Fat Freddy's Drop at the St James

Toby Laing, trumpeter with Fat Freddy's Drop.

Outside, the air was an angry mess. As forked lightning sliced through the city you couldn't help but feel as though you were seeing something special. Inside it was just as electric.

Down front, centre stage, the race was on to secure your spot. The energy emanating from the sell-out crowd was confirmation that the next chapter in the career of Fat Freddy's Drop had begun.

The Wellington band had already captured Kiwi ears, minds and souls in smaller venues throughout the country, taken their earthy Pacific soul abroad with similar results, and reached platinum sales of their debut album Based on a True Story despite zero marketing. Now was time to honour their success with something bigger, hence the St James.

Opening with that raw reggae piano of Ernie, that ominously low blast of brass and Dallas crooning Step out of the Rush, the band slowly chugged into gear.

The combination was irresistible: that smooth, enigmatic voice, the deep throb of the bass, the music, equal parts light and shade. Add to that trombonist Joe Lindsay's completely random dancing and you had a band used to doing things their way.

Of course, a Fat Freddy's gig isn't all bobs and whistles, it's subtle and drawn out, like a rubber band that expands and shrinks. The crowd, however, were pumped for a bit of breakage, so when they played Ray Ray, the album's most downbeat electronic track, it felt it had come too soon.

The chilled, spacious approach would have worked somewhere intimate, but faced with hundreds of clearly up-for-it punters in a big venue like the St James, Fat Freddy's initially lacked focus and projection.

It wasn't until a legion of guests including Slave and Ladi 6 joined the band for a jam session - part reggae, part hip-hop, part extended family reunion that the Fat Freddy's everyone had been waiting for arrived.

By the time they'd made their way through This Room, Wandering Eye and defining song Midnight Marauders, they well and truly had their skank back. The gig might have been more low-key than the weather but you were still left with the feeling you were seeing something special.