The Incubus 8 Tour – Well Worth Shouting About!
Incubus – Spark Arena, March 4 2018
How do you make up for six years of absence? Well, in the case of Brandon Boyd and the boys from Incubus, you bring down the house with a crowd pleaser of a concert packed to the hilt with as many old faithfuls as you can haul before topping it with a sprinkling of fresh tracks to keep things interesting. This might just be the secret to a long lasting relationship.
Kicking off the show with a hiss and a roar, Auckland’s alternative rock band Villainy played their first show in a while to inspire a sea of head nods, with the likes of Raised in the Dark, No Future and Ammunition before taking it back to their very first single, Alligator Skin. They then offered Safe Passage to the fizzing crowd before treating them to the first ever live rendition of brand spanking new song Tiny Little Island. With a catchy, sing-along-worthy line like ‘we’re all here in a tiny little island’, the single that was just released few days prior was all set to be a favourite. I think it’s fair to say that the former two time NZ Music Award winners for Best Rock Album are most certainly back in the game.
It wasn’t long after that that the stage was set for the main event. In the darkness, chants of ‘Incubus’’ filled the arena before the tender timbre of Boyd — awashed in a white light — opened with Glitterbomb, off the album 8 (aptly named from being the band’s eighth LP). Naturally the song was accompanied by shimmery planets, sparkling explosions and an on-screen astronaut taking us on a portal jump into another dimension — in this case, onward to circa 2001 with Circles, taken from the band’s fourth studio album, Morning View.
A man of few words, the high-octane performance continued with another fresh track from 8 — Nimble Bastard. A slow burner to begin with, the song presented the perfect opportunity for Incubus guitarist Michael Einziger to remind us what he’s made of. Following suit was a blast from the past, a heartracer and a play on the word “anomaly” from the band’s sixth album Light Grenades.
With the crowd sufficiently hyped, it was time for a bit of a power trip. Bathed in red lights, headbanger and a half, Megalomaniac, made for a thrilling jaunt before Boyd knowingly preempted State of the Art with an ‘are you ready for this, Auckland?’ An obvious crowd favourite, Pardon Me featured the epic live scratching from none other than Incubus turntable king, Chris Kilmore. Then it was time to ‘soar’ with the uncharacteristically synthy Paper Shoes and surrender to the sway-inducing addictive bassline of Pantomime that commenced with nothing but the unadulterated, gifted twosome that is Boyd and his guitar.
With deafening screams to herald it’s arrival, Nice to Know You came complete with a generous serving of Chris Kilmore’s’ epic dreads flying through the air, guiding our way to a ‘sick sad little world’ for a ‘stellar’ outcome before fan favourite Talk Shows on Mute came to play, cleverly mashed with a boogie-worthy snippet of INXS’ Need You Tonight.
Allowing Boyd to break out the bongos for a good cause, the band played Vitamin before Are You In moved fired up fans to raise the roof. While the annoyed abrupt outburst from guitarist Einziger, imploring security guards in the front to ‘chill out’ was a bit of a buzzkill (people didn’t care but it reeked of arrogance), the band picked up where they left off unphased. And soon it was time to ‘dig my toes into the sand’ with the beloved Wish You Were Here featuring Pink Floyd’s outro — “How I wish, how I wish you were here; We’re just two lost souls; Swimming in a fish bowl; Year after year” — for a real memorable flourish.
Rounding off the night in the same way they jumped in — with a little something old and a little something new — the audience bounced along to find ‘a new constellation’ with recent release No Fun (it’s safe to say the song was anything but) before the much anticipated (and what is to this day still considered the band’s biggest hit and breakthrough single)… Drive.
Ah, Incubus came out of the gates swinging alright, and after all these years in the game, that is most certainly something to shout about.
Deborah Raj
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March 5, 2018 @ 11:13 am
I’m sure he was yelling at the security to do something about some unruly kids at the front telling the kids to chill out shoving elbows and other body parts into other rockers. I’m assuming that’s what it was, couldn’t see first hand, I was about 10 rows from the front.
March 5, 2018 @ 2:04 pm
Thanks for sharing Asleigh 🙂 What did you think of the show?
March 6, 2018 @ 12:07 am
Einziger clearly was very arrogant towards the security guards who were there to do their job. I was at the very front row and saw the whole thing. He was first initiating to the band/floor manager that he had issues with a few guards who pulled guys out off the crowd. He was making gestures to this manager guy that he’s keeping an eye out on the security guards from the stage. He was pointing towards 4 guards whilst playing the guitar and made this ‘i’m watching you’ kinda hand gesture. But his complaint was either ignored or the guy just merely didnt understand what he was suggesting. Then suddenly he went on full outburst, stopped the song midway (totally awkward), pointing his finger at the guards, called them out one by one, and told them to chill the f down and told them not to ruin people’s night (well he kinda ruined my night with his bizzare rant). He didn’t think it was that bad and these guys didn’t deserve to be pulled out of the crowd when ‘according to him – they just wanna have a good time’. He was throwing tanty like a child and pointing finger at the guards and just went wild at them. Well, had the guards not pulled these inusance people out of the crowd, i can imagine it will end up with a full brawl coz they just kept pushing each other around, elbowing, kicking, stepping. He should remember, it’s not an outdoor venue where you get fresh breeze and could easily move away if things escalated. It’s an indoor venue and it can get super hot on the floor especially on a hot muggy night like last night and things can get pretty heated easily under the circumstances especially when alcohol is involved. I couldn’t remember how many times I got elbowed, stepped on, pushed. Thank goodnes for the barrier in front of me and it kinda stopped me from falling. I kinda glad these guys were removed from the crowd so promptly by the guards, so we all could have a good night and came home in one piece with nothing but happy memories. However his childish rant tbh was a buzzkill, rather cringy and sadly hard to forget. He didn’t realise some of us were quite sensible and just wanting to have a good night and watch the band playing some good awesome tunes. Good on the guards for keeping an eye out on other concert goers and made sure we all had a great time too. They definitely did a great job and on top of that, they made sure the front row audience stayed hydrated and the cold water supply just didn’t stop. The guards just nonstop stocking on cold pump water and plastic cups for us on the floor. I must admit tho, Brandon was awesome! After that cringy rant from the guitarist, Brandon asked the audience at the front row to chill and have a good night. He was awesome and I appreciate he called out on the audience too. Coz at the end of the day, if these guys were vigilant towards other people on the floor, the security guards won’t need to remove them from the crowd. Simple as that, really.