Morcheeba at St James Theatre

By STEPHEN JEWELL

When I spoke to Morcheeba lead singer Skye before their debut Auckland concert, she promised the South London trio's performance would be more upbeat than their laidback albums. As it turned out, Morcheeba were more medium pace than fast, which seemed to create more problems for the band than the audience.

Several times over the course of their near two-hour set, Skye stopped the band in mid-flight because we were apparently not singing the song concerned loudly enough.

But it's hard to sing along to a track such as Process when you can't remember the words to a song from their three-year-old third album, Fragments of Freedom. Morcheeba should learn to go with the flow - the St James audience certainly did.

Granted the crowd was strangely subdued but the people around me were certainly appreciating the music even if they weren't jumping up and down to every song.

That is apart from the annoyingly tall guy and his girlfriend, who barged their way in front of me and proceeded to form a two person-strong mosh pit, pogo-ing energetically throughout the show.

Morcheeba opened with The Sea from sophomore opus Big Calm and played songs from all of their four albums to date, including their first single Trigger Hippy and most of their most recent LP, last year's Charango, although that record's standout collaborative efforts with Kurt Wagner and rappers Pace Won and Slick Rick were naturally absent.

Skye commanded the stage impressively, holding Morcheeba's songs together with her deep, sensuous voice.

She also proved to be a good-natured host, showing us her dancing shoes early on and even taking a turn on the drums.

Lead guitarist Ross Godfrey was a quiet but effective presence and his Johnny Cash-tinged licks contrasted nicely with his DJ brother Paul's soundtrack-inspired beats.