Vance Joy
28th March 2018
The Tuning Fork, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Lauren Sanderson. Photography by Lara Marie.
Australian singer-songwriter Vance Joy took over Auckland’s Tuning Fork last night in an special one-off performance before he returns as part of his tour with a full band this September. He promised an intimate evening and that’s exactly what we got. Entering the stage promptly at 8.30pm, he didn’t leave the crowd waiting. With his guitar in hand he kicked off the night with ‘Call if you need me’ followed by I’m with you, both songs from his new album Nation of Two.
The first strum of his guitar brought masses of screams to the small venue and the stripped back versions of his songs brought a relaxing vibe to the crowd. ‘Fire in the Flood’ came next and what we know as an upbeat playful track, was now transformed into a beautiful yet emotional song about love, breakups and heartache, the lyrics were captured word for word and rung true for the crowd.
As well as being a talented musician, the 30-year old has a great sense of humour too. As it was just him and his guitar on stage, no band, he had the time to share some interesting and pretty hilarious stories about his life. Just before playing ‘Little Boy’ he told us the influence behind the track, which was when he broke his tooth falling off his bike and the dentist replaced it with an adult sized cap and now he has been left with one permanent big tooth. He also got his own lyrics wrong, but we’re not going to fault him for that as it was extremely comical as he stopped, corrected himself and then continued to play.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the stripped back versions of his songs I felt tracks like ‘Like Gold’ needed bass to support it, although ‘Lay It On me’ was brought to life with the simultaneous clapping of the crowd. ‘Saturday Sun’ transported us back to sunnier times as the sound of the ukulele echoed throughout the space and old favourite ‘Georgia’ had the crowd reciting the lyrics back to Vance. ‘Mess is Mine’ was certainly a crowd favourite, as it hypnotised the audience, transporting us to a heavenly place. Vance appeared to be enjoying the crowd participation, and even had the audience sing majority of the song back to him as he showed off his guitar skills.
Ending on ‘Riptide’ was the perfect reminder as to why we fell in love with the Aussie heartthrob. Not only can he produce hypnotic music, but he also has the personality to match. As he left the stage, you could tell that neither the crowd nor Vance wanted to leave – a roar of encore began until he re-appeared to play one last tune for us. Covering Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ it was not only evident that music means everything to Vance, but that he means everything to us, as one giddy female screamed ‘I Love you Vance Joy’ – and we couldn’t agree more.
One thing that stuck was the fact that he referred to his own songs as tunes and we have to agree with you Vance – they most certainly all are tunes!
Were you there at The Tuning Fork for this intimate solo set? Or have you seen Vance Joy perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!