Review: Fat Freddy’s Drop @ the Tivoli
Words: Amber Shadlow
Pictures: Kate Scantleton
I’ve never heard a sexier Kiwi accent than the one that escaped the lips of Fat Freddy’s Drop’s lead singer at the Tivoli last weekend. It was a sell out show, proving there is mammoth love for the boys down under.
The crowd was pumped for the gig at the beautiful Tivoli. There was so much good energy flowing through the room, which is hardly surprising considering it was a Fat Freddy’s gig. Bringing their unique fusion of reggae, soul, rhythm, blues, jazz and swooning dub style tunes, the Wellington 7 piece managed to snare the crowd’s interest from the get go. As usual the Fat Freddy’s boys were in no rush to jump straight into the big tunes, rather they tease us with sweet rhythms and build the anticipation. There’s no such thing as a short song in the Fat Freddy’s Drop vocabulary and they didn’t stray from the pattern on Saturday night, but delivered a magic display of sprawling music. The sound manages to stay unique to the band, despite the occasionally repetitive nature of the genre.
We didn’t have to wait too long before the beats were pumping. They busted out crowd-pleasing songs such as “Wandering eye” and “Roady.” They’re known for their improvised live performances and they did not disappoint on this occasion, breaking into a spontaneous rap during “Roady. ” They pumped out a Michael Franti style “yell fire-fire, fire-fire, yell fire-fire, fire-fire, now scream!!” and the crowd ecstatically obeyed.
The music itself changed tempo so quickly. You could be immersed in a reggae beat dubbing away and then, bam, along would come a funk hip hop beat to change tactics. The solid New Zealand musical influence was ever present in the set, living up to their regular classification of Aotearoa roots music.
It was a family affair, with lead vocalist Dallas Tamaira, bringing his father on stage at one point. Tamaira explained it was the first time his father had ever performed with him. It was a powerful musical moment considering he credits his father as his original inspiration for getting into music. They start singing together and all of a sudden Mr Tamaira was ripping out the guitar and smashing out amazing tunes! With deep respect from the crowd he definitely stood on his own two feet and impressed the Tivoli. Amidst my boogying I managed to regrettably miss the name of the song, but it truly was beautiful moment.
The Fat Freddy’s brass section nearly stole the show. The saxophonist, trumpet and trombone players were in fine form, perfectly complementing the vocals. I was admiring the saxophonist and the trumpet player who were looking exceptionally dapper, then my eyes drifted to the left and landed upon the trombone player in his tight white shorts and singlet. The short shorts-wearing bandit/trombone player, Joe Lindsay, even busted out an air trombone style dance during the banging guitar solo in “Roady.” Paradoxically, he managed to make such an awful fashion combination look decidedly sexy, especially when coupled with his unique, trombone-inspired dance moves. He made those tidy widey shorts stretch to within an inch of their lives.
By the end of the gig the crowd was well and truly pumping and there was a sea of people moving to their own beat. The people floated out of the Tivoli on a cloud of joy and many punters were heard exclaiming to one another how amazing the gig was. It’s a shame these guys are heading to Europe for the winter months as they could really keep things toasty in Brisbane in the winter months to come.
Magnificent commentary on the performance of Fat Freddy’s Drop. His sound has a sensuality in our senses, that does not happen with other bands.
And the voice of their singer, love us forever.
It’s the sound of the soul, exactly.