Troy Kingi & The Room Service – Powerstation: November 23, 2023

Troy Kingi invited us to waste a Thursday evening with him and his band as they celebrate the release of Troy latest, Time Wasters: Soundtrack To Current Day Meanderings.

We did some meandering of our own as a DJ spun tunes before Troy and his crew took to the stage shortly after 9:30. It’s a stripped down affair this time around with ace bassist Marika Hodgson stage left, drummer Treye Liu laying down the beat and Forrest Thorpe behind the keys, and occasionally blowing his trumpet.

Time Wasters is a mostly instrumental “ambient” album (click here for the 13^th Floor album review) and so less was more on stage tonight.

“Happy Thursday!” Troy greets the medium-size crowd. “Who’s been listening to this album?

By the end of the evening we will have heard all 11 tracks beginning with Bastard and Fantasy League.

But the album is not played from beginning to end, Troy mixes it up and throws in a few oldies such as Aztecknowledgy, in mostly instrumental form.

“I love you guys so much!”, Troy exclaims to his hardy fans. “I appreciate your dedication to what I’m doing…and I don’t know what I’m doing”.

Actually he does.

Time Wasters, the seventh in his 10/10/10 series, is an excellent album, but it seems Kingi is always thinking ahead, telling us he has three more to go and that number eight is already finished, having been recorded at Joshua Tree.

Forrest’s trumpet is blaring on Presidents & Asshole and the set closes with a soulful Grandma’s Rocket Room.

“One more song!” demands the crowd.

And we get two.

First is a tune titled Let’s Stay Together…not the Al Green classic, or even the Stan Walker number…and finally a rocking All Your Ships Have Sailed.

A lovely evening indeed.

Apparently Troy and his peeps are of the opinion that this instrumental album is a hard sell. But anyone who finds the time to give it a lesson will find plenty to love here.

Marty Duda

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

Troy Kingi setlist:

1. Bastard
2. Fantasy League
3. Sequence
4. Aztecknowledgy
5. Sudoku
6. Rubix
7. Link Link Link
8. Happy Colour
9. Chess
10. Krispy Kreme
11. Minesweeper
12. Presidents & Assholes
13. Grandma’s Rocket Poem
14. Let’s Stay Together
15. All Your Ships Have Sailed

Troy Kingi and The Room Service perform at San Fran in Wellington tonight. Click here for tickets