Walking On Cars
27th November 2019
The Tuning Fork, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Ali Nicholls. Photography by Isaac Fleming.
With their 2012 hit single ‘Catch Me If You Can’ Walking on Cars rose to national acclaim. Now, upon the release of their second studio album Colours, the Irish nationals are on the rise to international stardom. They have retained the spirit of their sound across their releases, with their most recent regarded as a turning point in the maturing of their sound. Moving away from the domineering folk-pop progressions of the early 2010s, Colours echoes the motifs of contemporary dance pop while retaining the emotional orientation of their early releases. Gracing Aotearoa’s shores for the first time with a show at The Tuning Fork, we learn exactly why these hometown heroes are making waves around the world.
Australian folk-pop rising star Riley Pearce opens the show with a soulful set. It’s just him and an acoustic guitar, and with the very first song he has the growing audience enraptured. He bears all the trappings of a quintessential beach-folk heart throb with his open flannel shirt, hair tied back, and a melodic sound that drives home an emotional set of songs that range across themes of romance, aspirations, family, hard truths, and heartache. Despite it being a solo acoustic set, Pearce uses every part of the guitar to generate dynamic rhythms throughout his performance which seem to emphasise the authenticity of his sound. It’s the perfect opening act to lead into what is an emotionally-driven show.
Walking on Cars open with their hit track ‘Too Emotional’. It’s a powerful piece to begin with, and establishes what we are soon to understand as the main focus of the evening. Moving into the next track, the band is tight. They’ve been performing together for seven years now, and their silent communication shows just how in sync they are. It’s impressive at first, but over time their control starts to deter from the sincerity of their performance. In the intimacy of a smaller venue, their performance style seems calculated and so carefully crafted that the set feels somewhat mechanic. That being said, it is an undeniably seamless performance.
‘Waiting on the Corner’ is up next and the audience is slowly relaxing into the set along with the band. As each track comes to a close, people respond with impassioned cheering and whistling. It’s a lively group of people to be performing to, but as we move further away from the band’s top hits the songs begin to blend into one another. We shift into ‘Always Be with You’, and the crowd’s energy is beginning to wane. While each new track is as passionately performed as the last, they all follow the same structure, with a slow build to a vocal solo that falls into a chanting crescendo to finish each song.
‘Always Be with You’ slides into ‘Ship Goes Down’. As each song starts, the crowd livens up again. They all open loosely the same as the one before, usually with some kind of evocative keyboard riff and gentle vocal introduction, building through the drums into something of a stadium anthem, topped with a crescendo that moves us into the next song. ‘Love Backs Down’ pays homage to the groups’ early pop-folk influences, but they have managed to update their sound to match their current contemporary-pop grounding. The song brings out the physical passion of the band as they sway toward one another on stage in time with the pounding rhythm. It’s the first time in the set that the band show signs of losing themselves in the music. We hear ‘One Last Dance’, followed by ‘Two Straight Lines’; bringing us back to their synth-pop territory, the songs are crisp to a fault. Drum tracks and synths combine to perfectly replicate the album on stage. And while it is impressive to witness the band generating such a sound live, I can’t help but feel that something truly interesting and inspiring may have come about had they focused on enlivening their performance rather than replicating their recordings.
‘Somebody Else’ closes the main body of the show, by which stage I am struggling to determine just how many songs we have heard tonight. And yet it seems that the crowd loves every single one. So it is no surprise when their fans lure the band out from the shadows and back onto the stage for an encore set.
The encores continue the theme of the main set. The songs are loud, passionate, moving, and performed with great skill. The band seems less focused on getting through the set now, and they throw themselves into the final three tracks. The crowd responds with rapturous enthusiasm, and as their performance draws to a close, there is a tangible buzz from the audience.
Walking on Cars have a definitive sound that shows us a trajectory of their growth throughout their years in the public music sphere. For the past seven years, the band have been slowly developing a sophisticated pop sound that merges evocative piano melodies with blood-pumping drum machines and anthemic synths. Their tracks are emotionally driven, with lyrics orientated around relationships, growth, love, and change. And it is clear from their performance last night that though their repertoire may not be the most various, their fans genuinely connect to their music. It speaks to them, and brings out their enthusiasm. This is the most apparent facet of the band’s success, and the most joyous part of last night’s show.
There is no denying that Walking on Cars have a distinctive identity of sound. However, in this case It was the enthusiasm of the fans that transcended this performance from just another pop show. And a band that can draw such a crowd on such a distinctive sound have a lot to be proud of.
Were you there at The Tuning Fork for this fun pop gig? Or have you seen Walking On Cars perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Too Emotional
- Don’t Mind Me
- Waiting On The Corner
- Always Be With You
- Ship Goes Down
- Love Backs Down
- Two Stones
- One Last Dance
- Two Straight Lines
- Tick Tock
- Flying High
- Pieces Of You
- Coldest Water
- Hand In Hand
- Monster
- Somebody Else
- Catch Me
- Coming My Way
- When We Were Kids
- Speeding Cars
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