A simple show, executed flawlessly. Mad Chapman reviews Bic Runga at Auckland Town Hall.
To score a perfect 10 in gymnastics, a gymnast must construct a routine that is exceptionally difficult yet achievable, then complete it flawlessly. A perfect 10 routine very rarely includes the most difficult gymnastics moves, just very difficult moves executed perfectly. With that scoring mechanism in place, Bic Runga performed a perfect show at Auckland Town Hall on Friday.
The routine was beautifully simple: Perform her sophomore album Beautiful Collision from start to finish. What made it exceptionally difficult is the fact that Beautiful Collision is a stunning album, traversing a range of musical genres, that was released 20 years ago. So the real challenge for Runga was to perform a 20-year-old album front to back without it sounding like someone performing music two decades after recording it.
At first I was surprised that it was a seated gig. Auckland Town Hall works well as a hybrid venue, with singer-songwriters able to perform to standing crowds without the awkwardness of fans standing stock still (my most recent experience was a lovely, comfortable and largely swaying crowd for Aldous Harding). But it soon became apparent that Runga was essentially recreating the original album-listening experience. That is, sitting in a car or in a lounge or in a bedroom, listening to the whole thing and maybe having a little silent cry.
And it worked. Every song was followed by the exact song you expected, something I always find disorientating in concerts when songs from disparate albums and different eras are juxtaposed. Instead, ‘Get Some Sleep’ flowed into ‘Something Good’ into ‘Precious Things’ into one of the highlights of the night, ‘The Be All and End All’. Performing a full album is a deceptively simple format that underplays how few albums could hold up a live show when played in order, how enduring Beautiful Collision is, and how embedded Runga is in the collective hearing of Aotearoa.
As an audience, it skewed very much people-who-bought-the-album-in-2023. I did not buy the album as I was nine years old at the time, but one of my older siblings did, and for a period it soundtracked everything that happened in the downstairs of our house (upstairs was Mum’s radio playing the breeze and therefore also playing Runga).
Playing with a four-piece band, including partner Kody Nielson on the drums, Runga stood alone at the front of stage, comfortable and chatty between songs. She joked about the “identity crisis” that happened throughout the making of the album and explains the different genres within it. She spoke as many would about their 20s – fondly and gently but happy to never be that age again. There were moments, particularly in ‘Something Good’, where her voice strained on the high notes. A slight wobble but never enough to dock a point.
Halfway through the show (and most of the way through the album), Runga sang another classic, ‘Listening for the Weather’. The moment she played those first notes on the harmonica, a woman strode down the side aisle and along to the front of the stage. She stood there and danced, turning only to motion enthusiastically to the strangers behind her to join. In many instances, that woman would have been left alone. But three other women stood up from different rows, shuffled in front of their seat neighbours and danced. They weren’t so much dancing with each other as dancing alone, next to each other. Back down the side aisle, a couple out on a date stood and slow-danced in the shadows.
When Runga reemerged for an encore (after a genuine encore chant, bleakly rare these days), she played Sway. It wasn’t from the Beautiful Collision album but Runga knew there were some songs she’d have to play no matter what the show’s format was. The dancing women sprang back up and moved again, alone but together. Watching from up in the circle, I felt like I was at a small party, having one last drink and watching the more lively revellers make the most of the night. There was nothing flashy or new or overly ambitious about Runga’s show. But she did exactly what she intended to, flawlessly. A perfect 10.