C.R. Avery
4th August 2023
Common Room, Hastings, New Zealand.
Review by Rob Harbers, photography by Chris Morgan.
Fuck me! Mind Blown!!!
Canadian sound sensation C.R. Avery is blazing through Aotearoa on a mission to meet the people, and is absolutely one to see – with his electric and eclectic fusion of performance poetry, beatboxing, literate wordsmithing and pure passion!
Leading out the night, setting the stage for what was to follow, were a trio of poets: Ahuriri’s Jeremy Roberts, Whakatane’s Ronna Grace Funtelar, and Tāmaki Makaurau’s Shane Hollands. Three quite different styles, melding together beautifully in joint service of the muse. I’m not going to single out any one of them, in fear of alienating the others – suffice to say they were all very entertaining, each with their own power.
The man of the hour then made his entry, proceeding to hold an appreciative audience in the palm of his hand, enraptured as they were by his explosive delivery. Leading off was an edit/remix of Tom Waits’ “Big In Japan”, delivered via harmonica and the power of a human beatbox, putting all present on notice that they were about to see something truly special indeed!
From that spectacular opening, we were then transported to The Big Easy, for an intensely lyrical tale ranging far and wide in its inspiration and sources, and ultimately a celebration of the history, power, and potential of music itself in drawing people together across the divides which the world would seek to impose.
The rest of the set was similarly peripatetic, picking up inspiration and influence from a diversity of places to create an end product that’s almost impossible to categorise. Perhaps best might be in his own words of being essentially folk music – but definitely not as you know it. This is folk music in its widest, but most literal sense – the sound of people expressing themselves in the ways they have to hand. While the term carries its own baggage, this definitely ain’t Peter, Paul and Mary! For a sizeable segment of urban populations, their expression has found itself in the rhythms and rhymes of rap and hip-hop, and if they couldn’t afford to buy their instruments they had to be their instruments – hence the rise of the beatbox.
C.R.’s music channels this expression, plus a whole heap more, to create something truly new. This is a music that knows from whence it came, and pays ample tribute to those sources, while forging its own unique path!
In introducing “The Wind is A Speed Reader”, a definition of “Hobo-erotic Hip-hop” was suggested, and that’s probably as good as any, but as with any label one could apply – only captures a fraction of the breadth and depth of this incredibly expansive sound. This is exemplified by the fact that within the next couple of tracks we’re transported to the Delta, where we hear the story of the “Honky-Tonk Parking Lot”.
As with that attempt at labelling, I could spend a lot longer trying to capture and define the nature of this beast, and not even get close-far better if you take it from me that this is something truly exceptional, that will stretch your expectations in the finest of ways. This was only the second date in the tour, so there are plenty more opportunities to catch on as it wends its way around the motu – if you can, go along! Take an open mind along and get it filled with new things, and while you’re at it, encounter a beautiful soul. And then tell all your friends what they missed, so that we can convince him to come back again on a bigger scale – this time round is but the spark of what should be a much larger conflagration!
Were you there at the Common Room for this magnificent genre-bending gig? Or have you seen C.R. Avery perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Big in Japan
- Motel 50 miles out of town
- The post modern draft dodgers anarchist scrapbook
- Speed reader [poem]
- My bad
- Honky-tonk parking lot
- Maggie’s farm
- Secret Mission [poem]
Note: Ambient Light was provided a pass to review this concert and provided photography. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only.
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