Vera Ellen
23rd September 2023
Meow, Wellington, New Zealand.
Review by Tim Gruar. Photography by Maeve O’Connell.
For the first time since her ‘Ideal Home Noise’ tour, Flying Nun wunderkind Vera Ellen was reunited with her full band, supported by a few good friends. Named after a song from her sophomore album ‘Ideal Noise’, her provocatively labelled ‘Fake Milk Fest’ is a fundraiser show. Proceeds will help get Ellen and her band to Australia for a multiple-date tour later this year including appearances and the extremely influential SXSW Sydney. Lined up curtain raisers included the ever-wistful crooner Hemi Hemingway and psychedelic fuzz-pop juggernauts Mirror Ritual and some very cool projections and lighting effects provided by visual artist Lady Lazer Light.
As we approach the business end of the current election cycle the general mood of the nation has become more exhausted and cynical. So, it’s refreshing to find a place that’s a bit of a refuge from the onslaught of sloganeering and over-reaching empty promises. That place tonight quickly became my happy place. Like the rest the room I was ready to soak up this great vibe of whānau and aroha brought to us by local musician Vera Ellen and her wonderful circle of supporters. I mean, where else could you go on a chilly spring night for great indie music, pirogues and Polish sausage (prepared by Vera’s mum, no less)?
Pōneke based musician Vera Ellen was named ‘Best Alternative Artist’ at the 2022 Aotearoa Music Awards for a reason. She’s feisty, gutsy and writes songs that have a raw power that really grabs you by the heart strings one moment and slaps you around and stabs you in the back the next.
Tonight was all about Vera, with a good slice of her second album ‘Ideal Home Noise’, which dropped in March, on offer. The album is a critics’ dream, unearthing a great deal of introspection and was an attempt to build a positive structure on the foundations of an otherwise dark spot in Ellen’s personal life. It was a mix of comedy and pathos and spoke directly with two “voices” (one sweet, one of angst) battling for attention throughout every song – a mix of light, wistful parts and heavy ballad-like pianos and rasping, raw vocals.
But before we got to Vera, two superb acts – Hemi Hemingway and Mirror Ritual.
Hemi Hemingway (aka Shaun Blackwell) had the honour of rousing the troops, calling them in from the smoker’s balcony and darker corners of the room to gather in and listen closely. He has all the “rock’n’roll panache of a dive bar matador and the emotional force of a knife in the guts” claimed the press release. I certainly can’t argue with that.
Hemi’s music is a mix of Chris Isaak ‘Wicked Game’ era crooning and Nick Cave danger. ‘Strangers Again’ is his new album. Created during that infamous ‘Lockdown’ period, whilst in London, it’s sweet, soulful, and sexy. And just a little bit edgy. With his long wet-slicked back hair and James Dean stylings there’s no denying that this Hemingway character is one hell of a heart throb!
Songs like ‘Burnin’ Blue’ and the sultry ‘Green Envy’ are achingly beautiful. A cover of the late Rowland S. Howard’s ‘(I know A Girl Called) Jonny’ is a highlight, with Vera Ellen popping on stage to help out. I’d forgotten how darkly dramatic the ex-Birthday Party band member’s music can be and listening in the car on the way home I can see where Blackwell/Hemingway gets some of his own inspiration.
Hemingway’s closer, ‘It’s So Cruel’ is delightful and torturing in equal measure. It’s twangy guitars and swooning vocals are mesmerising. It’s a perfect Ken Loach movie in a 3-minute pop song.
Next up were Pōneke dream-fuzzer band Mirror Ritual, long term friends of Vera Ellen and skilful practitioners of warped pop and noisy, shoegaze-tinged psychedelica.
Kicking off with a new track, ‘Status’, Lochie Noble (vocals, guitar), Mia Kelly (synthesiser, guitar, flute), Eli Polaczuk (bass) and Riley Dick (drums) fill the air with a slice of glistening psych-pop. Swirling, propulsive, trippy, peppered with frantic guitar riffs, it’s as much a journey as a destination.
The blinding fuzz continues on 2020’s ‘Nothing New’ before spreading out to a wider aural experinece with the shiny lucid guitars, pounding percussion and shimmering synths on another new track, called ‘Waiting To Be Free’. An album featuring these tracks is hinted at and we’ll be eagerly watching this space.
Things really get crazy with the full-on wig out of ‘Aphantasma’. It begins with a 60’s folky flute riff, courtesy of Mia Kelly, before being blasted away by Lochie Noble’s guitar and vocal dominance.
Then we jump into familiar territory with the previously released ‘Contextualise’, before another new drop, ‘Fear In All’ and the all-intoxicating ‘Soft Burning Silver’. As psych-pop-shoe gazers go, I really rate this four-piece and was left hungry for more. Can’t wait for the album.
Finally, Vera Ellen and her band took the stage. Ellen, by her own admission, considered her oversized white ‘wedding dress’ to be a tad impractical for a rock show. “Why do I always choose such impractical dresses’, she laughs. But you couldn’t deny it provided maximum impact …well, almost. If she wasn’t slightly upstaged by Bella Guarrera’s Milkman’s cap (because the gig was called ‘Fake Milk’. Get it?)
Ellen starts slow, in partial darkness, with Lady Lazer Light’s murky space graphics and a smoky, slinky song called ‘A Grip’ – from the new album. Then it gets personal with ‘A Person I like’ and preppy with ‘Smell of An Oily Rag’. That’s followed by the brightly tinged ‘Feelings I Can’t Name’.
One of my favourites ‘Lenny Says’ has a really special grungy sound. The first time I’ve heard it live. More expansive than the recorded version. The much lauded ‘Fake Milk’ actually slips by quietly before ‘Imposter’ sweeps the stage clean with a new feeling of angst and insecurity.
There is a truly tender moment when Ellen and her brother, on keys, sing ‘Prayer Ambulance’, in dedication to their cousin, who has passed away. Eyes need drying afterwards.
The aching is wiped away with an almost overwhelming primal scream on ‘Broadway Junction’ before the show wraps up with ‘Carpenter’. But not before a bit of awkward banter. Ellen doesn’t want to do the whole song, which completes with a full of rock-out crescendo. Totally worth it, by the way.
In his fatherly way, Ben Lemi, who’s been lurking in the back on drums and guitars pipes up with a cautionary tale about procrastination and watching a video about building a log cabin. Perhaps boredom is the cure to that? Either way it doesn’t stop the song.
‘Inferno’ is the cathartic encore that makes the first ever ‘Fake Milk Fest’ a truly ear ringing, memorial success.
I know it was a fundraiser, but what a great idea. And I hope Vera Ellen makes lots of money and gets her band to Australia. She deserves it. If you feel the urge, check out her socials and throw a few dollars her way. Aussie needs to know about Vera Ellen – pronto.
And back here, she’s the perfect aesthetic in this toxic electoral climate. She definitely gets my vote.
Vera Ellen:
Mirror Ritual:
Hemi Hemingway:
Were you there at Meow for this brilliant fund-raising festival? Or have you seen Vera Ellen perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Ambient Light was provided passes to photograph and 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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