Billy Bragg, Auckland NZ, 2018

Billy Bragg

21st November 2018
Hollywood Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review & Photography by Sarah Kidd.

It’s rather appropriate that an artist like Billy Bragg is appearing at a venue steeped in history such as the Hollywood Theatre is; built in 1915 she has certainly seen her fair share of changes and it would seem that so has Bragg. Officially titled ‘One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’, Bragg’s Auckland-only solo tour will see him perform three shows over three nights, each one uniquely different. In tonight’s case, Bragg would be performing a selection of work from over his thirty-five-year career.

The sold-out audience hailed their conquering hero as he strode out onto the stage in a simple shirt and dark pants. Picking up his telecaster he looked fresh and relaxed, both his smile and baby blues shining bright. Solo shows can be tough, holding an audience’s attention so that you don’t end up with a layer of chattering cutting through your performance isn’t easy, but as Bragg began with ‘A Lover Sings’ you could have heard a pin drop and that is how his faithful remained for the rest of the evening. Transfixed and deeply appreciative.

Moving into ‘All you Fascists’ and following it up with ‘No Power Without Accountability’ one could sense that there was indeed a theme to tonight’s show. A message that Bragg was conveying through not only his music but his continual repartee with the audience. The English singer-songwriter has long been a political activist, trading in empathy he implores the audience tonight to fight their inner cynic, stating that cynicism is a killer as it halts our ability to care about not only one another but the world we live in and the very environment itself. Nothing illustrated this more than his version of ‘King Tide and The Sunny Day Flood’ which followed a gloriously lilting version of ‘St Swithin’s Day’, Bragg beautifully showing off his folk style vocals.

Anecdotes and history lessons peppered the set, Bragg’s cover of the Woody Guthrie classic ‘Slipknot’ accompanied by his precursory narrative on the history of lynching in the state of Oklahoma bringing a quiet tear to many an eye; Bragg’s statement of how extrajudicial killings of African-American men in the United States is still continuing to this day and why the #BlackLivesMatter movement is so important receiving rousing support from the audience.

Covering a range of topics – some serious, some not – in true Billy Bragg fashion, his supporters were treated to a superlative set of songs including Bragg’s musical acapella rendition of the Thomas Hardy poem ‘The Man He Killed’, as well as his rather topical cover of the Anaïs Mitchell song ‘Why We Build The Wall’. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom, Bragg often having the audience in stitches as he traded banter with the more vocal fans; his ‘Busker’s Choice’ game seeing the audience being given the choice of deciding if Bragg should play either a Bob Dylan cover or a Jackson Five one, Jackson Five winning by a landslide; Bragg’s interpretation of ‘I’ll be There’ resulting in an impromptu singalong.

“Best show I’ve ever seen you do!” declared a front row admirer, Bragg quickly quipping back with a grin that it could all go wrong at any minute. But the enthusiast had a point, Bragg was on form in every shape of the word and obviously in good humour, running a secondary comedy side show with his guitar tech.

The more iconic works of Bragg’s made an appearance in the second half of the set, everything from the brilliant ‘Levi Stubbs Tear’s’ to ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forward’ from his 1988 Workers Playtime album. However, it was ‘There is Power in the Union’, Bragg’s stirring finale that saw the entire theatre break out into thunderous song, the delicate lighting that had been so exquisitely handled throughout the evening deepening to a shade of red.

Despite playing for two hours, the Auckland audience rowdily demanded more, Bragg returning for a three song encore that once again was a mix of the serious – his take on the Bob Dylan classic ‘The Times they are a Changing’ certainly poignant – while ‘Handyman Blues’ gave the men in the room the chance to laugh at themselves while the underlying message that it’s misogyny, not masculinity that’s the problem rang true with all. Of course, ‘A New England’ was always going to close the night out, the 1983 sung by hundreds of voices as one.

With another two shows to follow you would be a fool to miss Bragg, an artist that is as relevant and thought-provoking today as he always has been.

Were you there at the Hollywood Theatre to witness this fabled folk punk legend? Or have you seen Billy Bragg perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Setlist:

1. A Lover Sings
2. All You Fascists
3. No Power Without Accountability
4. St Swithin’s Day
5. King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood
6. Slipknot [Woody Guthrie cover]
7. Sexuality
8. The Man He Killed
9. Between The Wars
10. Why We Build The Wall
11. The Milkman Of Human Kindness
12. I’ll Be There [Jackson 5 cover]
13. Levi Stubbs Tears
14. Greetings To The New Brunette
15. The Midnight Special [Creedence Clearwater Revival cover]
16. The World Turned Upside Down
17. To Have And To Have Not
18. I Keep Faith
19. Waiting For The Great Leap Forward
20. There Is Power In The Union
21. The Times They Are A Changing Back [Bob Dylan cover] [encore]
22. HandyMan Blues [encore]
23. A New England [encore]

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