Neck Deep, Auckland NZ, 2018

Neck Deep

21st March 2018
The Tuning Fork, Auckland, New Zealand.

Review by Courtney Newbold. Photography by Lara Marie.

Let’s start with kudos for the all ages shows.

Arriving at 7pm, I was all geared up for an opening act…

The odd thing about tonight I sadly discovered moments later was that there was no opening act, just a ‘DJ’. This was a disappointingly missed opportunity for local bands to play, considering I could spot at least a handful of local bandmembers in the audience.

Where this DJ was though I was a tad unsure, did he or she exist or had someone chosen a playlist on their iPhone? It’s okay though because we got two thirds of Darude’s Sandstorm at the end of the set…

Pop punk gigs always have great atmospheres. You usually get the fun of a mosh pit, with a little toned down aggression; we can be angry, but not enough to injure someone. The venue seems well utilized, allowing all ages but also a bar. All we needed was pizza really.

Neck Deep to me sits in their genre so well; when I think of the pop-punk sound, I think of Neck Deep. Formed in 2012 the Welsh five piece are situated in that beautiful spot where they aren’t too poppy to be commercial high selling pop punk, but they still have pop-derived melodies and chord progressions that make us feel so good, without the sell-out vibe.  I feel the fans have a sense of kinship and individuality in seeing a show like this, that they might not feel when seeing someone like Fall Out Boy for example.

Neck Deep was obviously stoked with the growth of the audience since the last time they were in the country; Ben hilariously pointing out that the Welsh are also called sheep shaggers. And of course, they promised to come back to New Zealand soon.

Kicking the set off with ‘Judgement Day’ we were treated to a selection of tracks that included crowd favourites ‘Motion Sickness’ and ‘In Bloom’ from their latest album The Peace and the Panic

A crowd request for the band to take their shirts off was reacted to with a light hearted but emphatic “no”.

Neck Deep had great energy, Ben Barlow matching his recorded vocals well live, and giving an enthusiastic performance, holding out the microphone to the crowd during points of the set for them to sing along.

The band had their synchronized jumping down and of course, the guitarists singing along with Barlow, guiding the crowd, who knew every word regardless. Drummer Dani Washington beaming through the whole set.

For a band with a young performance life, they were tight and skilled both in showmanship and musical technicality.

Ending their set on ‘Where Do We Go’, one of their newer tracks and in my opinion, the catchiest, and the crowd went nuts.

Let’s hope it’s not too long til their next visit to our shores!

Were you there at The Tuning Fork for this fun Pop Punk gig? Or have you seen Neck Deep perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!

Setlist:

1. Judgement Day
2. Lime Street
3. Gold Steps
4. Motion Sickness
5. What Did You Expect
6. Kali Ma
7. Rock Bottom
8. Citizens of Earth
9. Don’t Wait
10. Parachute
11. In Bloom
12. December
13. Can’t Kick Up The Roots [Encore]
14. Where Do We Go When We Go [Encore]

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