Ladyhawke @ The Enmore

On Saturday night, with a group of friends I made my way down to the Enmore Theater (again) to catch New Zealands own Ladyhawke live. You may remember I gave the album a pretty nice review last year and since then the sky has been the limit - she recently won 6 gongs at the NZ Music Awards including Best Album and Single, and she's also nominated for 6 more at the ARIAs including the presitigous 'Best Cover Art' category.

Getting there early indicated that this wasnt going to be a big show. No queues, no real density of people on the floor - it looked like it might not have even sold out. Then out onto the stage came the supports for the evening - The Swiss. What can be said? Received warmly they kicked it off with a nice kind of chill-out synth, mixed with disco bass and solid drums. 10 minutes later the song was still going, looping, and I wanted to kill myself. The music is good, I can say that, but dance music, and instrumental dance at that, needs something more to convey it live. By halfway through the set the crowd had gotten bigger but the audible din of people just TALKING while this band tried to play indicated that they hadnt lost just me, but most of the people around me as well. I went outside for a cigarette thinking that the end of their set was near. Walked back in to find them still playing and the disappointment was palpable. All of a sudden they threw in a 'cover' of Daft Punks 'Robot Rock' - my advice to bands choosing covers to play live has ALWAYS been this - do NOT choose a song that is bigger than you are. The crowd will love the song. The crowd will go off and cheer mentally but stop and think for a second about why they are cheering. They're not cheering solely because you rocked their world, they're cheering the fact that somewhere in the 45 minutes of virtual boredom you were on stage there was a moment where they could ALMOST entirely forget that you were playing. Then to further take the crowd away from the product the band should be pushing - they introduced Ms. Connie Mitchell from Sneaky Sound System to come out and sing for them, and when she was out there you completely forgot about the 'band' standing behind her. Controlling the crowd with presence and a beautiful voice it made you wonder why the hell the guys behind her ended up with the support. The bottom line - The Swiss were ok, but its unfortunate that the best parts of their set were the bits that took the focus away from them.
Eventually Pip and the rest of the band came out and the Ladyhawke show was ready to start. After my parklife experience earlier this year I wasnt entirely sure if this night was going to be my kettle of fish. The lights dimmed and the intro started for the first track and current single 'Magic' to get the place moving. From there it was a well navigated set of album tracks and B-sides. 'Dusk Till Dawn' was a highlight as the crowd was receptive to a talkative frontwoman, talking about the massive size of the crowd (which in fact HAD turned out to be quite large). Triple J were all over the place recording the gig on cameras and mics, so no doubt it'll show up sometime on the airwaves or television.


For a group with only one album they seemed to have a set that was convincing time wise. Then again maybe the Swiss had made me feel that 40 minutes feels like 2 hours. The set closed with a fantastic rendition of 'Paris is Burning' but given that there were still omissions the encore was obvious. What wasnt, however, was the cover selection - Split Enz 1984 hit 'Message to my Girl' took the collective breath away (while at the same time giving a bit of an indication as to the influence of the Ladyhawke sound - another danger with covers) before a foot-stomping version of Patti Smiths 'Free Money' showed off a diversity and influence that is much more subtle, but says so much more than playing 'Robot Rock'. Last cab off the rank was 'My Delerium' (which I filmed most of), the place went expectedly nuts and like that it was over.
Verdict: I wasn't expecting much. I was expecting to have a good time but I wasnt expecting to be overly impressed or anything. I guess in many ways I was wrong. Apart from the initial sound adjustments in the first two tracks (as there nealy always is) the sound was good. There was, if anything, a bit too much air and not enough.. depth to it but it was certainly sufficient. The setlist was well played and Pip knows how to connect with a crowd, but without being a tool. Lights were good, the crowd was decent - it was simply a great night. If you have even the slightest appreciation for Ladyhawke then I am more than happy to enthusiastically recommend a show for a night of fun. Check out a nearly full-length 'My Delerium' below