Ben Howard performing at Auckland Town Hall on June 3, 2024. Photo / Sarah Pollok
Ben Howard performing at Auckland Town Hall on June 3, 2024. Photo / Sarah Pollok
In 2014, Ben Howard performed a single sell-out show at the Auckland Town Hall. On Monday night, Herald journalist Sarah Pollok watched Howard return to the very same venue, almost 10 years later, to see if he was worth the wait.
When I see a crowd waiting beside the entrance to Auckland Town Hall at 6.30pm, I double-check my ticket. Yes, doors don’t open till 7pm, guest artist Folk Bitch Trio from Melbourne perform at 8pm and headline act Ben Howard won’t grace the stage until 9pm.
Walking past the queue, my jaw drops as we keep walking past the waiting fans … and keep walking … and keep walking. By the time we reach the Civic a few hundred yards away, we’ve passed dozens of 30- to 40-year-olds lined up down Queen St, likely those with standing tickets who are eager to grab a spot at the front of the stage. It’s an incredible turnout but one that makes sense when considering a Ben Howard show in New Zealand is like a comet that appears for one night every decade.
However, this time, the comet is markedly different to the wholesome acoustic set fans witnessed at Howard’s last Auckland show in 2014.
Ben Howard returned to Auckland Town Hall for one night only. Photo / Sarah Pollok
The hall is packed for the opening set but fills even more once Folk Bitch Trio wrap up and make way for Howard, who walks onto the stage to a deafening wave of noise from the crowd, who (if it wasn’t clear from the queueing) are more than a little excited about his return.
Unlike so many artists, there’s no warm-up chat, no introductory spiel about loving Auckland or how his wildly experimental new album came to be. Howard simply grabs his guitar and launches into two hours of straight music, kicked off with three songs from his fifth studio album Is It?, which dropped in June 2023.
Ten years ago, Howard was a indie folk act, with a triple-platinum debut album and a reputation for raw vocals, introspective lyrics and an abundance of finger-picked guitar. Songs from his first two albums are the kind you’d use for a long night drive or an independent coming-of-age film. And, judging from the audience’s abundance of denim, flared pants, peasant blouses and long sun-bleached hair, many long-time fans were here for this Howard.
Yet, Howard’s latest work is nearly unrecognisable from classics like Old Pine or Only Love bar his unmistakably husky vocals and poetic lyrics. Over recent years, Howard has taken an electronic turn, keeping his folk foundations but layering on atmospheric tones and reverb-heavy production for a textured, eclectic sound.
This evolution was turned up to 10 with Is it?, an experimental work that sounds like an art installation; challenging and important, both stripped back and raw but also textured and full. The setting tonight is, therefore, perfect, as Howard performs on a bare stage with only three band members and equipment, yet visual layers accompany the aural layers in the form of a video of abstract colour and pattern projected onto the steps and organ pipes behind him. At the same time, beams of light shoot out from behind Howard and onto the crowd.
Ben Howard performing at Auckland Town Hall on June 3, 2024. Photo / Sarah Pollok
His first three songs (and the three others he plays from Is It?) sound splintered and discordant, a little jarring and unusual but those who know Howard’s back story understand they’re meant to.
In March 2022, the British singer-songwriter was sitting in his garden when he was suddenly unable to speak or form sentences for an hour. In April, he suffered a similar episode and tests revealed he’d experienced transient ischaemic attacks, which affected his speech and memory.
Shaken by the experience, Howard attempted to process the events and communicate the experience the best way he knew how; music. This makes for an album that is lush and complicated, intelligent and exciting for electronica fans or musicians but not necessarily the kind of music that would get long-time Howard fans grooving.
Fortunately, Howard knows his audience, and splits the setlist accordingly, indulging in six songs from his new album but dedicating the remaining 13 to his previous albums, which consistently receive the most passionate applause.
When he plays I Forget Where We Are about two-thirds through the set, phones pop up across the crowd to record and the audience begins singing along. His simple introduction to Diamond, from his first album (“It’s one of those old ones”) is met with cheers that swell around the stunning hall.
Howard is a man of few words and many songs. Unlike many artists, who pepper stories and conversation between tracks as they swap guitars or take breaks, Howard plays solidly from 9pm till 10.50pm, giving the audience 20 songs.
The infrequent dialogue is hard to hear (“Sorry, everyone in the back for mumbling,” he says with charming earnestness) but reminds listeners Howard remains the same humble talent he was 10 years ago.
As we hit 10.40pm, Howard and his band take a bow and head off stage and the call for an encore is like nothing I’ve seen before at a show. It begins with the classic long-held applause. Soon, waves of foot stomping shake the floor and people eventually unite for chants of “one more song” that fill the hall for one minute, then two, then three. With the house lights still down, the crowd don’t budge until finally, a shadow appears on the edge of the stage and somehow the audience grows louder as Howard reappears.
“Thank you so much for that,” Howard whispers before rewarding us with first-album throwbacks Gracious and Black Flies before he breaks off and closes things with Conrad, the crowd cheering wildly until the final line.
Leaving the humid, sweaty hall into the night, I have no doubt that no matter what Howard creates in the next 10 years, if he returns to Auckland Town Hall, so too will his fans.
Ben Howard will begin his Europe leg in June followed by North America in July 2024.
