Seether
31st May 2018
The Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Matt Henry Mendonca.
On the eve of New Zealand’s first official day of winter, the South African trio of Seether descended upon Auckland’s Town Hall to raise the fan’s temperatures with their third and final New Zealand show. Touring their latest – and easily one of their heaviest – albums Poison the Parish it was great to see a band acknowledge the fact that their longevity equates to a cross-generational fan base; the show tonight being all ages.
Following a blistering set from hometown hero’s Skinny Hobo’s (who are incidentally in the middle of their debut album release tour – go check them out at a city near you soon!) which included a surprise cover of ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ by the superlative English rock band Muse and the crowd were almost holding their breath in anticipation of the arrival of Seether.
Last here in 2015 as part of the Isolate and Medicate tour, the trio appear to have only grown stronger both musically and performance wise. Arriving on stage to rapturous applause, Seether got straight down to it with ‘Stoke the Fire’ which is not only the opening track from their latest album but is also the track that they have decided will finally take over from crowd favourite ‘Gasoline’ as set opener… for a while at least. As stated by drummer John Humphrey in a recent interview, the band had been looking for a track that would have that same ferocity and drive as ‘Gasoline’ and ‘Stoke the Fire’ being John’s current favourite track is it! And it certainly set the crowd alight, fans both old and new simultaneously throwing their bodies into the song as they packed out the great hall. Of course they couldn’t just discard ‘Gasoline’, instead using it to take that initial frenzy of the opener and amplifying it by ten.
Appearing as a four piece tonight – Corey Lowery of Dark New Day and Saint Asonia fame joining them on this tour to add that extra weight to the guitar section – Seether pulled absolutely no punches; delivering their live tracks with raw energy. Here is a band that does not rely on bells or whistles or stage gimmicks; hell here is a band that refuses to even use tracks when performing live, preferring their live experiences to be honest and real in every shape and form. Spread across the stage in a simple line with Humphreys bringing up the rear behind a spectacular looking kit; lead vocalist Shaun Morgan kept to the left hand side of the stage, preferring to let bassist Dale Stewart take the front and centre position. While a little disappointing for those on the opposite far side – Morgan’s cavernous vocals with just the right amount of a gravelled edge certainly made up for it. Morgan who can certainly play up for the cameras on some of their music videos [if you haven’t already, check out ‘Betray & Degrade’] prefers to just stand and deliver when it comes to show time. For many bands this would work against them, but the sheer vitality and power of much of Seether’s work ensures that instead the crowd are swept up in the live experience itself. And besides, watching the crowd as they swelled, breaking against the barriers and evening out before the next killer track it was easy to see that Seether know exactly what they are doing.
Intermixing their set with ageless tracks such as ‘Truth’ from Karma and Effect and ‘Rise Above’ from the album Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces along with tracks from their more recent albums such as ‘Save Today’ from Isolate and Medicate, Seether then threw a glorious curveball in the form of ‘Driven Under’ from their very first album, Fragile, released in 2000. While most fans would recognise it from the album Disclaimer (for which it was re-recorded) those true day one fans celebrated it as one of the stand out tracks recorded by Seether when they still performed under the name of Saron Gas. Either way the song was beyond huge – the crowd threatening to drown out the band themselves with their impassioned execution of the words.
As the set grew in intensity so too did the stage lighting, at some points it was almost blinding as the back lighting cut across the crowd and was interspersed with strobing that gave a sideshow haunted house effect to the figures on stage as they tilted their heads to consider the fans before them. The eye of the storm however soon presented itself as bassist Dale Stewart took to a chair with an acoustic guitar – many of the more romantically inclined audience members sighing as they realised what was coming next; Morgan’s delivery of ‘Broken’ as always a heart-wrenching affair despite the song now reaching its sixteenth year milestone.
But it was but a brief moment of calm as Seether once again raged upon the stage for their final tracks of the evening; Morgan pausing briefly before the finale to thank both the audience and the Skinny Hobo’s before musing about the venue itself and how appropriate it would be for one of them to don a half mask and play out the role of Phantom of the Opera… Indeed with the looming town hall organ behind them and the stunning architecture of the building itself, the venue certainly added to the overall potency of the night.
Finishing on the tantalizing guitar driven bars of ‘Remedy’ the fans gave Seether everything they had and they in turn did the same; judging by the grins around the room both parties feeling well and truly sated.
Seether:
Skinny Hobos:
Were you there at the Auckland Town Hall for this epic rock gig? Or have you seen Seether perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Stoke the Fire
- Gasoline
- Let You Down
- Truth
- Rise Above This
- Betray and Degrade
- Words as Weapons
- Save Today
- Driven Under
- Country Song
- Fine Again
- Broken (Acoustic)
- Nobody Praying for Me
- Fake It
- Remedy
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