San Francisco Bathhouse
April 18 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

SOME OF THE most frustrating moments in life can happen at a concert. People spend money to hear musicians display their talents – you’re paying to watch a professional at work. They may be good, they may be bad, they may be amazing, whatever really. But why oh why do people just show up to concerts and talk loudly throughout the whole gig? What did you honestly pay your entrance fee for? So other people can say they paid their entrance money to hear you talk? Surely it’d be cheaper to head down to the pub and talk there – hell, you could probably buy half a dozen with the money you would have spent on a ticket and talk as loud as you want. Last night’s concert was marred by an all too familiar arrogance, where singers and people genuinely interested in the music were frustrated by a disrespectful audience. It’s probably not going to do Wellington’s reputation among overseas musicians any good either.

Which is a shame because the music itself was pretty damn good. The night was opened by an as-of-yet unnamed countryish band. I caught the last song, and there were some wonderful sounds, harmonies and instrumentation. Not bad for a first attempt – I’m not even going to attempt to try and come up with a name for them, but if you hear of a four-piece country band complete with cello and banjo playing around town, check ‘em out.

Edith Frost was up next, playing her lilting tales of romance gone bad accompanied only with a bassist. She opened with ‘Emergency’, the opening track off her 2005 album, It’s a Game. Her beautiful voice made the music haunting – the lyrics which could easily have been melodramatic and cheesy, were delivered movingly and compellingly. Though at times after hearing the romantic heartache and agony, you wish that someone would run up on stage and give her a hug. Her set covered her career, including ‘True’ and ‘Hear My Heart’ from her 2001 album Wonder Wonder, the wonderful ‘Bluish Bells’ from 1998’s Telescopic and a quite vitriolic ‘Just a Friend’ from It’s a Game. She closed her performance with ‘What’s the Use’. For people who weren’t too familiar with her stuff, she may have lost a fair bit of her crowd, which probably goes some way to explaining the incessant chatter. However, I did rather enjoy her performance.

Next up was Richard Buckner, a seminal country figure who’s played with the likes of Son Volt and Butch Hancock. His set alternated between acoustic and electric, with a pedal to make the transitions between the two instruments seem seamless. In fact, his interaction with the crowd was nil, allowing his music, his compelling baritone voice and his wonderful lyrics – there was some gorgeous metaphors and lines throughout, eg. “I leave you with shadows on my eyes” – to speak. He also looked a bit disgruntled at the noise of crowd by the end, which is a shame. But he played some excellent tracks such as “Lucky Buzz” and was a highly interesting performer, and technically a very good guitarist.

Perhaps promoters could institute signs telling the audience to keep quiet (this was very successful at Bill Callahan/Joanna Newsom). Otherwise, we’ll continue to get personal musicians aurally overpowered by an ultimately selfish crowd.

See also:
» It’s a Game: Edith Frost talks