My Baby – The Kings Arms January 13, 2017

 

With summer finally seeming to arrive in Auckland, at least temporarily, Dutch trio My Baby kept the heat turned up at The Kings Arms on this Friday The 13^th eve.

Based in Amsterdam, My Baby consists of brother and sister team, Joost and Cato Van Dijk, with Joost on drums, percussion and backing vocals and Cato singing lead and playing violin and rhythm guitar. Rounding out the trio is Kiwi-born guitarist Daniel De Vries.

The band’s stock in trade is very danceable voodoo blues. This is their fourth tour of New Zealand and judging by the size of the crowd at The Kings Arms, they are making good progress in building a strong following here.

Things were running late at the KA, which turned out to be a good thing as I was able to catch most of opening act the Solomon Cole Band’s set. The quartet plays a nice combination of rock and soul with vocalist Sophia Faalogo proving to be a commanding presence on stage.

It was 11pm by the time the headliners appeared.

Finally it was announced, “My Baby is here and how happy she is to be here!”

They immediately got down to business, laying down an infectious groove to Wilson Pickett’s Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do). While Joost provided the beat, his sister added a sultry vocal and Daniel threw out bluesy slide guitar licks.

The rest of the set featured the band’s own compositions beginning with Remedy, the single from their most recent album, 2015’s Shamanaid. The tune quickly became hypnotic as Cato sang, “your melody melody melody is my remedy, over and over.

By now the crowd and the band were locked in and the dancing was none stop.

“Are you ready for some trance boogie?” Cato asked as they kicked into Mad Mountain Thyme.

After Money Man, Joost introduced Voodoo Ceremony… “a little ritual that we always do”, which gave him a further opportunity to show off his percussive chops.

The band has a new album in the can and previewed their next single, Love Dance, letting Cato channel the spirit of Donna Summer and I Feel Love.

Uprising featured a stinging guitar solo from Daniel and finally, 90 minutes after the began, Seeing Red closed out the set with some lowdown gutbucket blues riffs along with that ever-present dance beat.

Sadly, I had to leave before the encore, but I feel Cato summed up the evening perfectly as she sang the lyrics to Seeing Red…”My Baby has got me shouting voodoo!”

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Chris Zwaagdyk:

My Baby set list:

1. Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won’t Do)
2. Remedy
3. Electrified
4. Mad Mountain Thyme
5. Money Man
6. Voodoo Ceremony
7. No Depression
8. Love Dance
9. Uprising
10. Juno Moneta
11. Seeing Red