The new improvised show format from the Auckland indie darlings is chaotic, hilarious and artistically impressive.
The Beths have a problem: Liz Stokes refuses to write a bad song. After four critically-acclaimed albums and a handful of limited releases, the New Zealand indie darlings have developed a back catalogue with an almost impossible level of consistency – they may not have a mainstream hit single, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any tracks that can be defined as a miss. That makes it awfully hard to write a set list.
After wrapping up their four-continent tour for their fourth album, Straight Line Was a Lie, the four-piece group were back in Tāmaki Makaurau for a quick breather before heading off again on a 22-stop tour through the United States. At The Hollywood Avondale on Tuesday, the band performed a test show for the new format they’ll be employing on this next tour: ‘By Request’, an improvised show with a setlist chosen by members of the audience.
The sold-out show attracted a multi-generational crowd, ranging from retirees to parents bringing a five-year-old to their first gig. The merchandise they wore from past tours was evidence of what a loyal following they’ve amassed in their 12 years of existence. It was my fourth time seeing The Beths but I got absolutely Bethsmoggged by some of the fans around me, one of whom was attending her 15th show.
As we arrived, each attendee received a token to vote between two options for the opener (‘Knees Deep’ or ‘Out of Sight’). ‘No Joy’ was the non-negotiable closer. But everything in between was left up to the crowd.
Everyone was handed a coloured piece of paper to write their request on (no covers) and instructed to fold it into a paper plane. After the band donned protective goggles, a kaleidoscope of paper projectiles rained down upon them. The first five planes the band caught went straight up onto the blackboard at the back of the stage.
The result was an opening segment that jumped chaotically between the soulful harmonies of ‘Do You Want Me Now’ to the slower, emotionally vulnerable ‘Jump Rope Gazers’, to harder-rocking ‘Less Than Thou’, featuring a shredding solo from guitarist Jonathan Pearce and repeated screams of “let me out! Let me out!”.
“Those were some interesting key and tempo changes,” bass guitarist Benjamin Sinclair dryly noted. It certainly wasn’t the song order they’d script for themselves, but strangeness made it all the more memorable.
The middle section of the show was decided by throwing a large plush toy fish around the crowd. Whoever caught it could pick a song by speaking into a microphone inside the fish’s mouth. After someone asked to hear ‘Whatever’, drummer Tristan Deck replied “oh, so we can play any song we want?” to a mixture of laughs and groans.
Then, a tombola was rolled out on stage filled with coloured balls. Each ball they plucked out represented a different way of deciding who got to pick the next song: the tallest person in the crowd, the person who had seen them live the most times, anyone attending their first gig.
“We’re trying some hectic shit,” Stokes said, before apologising (twice) for swearing. The band fished around on stage for other paper planes. Someone who had turned their paper plane into an origami swan caught Stokes’ attention. Another was picked for its impressive calligraphy.
The only song that got denied was ‘Rush Hour 3’ (Stokes has said previously that the band doesn’t play it anymore because it was written by former drummer Ivan Luketina-Johnston). Anyone who tried yelled requests at the band was ignored entirely.
One of the great appeals of this format is the amount of crowd interaction it allows. The Beths have always been a likeable bunch – earnest and polite with a touch of Kiwi awkwardness. The weirdness of this format took their wholesome stage presence and gave them room to be funnier and more entertaining.
More than anything, this show is a testament to everything The Beths have achieved as a band. There are only a handful of artists in the world with the depth of quality songs and audience loyalty to pull off something like this. Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and Pearl Jam have employed similar (though not as loose) request-based formats, but they’re legacy acts who have been touring for decades. The members of The Beths are in their mid-30s and still growing into their artistic primes. Hopefully, for the sake of the fans who couldn’t be at The Hollywood on Tuesday, they have a long future ahead of them.
