Concert Review: Lake South – The Wine Cellar, September 7, 2019

Lake South performed at The Wine Cellar last night, to celebrate the launch of his sophomore album, ‘Wellington | Te Upoko O Te Ika’, with support by honey-sweet folk group, Fables.

The Wine Cellar might not have been the optimal venue for last night’s performance by Lake South, which saw the musician celebrating the launch of his sophomore album with a set that proved – unthinkably – both too intimate and powerful. It was a lesson in the importance of venue layout, sound engineering, and anticipating your crowd, which led to a gig that sometimes worked and other times felt painfully misguided.

This worked well for opening act, Fables, who took to the stage a little later than expected due to the quietly shuffling crowd slowly filling the room and taking their time to find seats. Lead vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Jess Bailey, addressed the crowd to let them know there were four empty seats up front that they could take ‘to get cosy’, which was indicative of the mellow folk vibe that would follow in her set.

Accompanied by supporting musicians on the clarinet, mandolin, and bodhrán, Bailey’s voice was immediately captivating, combining a soulful depth and effortless sweetness that tied in nicely with the nostalgic imagery of her lyrics. Opening number, Clementine, saw Bailey trying to stir the crowd to a slightly higher energy level, imploring the seated audience to sing along and harmonise with the group.

It was probably asking a little too much of the crowd at that early moment, but Bailey continued to persevere through the lukewarm contribution until both sides of the venue were contributing a restrained hum of support. While the first three songs of their set made excellent use of the mandolin, the second half included alternating bodhrán, which added to the overall tone of Fables’ sound; honey-dripped golden nostalgia folk that never felt pretentious or manufactured.

Bailey engaged with the crowd through momentary stories and insight into her lyrics and songwriting process, finally warming up the slightly sedated energy in the room with a story about the song Mini Bar, which saw the crowd harmlessly chuckling along at her use of the term ‘peephole’ in describing a hotel-door viewer. Her banter with the crowd was reflective of the set itself – playful, earnest, and undeniably wholesome – while closing numbers Someone I Know and Where You Are, I Am, displayed more of the short, catchy narratives and poetic observations that make up much of her lyrics.

The main issue this presented was the contrast the crowd would see shortly afterward with Lake South taking to the stage. Where Fables felt like a perfect reflection of the largely seated and placid crowd, Lake South felt like a sudden contrast to the energy in the room. This was exacerbated by wildly inconsistent sound engineering during the first two songs which, thankfully, the singer-songwriter addressed and partially fixed immediately.

Much of the setlist was from Lake South’s new album, Wellington | Te Upoko O Te Ika, with the musician accompanied on stage by Eddie Crawshaw, who spent the first and last songs on bass guitar, and otherwise drifted to the back of the stage and blissfully added live drums to the synth-infused, bass-heavy dream-pop set. Unfortunately, there just didn’t seem to be enough cohesion between the songs, musicians, or the style of the performance as a whole.

This was evident from the third track, Brock and Dundas (Debt/Doubt), which opened with the type of manufactured sound you hear in an insurance commercial – one that ends with a sepia shot of a youthful, smiling crowd dancing in slow-motion – but suddenly built into an overlapping collection of electronica sounds and pounding drums that induced the ethereal magic of early Sigur Rós. This kind of inconsistency was slightly frustrating in the sense that I could never completely fall away into the mood or tone of the performance – one minute I was almost falling asleep from the repetitiveness of the lyrics and concrete-mixing levels of bass, the next I was swept away by a combination of Phoenix, Parov Stelar, College & Electric Youth, and Death In Vegas.

As the set moved into its second half, the mismatch of a largely seated crowd with music designed to make you sway and dance became clearly apparent, as the Bloc Party-inspired tune, Cost of Living, saw a small collection of eager fans doing their best to enjoy themselves in the aisles between the seated sections. With the wall of bass still hammering the crowd away from the stage, there wasn’t much they could do but show their appreciation at a distance – this was definitely music the crowd wanted to hear, it just felt as though they were being prevented from doing so.

Overall, it was an unfortunate set that was marred by low crowd energy and unsuitable venue layout. Was it an art performance gig that we were supposed to respectfully sit and watch and politely applaud? Or was it a high-energy, emotionally intense electro-pop gig that commanded people to dance? Was it supposed to be an intimate exploration and reflection of a unique New Zealand artist, with everyday familiarity infused with poetic clarity? I still can’t tell.

The result left me feeling that we missed out on the best parts of what Lake South can produce in a gig; intimate and personal lyrics that were instead lost under a sea of noise, and an imbalance in genres that I could never find consistency in, despite feeling momentarily and immediately comparative to some of the most unique voices across that mix of genres.

From the sincere and genuine manner Lake South used when addressing the crowd, I’m adamant there is more to this performer than we saw last night, where an opportunity to absorb the profound depth of his lyrics and nuances of his sound might have revealed more than simply momentary glimpses of unique brilliance lost under a wall of imbalanced noise.

~Oxford Lamoureaux

Fables Setlist
Clementine
The Line
Only Roses
Mini Bar
Someone I Know
Where You Are, I Am

Lake South Setlist (partial)
 
Brock & Dundas (Debt/Doubt)
Ellice Street (One Story)
Island Bay
Wellington/Te Whanganui A Tara
Cost of Living
South Coast
Holloway Road

Click any image below to view a gallery from Veronica McLaughlin

Lake South

Fables