Andrew Keoghan – Tuning Fork April 28, 2017

 

Now living in Los Angeles, Kiwi musician Andrew Keoghan has been back in New Zealand for a while now, visiting family and friends, making music and performing live. He closed out his Something Going On Tour with a show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork.

Regular visitors to the Tuning Fork will have noticed something different about the venue tonight…a large black curtain was draped across the room, separating the performance area from the bar. This had the effect of making the room feel a bit more cosy, while offering up an area for those inclined to have a conversation while the music is playing to do their thing without annoying the rest of us.

Tonight’s opening act was Madeira, aka Kim Pflaum, formerly of Yumi Zouma.

Her’s was mixed bag. While I enjoyed the songs and guitar playing and her Statue Of Liberty-esque outfit, Madeira’s vocals left something to be desired. She wandered off-pitch often…possibly due to problems with monitors or perhaps she was distracted by also playing keyboards and guitar. Whatever it is, she should definitely address it as she mentioned that she is heading over to the UK to gain some exposure overseas.

Andrew Keoghan had no such problems. He possess a strong, almost operatic voice, that easily glides from falsetto and back again.

Tonight he was accompanied by long-time drummer Alistair Deverick and Tiny Ruins bassist Cass Basil. Both added good value to Keoghan’s already impressive songs and performance chops.

They began with Running, from Andrew’s second, and most recent album, Every Orchid Offering and then served up a dramatic reading of the album’s title track, with Keoghan gesturing and conducting.

Next was Arctic Tales Divide, one of the few tunes we heard from the first album of the same name. This one really got the audience’s attention, thanks to Cass’s funky bassline. The result sounded like a meeting of The Smiths with Stop Making Sense-era Talking Heads.

That vibe continued through When A Lover Comes Back To You and No Simple Doll…the latter an apparent last minute addition to the set list, and a good one, with Cass chiming in on harmony vocals and Andrew and Cass playing back to back, leaning on each other.

Andrew then introduced Cass as, “my new dance partner”.

After They Don’t Want A Boyfriend, Auckland vocalist Jessie Cassin was invited to the stage and she and Andrew duetted on Stuck In Melodies. Jessie remained on stage for the remainder of the set and she was much appreciated.

Andrew loves to punctuate his lyrics with “yeah, yeah, yeah yeahs”, or “bup, bup, bup bups” and Cass and Jessie’s vocalizing filled out the sound nicely.

The set finished with a shimmering Everything and Andrew returned, solo and with acoustic guitar for Spots On The Leaves, wrapping things up in just under an hour.

I will say that by the last two songs Andrew and the band were really hitting their stride, so it seemed a shame that they finished up so soon…but hey, better to leave the audience wanting more that to overstay your welcome.

Marty Duda

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

Andrew Keoghan set list:

1. Running
2. Every Orchid Offering
3. Arctic Tales Divide
4. When A Lover Comes Back To You
5. No Simple Doll
6. They Don’t Want A Boyfriend
7. Won’t Let You Go
8. Stuck In Melodies
9. Something Going On
10. Queues At Dani Keys
11. Everything
12. Spots On The Leaves