Georgia Lines
16th May 2022
Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Alexis Brook. Photography by Doug Peters.
The grand foyer of the Auckland War Memorial Museum is truly a stunning place to spend an evening. Last night featured two fantastic singer-song writers – Georgia lines (featuring members from the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra) and opening the evening was Cassie Henderson. This was the first music event at the museum since August 2021, so anticipations were very high indeed.
As the crowd milled around bar leaners and snuggled on cushions scattered around the floor, gathering with friends once more was a reason to keep the food and wine flowing.
Kicking off the night was Cassie Henderson, an ex teenage X-Factor artist who in my opinion is well worthy of dropping that moniker and promoting herself on her own current merits. Cassie has a voice that envelops you and brings you into her lyrical world quite easily whether she is strumming along to guitar or coaxing from behind the piano.
Cassie wowed us all with some very catchy tunes such as the opening track ‘Tainted’ and ‘Complacent’ (which has found over 1.4 million views on TikTok and rising), although I particularly enjoyed “Level 59” in which told a tale about a party, fireworks, lost love and being fine in the New Year. It was a pity it was such a short set and I look forward to seeing a few more songs from her in a live venue again soon hopefully!
Like a Siren luring sailors ever closer, the audience was brought back from the intermission clutching to every note of Georgia Lines’ a cappella intro. While for speech the acoustics make things a little muddy to hear well, music rings and echoes joyfully around this grand atrium and has everyone’s attention.
Georgia is masterful behind the piano, and her storytelling is a treat, smattered with nervous talk and anecdotes about how organised she usually is – arriving to gigs early, meticulously planned set lists and ensuring everything is in order, when recently in the airport she found herself being called over the airport speakers (her worst nightmare, apparently) – “Georgia Lines, please go to the gate immediately, your plane is ready to depart”, she gathers her belongings, and hurries to the gate with the worry about being faced with frustrated passengers with their arms folded… only to step on to the plane to find one of her songs being played in the cabin. What a treat indeed.
Confident in a lime-green suit, Georgia sings from the heart and her songs have tender stories to tell, such as “Leave Behind” a song about losing her Poppa, helping the family process through the grief and pack up his belongings, and how this venue put her at ease with all of its architecture, as the columns reminded her of his career as a plasterer. It is funny how certain objects, songs and locations bring back memories of old and for a moment, I’m sure others in the audience joined Georgia in reflecting on loved ones who are now no longer with them.
A planned costume change brings Georgia out to greet all in a sparkling silver dress and the second half of the set includes a moment of audience participation in the bridge to ‘Made For Loving’ and a stunning duet with Cassie Henderson in a cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘When the Party’s Over’ which was thoroughly enjoyable! I really do hope they do some more collaborative work in the future as their timbre and harmonies worked great together.
I’ve not mentioned the APO musicians, however they were ever present and their strings resonated and entwined around Georgia’s lyrics in a very symbiotic way. I’m pleased that members of the APO had the opportunity to perform tonight – performing arrangements by Josh, we had Harrison on the Harp, Jacky on Cello, Christine and Lauren on the Violin.
Closing the evening was the sublime ‘Hine E Hine’, which many of us know as the “Good Night, Kiwi” song – heralding the end of transmission. Georgia’s contralto tones are utterly soothing and it was a great closer to the evening, tucking us all in bed and wishing us a good rest.
I’ve missed music at the museum, and I’m thrilled that events are slowly starting to appear on the horizon. Get out there, if you can, mask & all. The musicians are all waiting to show you what they’ve been up to for the past two years!
Were you there at the Auckland Museum for this magnificent NZ Music Month gig? Or have you seen Georgia Lines perform live some other time? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Set List:
- Falling
- No One Knows
- Never Had Love
- Leave Behind
- Same Things
- Call Me By My Name
- When The Party’s Over (feat. Cassie Henderson) [Billie Eilish cover]
- Made For Loving
- My Love
- Hine E Hine [Princess Te Rangi Pai cover]
Note: Ambient Light was provided passes to review and photograph this concert. 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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