Vanessa Worm Big Fan April 1, 2023 (Concert Review)

Vanessa Worm performed at Big Fan in Morningside playing her brand of electronica/dance/krautrock for the assembled fans.

Out west Ice Cube and Cypress Hill were holding court while The Veils were celebrating their new album in central Auckland. There was plenty going on in Auckland on this April 1^st, we’re not fooling.

Doors opened at 9 at Big Fan, and when we arrived a DJ was on the floor, on the stage getting things warmed up. Didn’t catch his name, but here is a photo…

Lucola

Then Lucola took refuge behind a few keyboards and played for about a half hour. You may know Lucola as Locola Bang or Luke Benge.

Anyway, dressed in a long, shiny top, with his long hair draped over his face, Locola let loose with his bubbly electronica and occasionally spoke with a heavily treated voice that sounded just a bit like Darth Vader.

“This is the next song” he revealed…”it’s about trying to be a little bit bigger than you are right now, Try a bit harder’, he urged the young crowd.

Help Yourself To Your Body felt like the highlight to his set , channelling Talking Heads’ Once In A Lifetime

“Does anyone have a clock?”

With Flava Flav nowhere to be seen we are treated to on more (or less) song and the set comes to an end at about 10:35 pm.

Vanessa Worm

It’s only a few minutes until Vanessa Worm (aka Tessa Forde) takes the stage with her band…two gentlemen on drums and bass who are seen and heard but never acknowledged.

Along with the live accompaniment there is a significate sound coming from backing tracks and, of course, Vanessa’s vocals which transform from singing to howls and yelps as the songs demand.

“Is it loud?” she asks after 111 Bare, the opening track from her latest album, Mosaics.

Yes, it is, but that’s just fine.

The crowd is all in for the ride as the intensity builds up…there’s a bit of dancing, most mostly swaying and just getting lost in the sound.

Ms. Worm makes frequent forays into the crowd, mingling with the fans in front (and making it difficult to see what’s happening further back)

Most of Mosaics is heard…Title Not Known and Devil’s Games being highlights, along with a few from previous album, Vanessa 77, closing the set with Tiny Revolutions.

With no real way to escape from the stage after the last tune, Vanessa remains awkwardly stranded, then decides to push play and wrap up with one more thumping tune.

A little over a hour after she starts, Vanessa Worm has made the most of her time on stage…its midnight, time to go home, or out, as the clocks falls back and sleep calls us out.

Marty Duda

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