freaks and Tiki Taane covering The Prodigy’s Breathe brilliantly. Unsurprisingly, Insomnia and Firestarter whipped the crowd up into a dance frenzy and singalongs to Avicii’s Levels, the Luude remix version of Down Under and The Killers’ Mr Brightside were loud and enthusiastic.

Sadly, the low point of the night came when Dave Dobbyn came back on stage to tackle  Bittersweet Symphony. It wasn’t entirely successful – definitely more bitter than sweet. “What an honour!” the MC gushed. “What a disaster!” I thought.  Hopefully Dave doesn’t Shapeshifterdecide to add it to his setlist for future gigs… I wouldn’t want to sit through that ever again. I’m sure Richard Ashcroft wouldn’t be hugely impressed either. It was no Slice of Heaven, that’s for sure.

However, all was redeemed with an encore performance by the orchestra of Darude’s Sandstorm which was full on – lasers, fireworks, bells, whistles, crazy xylophone-playing – you name it, Synthony threw it in.

It wasn’t the best gig ever. It wasn’t even on the day it was supposed to be. But as an end-of-a-crappy-summer, feelgood festival last hoorah, it did the job – and the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra did Auckland proud.

Carin Newbould

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by David Watson

Thanks to Nancy Blackler of Blackout for all the help.

Shapeshifter:
Sachi:
Kimbra:
Synthony & Guests:

 

 

 

 

Carin Newbould
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