The Veils, Napier NZ, 2021

The Veils

29th April 2021
Paisley Stage, Napier, New Zealand.

Review by Rob Harbers, Photography by Eileen Potter.

Arguably Napier’s coolest venue, tonight Paisley Stage played host to The Veils, touring a show based around what many regard as the high point of their career, second album “Nux Vomica” and bringing fresh dimensions to well-known material.

The stage was set by openers Purple Pilgrims, made up of sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon, weaving ethereal webs of pure dream pop. Reminiscent of the sound of The Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, and 80s haze-pop, their mix of digital sounds and soprano vocals entranced the attentive amongst the audience, many of whom were probably unfamiliar with them – no doubt making a few new fans (this reviewer, for one!)

The Veils’ set kicked off with Nux Vomica’s opening track “Not Yet” setting an energetic pace, in an extended format allowing for the band to warm up and find their groove. The first portion of the set consisted of a run-through of the album, albeit in a slightly amended running order, and for a set of songs recorded when Finn was just 20 years old they held up remarkably well. The amended running order set up “Pan” as an early highlight, with it’s dramatic instrumentation giving violinist Dave Kahn a chance to shine.

After this sonic rush it was into calmer territory, with the trio of “A Birthday Present”, “One Night On Earth”, and a beautifully emotive rendering of “Under The Folding Branches”. These led in to the combination of slow burn and full on attack that is “Nux Vomica”, a clear crowd favourite with its strident guitar motif. A dramatic slowing of pace was brought on by “The House Where We All Live”, before it was back in to the iconic “Jesus For The Jugular” bringing the Nux Vomica material to a close in hugely impressive fashion. Overall, a great rendition of a classic album, taking nothing away from the original material but augmenting it with the benefit of fifteen years experience, with the shuffling of the running order allowing the bigger numbers to be separated by the quieter material, to a greater degree than on the album itself.

Following up on this older material it was time for an update, with “Swimming With The Crocodiles” from 2016’s “Total Depravity” album, enhanced by the rich bass groove of Cass Basil. The breakup song “Sit Down By the Fire” told of the feeling of resignation accompanying the realisation that, at times, there’s nothing to do but watch things fall apart, so it may as well be experienced in comfort! “Birds” told a tale of avian mistrust, and led in to new song “No Limit Of Stars”, off an impending new album – based on this number, one to look out for. The set closed out with “One By The Venom”, from Finn’s solo album, a list song to end all list songs, cataloging many and varied possible ways to meet one’s demise, while stopping short of the rumoured 50-plus verses that have been written. Guess those will need to come out on a subsequent visit!

It was clearly the intention of the band to call proceedings to a close at this point, but a small and vocal section of the crowd induced an encore from Finn, solo as it was an unexpected call back to the boards! The thirst for more was sated by a rendition of “Sun Gangs”, and then it was time to head out into a chilly night, carrying the warmth of an inspiring collection of songs, played by a crew made up of a seamless combination of members both old and new.

This tour still has dates to play in Wellington (tonight) and Auckland (1st and 2nd) – if you’re nearby, catch yourself a ticket!

Were you there at the Paisley Stage for this magnificent performance? Or have you seen The Veils perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below! 

Note [AD]: Banished Music provided passes to Ambient Light to review 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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