It has been twelve long years since Garbage last graced our shores and expectations were high on a rain drenched Wednesday night. What was delivered not only met but exceeded those expectations tenfold.
Auckland Town Hall was already bristling with hundreds of fans as local support act Lips took the stage.
Fronted by the incredible Steph Brown, an APRA winner who makes multitasking look easy as she sings and plays keyboards from which she elicits the craziest of sounds.
Lips was a side project created while she was living in New York in 2010.
The four-piece which includes Fen Ikner (Calexico, The Shondes) and Ruby Walsh (Dateline, Exploding Rainbow Orchestra) are favourites in the K’Rd music scene, Lips shows always bringing something different and their performances leaving one feeling elated.
Kicking off their set with That’s Just How It Is, Lips laid down an impressive nine track set that included Everything to Me, which (rightly so) won a silver scroll. The dreamy nature of it making it a favourite of many, including EDM duo Adventure Club who remixed it.
Steph is quite enchanting and always on point, her ability to move seamlessly from a whisper to full-bodied vocals always wildly impressive, her presence ensuring that eyes remain locked in her direction.
Garbage made the right choice when selecting their opener.
As the lights dropped just past nine, the Town hall was groaning at the seams, all those in attendance locked in and awaiting the arrival of the Godmother of Rock, a collective roar emanating from the floor of the venue as the members of Garbage took up their respective places and Shirley Manson strode out in a killer black and silver detailed combo. Her bleach blonde hair slicked back into ponytail.
She prowled the stage like a panther, demonstrating before even uttering a single word, why Garbage has endured and is still selling out shows thirty years later with the original line-up intact.
Their latest album Let All That We Imagine Be the Light has just been released, so it was only fitting that they began with something from it.
There’s No Future in Optimism the alt Rockers throwing down the atmospheric song with its epic layers and production quality, live, without barely batting an eyelid.
Moving into Hold also from the new album, they only upped the ante, the entire construction of the song, with a distorted melody and Manson hitting those higher registers, before the guitars add in that delicious little micro-pause between riffs which ensure that the track just has a little more bite. It was fantastic to see such new material play out live.
Pulling out one from the archives to appease the masses, I Think I’m Paranoid saw the room burst into life as those down in GA, pogoed, fists punching the air.
Manson taking the time out afterwards to express just how much New Zealand as a country means to them, with the band already having been here almost a week prior to the concert.
She spoke of how the whole trip and performance were probably the last time they would ever headline a show in Aotearoa and that the prior week has meant so much to them, even going so far as to say that it has been healing, and that the only way that they can show their gratitude is with their music.
Jumping in the Dr Who Tardis Manson joked, Garbage took the audience back to 1995 for Vow, following it up with Run Baby Run from the 2005 Bleed Like Me album, Manson soon imparting some anecdotes of how she will never conform to what society, nor a record label wants.
You can only be who you are – who you are comfortable with.
The record label stating that the album would never succeed – Garbage instead walking away victorious when it debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, a career high.
Stepping back to their debut album, Not My Idea saw Duke Erikson and Steve Marker bring it home, supported rather excitingly by none other than bassist Nicole Fiorentino of Smashing Pumpkins fame, who was stationed just to the right of Butch Vig’s drums.
For those who live and breathe music, just being in the same room as Vig is a thrill in itself, the bona fide legend having not only worked with some of the greatest musicians of our time, but he has also produced several of their albums, including Nirvana’s Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins life changing Siamese Dream and the 90’s throat punch that was L7’s Bricks Are Heavy.
And at seventy he can still smash out an almost two-hour set with ease.
#1 Crush from everybody’s favourite motion picture soundtrack Romeo + Juliet set the crowd alight, the structure of the song updated a little, the lighting really leaning into its colour palettes and shadow work against the exquisite backdrop that is the Town Hall.
Manson had many things to say last night, there was almost an urgency to the nature of it, like she needed the people before her, from a country who she felt connected to, to know what was inside her head.
Manson spoke of how society should be ashamed of how we treat older women and that she wanted every young woman in the room to get wise to the game, to hold the middle finger high to any patriarchal views of how they should look, act, or feel.
Manson is a good example of someone who has always been and will always be their authentic selves, regardless of who has a problem with it.
She also took a moment to speak on how the LGBTQIA+ community in the USA was being attacked, especially the trans community and that if you allow your governments to condemn a person for who they are, if you are complicit in their heinous act, then you too will soon find yourself condemned by that same authority.
Dedicating Queer to the trans community, Kiwis showed how emphatically they agreed by howling the lyrics back to Manson who looked pleased as she continued to work the entirety of the stage.
A quick-fire round of classics that included When I Grow Up, Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) and Push It which sent the room into a frenzy saw temperatures rise, many in the audience by this point moving together as one.
Finishing the set with another from the latest album, the synth Pop feel of The Day That I Met God had a familiarity to it, reminiscent of early Pink Floyd guitar work, the sound easily slotting into many of the soundtracks across the world.
The encore game was played, fans happily buying into it and using it as a chance to get primed for what was undoubtedly going to be an encore of classics.
Manson smiled, her silver and black eyeliner, making her blue eyes even more piercing than usual as she returned to the stage. That smile only widening as she accepted a dazzling disco ball necklace from a member of the audience named Mel and popped it around her neck.
Stupid Girl sauntered about the room, flicking its hair back over its shoulder with a cutting laugh, Garbage choosing to finish on Only Happy When It Rains which was rather poetic considering the day Auckland had experienced weather wise.
The entire hall came together as one, belting out the lyrics as Manson pointed the microphone at them, the guitars amping it up, to ensure the finale was emblazoned across the very foundations of the venue.
It may well be the last time Aotearoa ever sees Garbage live again, but what a way to say goodbye, authentically themselves to the very end.
Sarah Kidd
All photos by Greg Haver.
