Hiatus Kaiyote – Powerstation July 7, 2022

Hiatus Kaiyote sold out their Tāmaki Makaurau tour stop last night. One of the most excited crowds I have seen in a while filled the very hazy Powerstation for the Mood Valiant album tour.

Jemilah Ross-Hayes (photographer) and I arrived late at the Powerstation and only caught the last song by opening act Estère. Performing solo, she built a song out of samples and live looping, accompanied by very cool dance moves and a fabulous outfit. Sadly, it was hard to hear the lyrics, which is a shame because, after some research, lyrics and language seem to be a focus for Estère. However, the musicality was interesting enough that I will be looking forward to catching her live around Aotearoa sometime in the near future.

Hiatus Kaiyote walks onto the stage without an introduction and half the band is already behind their instruments before the crowd realises and roars into cheers and applause. Unfortunately, their set starts out with some technical difficulties quickly resolved by the attentive sound team and swept under the rug nicely by lead singer and guitarist Naomi Saalfield, known professionally as Nai Palm. 

Keyboard player Simon Mavin introduces their set with Rose Water an incredibly complex amalgamation of rhythms made increasingly hard to follow as the rest of the rhythm section and then vocalists join. It sets the tone for the evening because if I were to describe last night in two words I would have to say it was beautifully confusing. The song finishes on a stunning four-piece harmony outro which is incredibly well-rehearsed and reflected on stage.

Straight out of their epic opening tune, Hiatus Kaiyote drops into my favourite groove on the album, And We Go Gentle. Again, the band keeps an incredibly tight and complicated groove together and I am left wondering how bassist Paul Bender and drummer Perrin Moss make it look so easy.

Approving scrunched up ‘stank faces’, accompanied by the many “ugh” and “yeah” shouts from the crowd, and astonished head shakes confirm it isn’t just me who is positively blown away by the sheer musical genius of the 4 core members, let alone the constant tension and release in harmony brought by the backing vocalists. Let me correct myself for saying backing vocalists here because they were, in all ways, a core part of the band.

Once again, without stopping, the band flows from one song into the next. All The Words We Don’t Say one of the most complicated drum parts on the Mood Valiant album and tour gets approving shouts from the excitable crowd. The band still doesn’t take a break and flows straight from Get Sun through the next two songs before taking their first applause.

The room quiets down as the band “pays respect to the land, to the Māori, to our Whānau.” A deep sense of approval, appreciation, and respect moves through the crowd.

When the band resumes playing I can finally hear the bass properly again and Paul makes the fattest slap-bassline look like child’s play. I have lost count of how many songs we have had so far as the band seamlessly flows from one into the next, consistently slowing down and speeding up to the next tempo, almost as one massive instrument.

Nai Palm says they “expect everyone to fucking everyone to get involved” as the band rings in Red Room, definitely a crowd favourite. The set continues into the next song seamlessly once again and I can only describe it as a concept album beautifully unfolding in right front of you. Simon distorts the synthesizer and plays the incredibly nonsensical yet fitting solo over the most intense breakdown of the set, followed by Perrin’s drum solo that leaves everyone to pick their jaws up afterwards.

Hiatus Kaiyote brought an absolutely insane show to the Powerstation that left me exhausted, overwhelmed, and wondering how these incredible musicians write such complicated music. There was a general sense of awe and respect for the seven talented musicians keeping such a tight and mind-blowing set of songs together. If you have gotten this far into the show’s review, I highly recommend you go and see Hiatus Kaiyote play their beloved songs live, they are immeasurably different from their already fantastic recordings and you won’t mind.

Koen Aldershof

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Jemilah Ross-Hayes: