Albi & The Wolves – Tuning Fork November 18, 2017

Auckland’s very own Albi & The Wolves moved The Tuning Fork to dance last night with a rousing set of down-to-earth folk and Americana. On a rainy Saturday night they warmed the room with a set steeped in musical communal tradition, without ever feeling stale despite their reliance on familiar folk-rock idioms.

The opening act is well worthy of mention first, though to call them an opening act seems almost reductive, as they mingled and collaborated with the headliners throughout the night. Hamilton’s country-folk-rockers Looking For Alaska achieved a connection with and response from the audience rarely done by support acts. Their music initially came off as fairly standard sugary country-flavoured folk pop, though elevated by some nice electric guitar playing from guitarist/vocalist Aaron Gott and incredibly strong and on-point vocals from frontwoman Amy Maynard.

Their connection with the headliners was shown when Albi & The Wolves frontman Chris Dent joined them on stage for a song they had written together. This was followed by an emotional performance of Kyle’s Song, from the group’s 2016 self-titled debut album. Maynard explained she had written the song about the tragic death of her young cousin, and dedicated it to her family in attendance that night, at their “coolest” gig to date. The vocalist gave the song her all (which was a lot), and finished to the biggest round of applause and shouts of approval of the night, the half-full venue showing their voices earlier than they had expected to. Next track You Only See Me When You’re Sleeping was another great piece, after which they finished with an energetic cover of Mel Parsons’ Get Out Alive, a song the original artist had played at the same venue less than two weeks earlier. Rarely do a support act receive such vocal protests at leaving the stage.

Albi & The Wolves followed shortly, the guitar-violin-upright bass trio opening gently with Story and Try, two beautiful lilting folk songs, before setting the energy to “barn dance” with the title track from last year’s debut album One Eye Open. Their music is simple and rooted in folk-festival presets enough to seem familiar even to those seeing them for the first time, heavy in vocal harmonies just rough enough to stop short of sugary. They were joined after five songs by the drummer William from Looking For Alaska, who filled out the sound nicely.

Of course it is that crowd-pleasing violin, an instrument instantly evocative of folk community and tradition, that ups the group’s appeal. Pascal Roggen’s five-string electric, played with stunning virtuosity and expression, never lost its immediate charm throughout the entirety of the set. If that wasn’t enough, the physicality with which Roggen threw himself into the playing of his instrument was entertaining in its own right.

The dreamy Fall With You was a nice break in between endless hoe-down Americana cuts like Workin’ Hard, It Ain’t Easy, This Is War and a cover of The Black Keys’ Lonely Boy. The space infront of the stage that had been empty for the first half of the night was soon filled with dancers, revelling in the direct hooks and breakneck rhythms. I certainly preferred their more traditional-leaning compositions to their more contemporary folk-pop pieces (I Will Not Be Broken came a little too close to a Mumford & Sons pastiche for my liking), but the crowd lapped up every note they played, right up to the encore when the group invited most of the members of Looking For Alaska back to the stage for a jubilant cover of The Doobie Brothers’ Long Train Running.

Albi & The Wolves left their audience buzzing with the communal energy that comes with basic and direct folk music played well. I was expecting towards the start of the night to write something involving the word “cliche”, but any last notion of that had dissipated by the end of the set – not because it’s not true, but because it’s not relevant. This is comfort music, steeped in tradition and familiar sonic presets, but still alive, vibrant and satisfying in the moment.

Ruben Mita.

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

 

Looking For Alaska setlist –

 

Lullaby

In The End

Take Me With You

I’d Go Anywhere (with Chris Dent)

Kyle’s Song

You Only See Me When You’re Sleeping

Get Out Alive (Mel Parsons cover)

 

Albi & The Wolves setlist –

 

Story

Try

One Eye Open

I’m Not Free

Something In The Way

Workin’ Hard

Fall With You

Wayfaring Stranger

It Ain’t Easy

This Is War

Lonely Boy (The Black Keys cover)

I Will Not Be Broken

Settle Down

Home

 

encore:

Long Train Running (The Doobie Brothers cover, with Looking For Alaska)