AK03: Don McGlashan at St James

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

So much for solo. It's coming to the end of Don McGlashan's first hometown show as a solitary singer-songwriter and he's looking anything but lonely up there.

There are 11 people on stage. True, for most of the night there have been three - McGlashan, Sean James Donnelly (SJD to fans of his albums) on bass, harmonies and laptop-tapping, and Tatiana Lanchtchikova on accordion and piano.

But right now the eight members of the Brassouls - a good-time horn and drum section, sort of New Orleans by way of New North Rd - have marched through the audience to play on three songs.

The last of these, appropriately for this Auckland Festival show, is Dominion Road, and it's quite a traffic jam with a lot of happy honking on the melody lines.

The arrangement breathes new life and brassy spittle into the old Mutton Birds hit, something McGlashan's preceding set has also frequently managed.

That's whether it's dusted off the Front Lawn's Tomorrow Night or Andy, or delivered a twitchy semi-electronic version of the MBirds The Heater - which comes with its own only-in-NZ rock'n'roll moment: McGlashan coolly swinging his Telecaster guitar behind him to pick up his euphonium.

There was quite enough of McGlashan's back pages rendered in new colours to keep the set familiar but fresh. Though as he encored truly solo on the bittersweet Last Year's Shoes, it was enough to make you wonder if the performance needed just a few more intimate voice'n'guitar numbers to sharpen the focus. Oh well.

But apart from it all going a bit James Last towards the end, the most striking thing about the show was the yet-to-be-recorded new songs.

Friday night's Mercy Peak episode might have been inspired by Dominion Road B-side White Valiant. But on first listen some new ones, especially the possibly titled Passenger and Miracle Son, sound more first-draft feature films with their vivid close-ups against some evocative and unnerving musical atmospheres.

Those works-in-progress made this something far more memorable and satisfying than just a Don-plays-the-hits night.

But when he - well, they - did that, it was the perfect heart-starter to AK03's pop programme.

Herald Feature: Auckland Festival AK03

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