Troy Kingi & Delaney Davidson
10th August 2022
Toitoi, Hastings, New Zealand.
Review by Rob Harbers. Photography by Jessie Broad.
Continuing the Taster Series of the Hawkes Bay Arts Festival, this time around saw the return of Troy Kingi to the ToiToi stage, after his appearance in the last “undiluted” Festival nearly two years ago. This show is in support of the latest instalment in his project of releasing ten albums in ten years, each in a different genre. For this album, ‘Black Sea Golden Ladder’, which visits the wide territory defined as Folk music, who better to bring on board than perhaps New Zealand’s hardest working male musician, Delaney Davidson, bringing his own unique take on the style. The result: a triumphant show, that while inevitably stamped with Troy’s own personality, introduces powerful new elements to the toy box, and sees some new takes on back catalogue highlights as well.
The performance is split in to two halves, with the first part being what Troy described as “the weird stuff”, a set composed generally of more atmospheric pieces, with greater visual elements. The entire show is performed behind a gauze curtain, which while allowing visibility of the artists also provides a screen on which is projected many visual elements, illuminating the stories being told in the songs. This did have the unfortunate impact of exposing a lack of clarity in the sound mix – the visuals making it clear that there were stories being told here, for which the mix could’ve used a tweak to highlight the vocals a little more, to better hear those stories. But this is only a small quibble in what is otherwise a powerful presentation.
The second set saw a transition into a more straight-up, less atmospheric presentation, with its looser feel allowing for more interaction with the audience, and the injection of more elements, particularly the humorous donning of masks of each other during one of the songs, which saw them channeling each other’s spirit into their performance.
As is so often the case, however, my attempts to adequately convey the full spectacle of this event are coming up against a publishing deadline, so here’s a takeaway list of bullet points:
- Troy, continuing his self-imposed quest
- Delaney, sharing his own unique take on the genre
- Together, a powerful performance, that both introduces new material while integrating older songs into the mix
- A very strong and impressive visual presentation
- Performing more around the country-get tickets!
- A further amuse-bouche before the Festival proper
- Excellent stuff!!!
Were you there at ToiToi for this beautiful performance? Or have you seen Delaney Davidson or Troy Kingi perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Set List:
- Sleep
- Call My Name
- You In My Arms
- Fork In The Road
- Mighty Invader
- Come Around
- Hunt Down Happiness
*Intermission* - Forgotten Like A Dream
- All Your Ships
- True Love
- Caught in The Rain
- Never Take Me Away
- Twilight
- Sea Of Death
- Trouble [encore]
- Gimme Hell [encore]
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. This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase a product using an affiliate link, Ambient Light will automatically receive a small commission at no cost to you.
If you enjoyed this content, please consider donating towards the running of Ambient Light, covering expenses and allowing us to expand the coverage you love by visiting our PressPatron page.