Blacklistt, as most will know were known previously as Blindspott. I have seen Blindspott heaps of times around the country and always loved their show. This tour was the first tour under their new name Blacklistt. Not much has changed other than the name and the drummer. With a new album just released and instantly hitting number 1 it’s a perfect time to go out and get the country excited about one New Zealand’s best rock acts.
Villainy opened up the show and they are a band I have wanted to see live for quite a while. They have released a few songs that I have quite liked but when I listened to their album there were far more slow songs than the rock out songs which I much preferred. They are definitely a more fun act to see live and I was glad I got their early enough to see them. The crowd got right into them as they smashed through their hits Alligator Skin, Gather Yourselves and my favourite The Answer.
I was shocked at this point to see that some of the crowd left before Blacklistt had come on. It was a Thursday night in the capital but I still expected a better turn out. This was first time at the James Cabaret and I was very impressed with the venue and glad to see that they are getting a lot of bigger band bookings. The following night was another Wellington show in the Hutt Valley which I suspect was far better attended being a Friday night show.
This was the first time I had seen Blacklistt since the release of the new album I was interested how much of the new material would be included in the set list. At an estimate I think they played about ninety percent of the new album and a load of the old songs from the Blindspott days. I have always loved this band live and they went down a treat for all those that were there. We even got an encore of the last song from the new album the song Reflections. These guys never fail to deliver and give a full on energy driven performance that leaves the crowd calling for more. The pit went wild for tracks like Burn and From The Blindspott from the new album and went over the top for some of the older tracks like Suffocate and Lit Up. Their latest single Home bought the lighters out and the crowd singing enthusiastically.
I always love seeing this band and so glad they regrouped and continued to bring those songs to us. This is Kiwi rock at its best. Bring on the next tour.
Featuring 4 of the 5 original members of Blindspott.