"Evening. Bit of a shaky start."
Those were singer Beth Gibbons' first words to the crowd at Vector Arena, three songs into what was actually a triumphant return for Portishead to New Zealand, 14 years since they were last here.
She didn't address the audience again until the end, when she simply repeated, "Thank you, thanks!" as the band took their deserved bows. And yet she - and the rest of Portishead's touring party - had us enraptured throughout.
Gibbons was joined onstage by fellow core members Geoff Barrow (percussion, scratching, keys, guitar and goodness knows what else) and Adrian Utley (guitar, keys); a drummer, bass player and additional keyboardist.
When Volume spoke with Utley a few weeks back he professed the band had been rehearsing hard to play as much as possible of the material live, rather than relying on loops and samples.