A freezing cold and windy Thursday night did little to deter the crowd from a hearty acoustic set courtesy of NZ Live Entertainment at Medusa.
A last minute change of plan saw Darrel Vickers, vocalist for bands; Funkacybin and Smashed Potatoes (the latter originally scheduled to play) bash out a beautiful acoustic set of originals with awe and depth. His short but powerful set created vivid story telling with titles such as Sun Dried Moon and Reality Is Dead; just a glimpse of hidden creativity stripped down to a bare nothing from the front man known for his funk rock chops; harmonious vocals sung with sincerity and warmth and a great choice for a warm up act.
Up next was the captivating Kriston Batistic, local bartender extraordinaire, at Bristol on Cuba, he has some amazing chops to boot and blew me away with his enrapturing blues style and beautifully haunting vocals. Almost every person dared not blink, for fear of missing a second of Kriston’s compelling style, consisting of blues slide guitar and changing tempo to an all standing, rocking out soul originality.
New comer, Matt Horne followed suit next, with a beautiful covers set, covering Gnarls Barkley, Matchbox Twenty and Ben Harper to name a few. His stripped down playing and whispered vocal style really bought out the simplicity of each song as a different technique and fitted the bill perfectly as a third act. Lots of potential from this local lad; watch this space.
To end the night an indie boogie wouldn’t be complete without the help of Major Major, an up and coming Wellington four- piece with some great saxophone hooks and lots of sass. A fascinating blend of vibrato style vocals tipped with indie sentiments and a la ska overtones to smooth it all out- think Less Than Jakes meets new wave indie blend- a delicious mix.