Tiny Ruins – Hollywood Avondale: May 27, 2023

Tiny Ruins closed out their 8-date Ceremony Release Tour with a warm, welcoming show at Auckland’s Hollywood Avondale theatre, a perfect venue for a perfect night of music.

Just mingling with the crowd before the show and one got the feeling we were in for something special. Many of Auckland’s finest made their way out to see the show…Dianne, Dave, Dylan and Reb were all spotted… always a good sign.

Ebony Lamb

She used to be part of Eb & Sparrow,  in an ‘alt-country band by accident for ten years’, now its just Ebony Lamb solo…tonight with bass player Phoebe Johnson flown in from Wellington (via Jetstar we’re told) to warm us up.

To honest, the venue was a little chilly, at first, but Eb did indeed warm things up with an 8-song, 40-minute set filled with mostly new songs and beginning with one called I Ride This Way.

Ebony shared that she had recorded a full album produced by Bic Runga and Kody Neilson and, indeed, we heard the first single from that project, titled Take My Hands At Night. Judging by what we heard here, the album looks to be a winner…hopefully it’ll be out this year sometime.

And there was some love directed at the headliner, as Ebony revealed that “Tiny Ruins changed my life”, calling Hollie her ‘spirit animal’.

It was that kind of night.

Tiny Ruins

Tiny Ruins is Hollie Fullbrook (vocals/guitar). Tom Healy (guitar), Cass Basil (bass) and Alex Freer (drums) and they have been Tiny Ruins for almost a decade now after beginning life as an alias for Hollie the solo artist and over the years a jelled into a very real band. All of them play with others (Cass is also currently one of The Veils) but they seem most at home as Tiny Ruins.

The quartet took to the stage while the PA played Paul Simon’s Night Game, a song about a baseball pitcher dying with his spikes on…that sets a mood.

“We’re playing you the whole of our new album tonight”, Hollie announces, and the set begins with the shimmering sounds of album opener Dogs Dreaming.

But the album is not playing in order and the 80-minute set is sprinkled with a few old favourites such as Hurtling Through…a tribute to the late Hamish Kilgour…Olympic Girls, featuring some dazzling guitar playing by both Tom and Hollie and an intimate Me At The Museum, You In The Wintergardens.

The final song of the set was Sounds Like, but there were still three songs left to be heard from Ceremony, so an encore was assured.

That included The Crab and a story from Hollie about a dream she had where her and Cass are training hundreds of crabs to come on stage. Sadly, no real crabs materialized, but Tom urged the crowd to put their “pincers in the air” during an upbeat Dorothy Bay, which closed out the night and the tour.

Tom Healy let loose on his guitar and we all felt the warmth of Tiny Ruins and those songs.

Marty Duda

Click any icon to view a gallery of photos from the show:

Tiny Ruins Setlist:

1. Dogs Dreaming
2. Out Of Phase
3. In Light Of Everything
4. Daylight Savings
5. Seafoam Green
6. Hurtling Through
7. Earthly Things
8. Olympic Girls
9. Dear Annie
10. Me At The Museum, You In The Wintergardens
11. How Much
12. Sounds Like
13. The Crab/Waterbaby
14. Diving And Soaring
15. Dorothy Bay