Every audible ejaculation from the audience can be heard by those on the stage in the BNZ Theatre. PHOTO: Mark Taylor / WAIKATO TIMES.
That should not, or course, be taken as an invitation to bombard the performers with your own random interjections - which can at times border on badgering. Any thoughts by any given punter should be kept to a minimum and always match the quality of the entertainment on offer.
And on this particular night it was of a high quality indeed.
The opening act was a superb half-hour set from Tait Music Prize-winner Anthonie Tonnon. Employing dual synthesizers, it was a quirky, compelling sampling of autobiographical songs that evoked the likes of Gary Numan or David Bowie.
Dobbyn is one of New Zealand's musical biographers of decades past and Tonnon is composing tracts about the country's present and future. His 2021 album Leave Love Out of This should be investigated by the unfamiliar immediately.
The Dave Dobbyn songbook is a voluminous document, and this show could have comprised a completely different set-list three or four times over, with no shortage of familiar crowd-pleasers.
Who: Sir Dave Dobbyn
What: The Selected Songs Tour
Where: BNZ Theatre, Hamilton
When: Sunday night
Reviewed by: Mike Mather
If Sir Dave Dobbyn had any doubt about the deep affection held for him by the people of Kirikiriroa, it would have been very quickly dispelled this weekend.
There were numerous exclamations of "We love you Dave!" yelled out after almost every song in the BNZ Theatre on Sunday night.
Dobbyn took the accolades, repetitive as they were, with a wry smile. "Well, I love you too," he replied at one point.
The beauty of this brand new venue is that as well as the sound of the music completely filling up the room with clarity, every audible ejaculation from the audience can be heard by those on the stage.
Dobbyn’s music is indelibly intertwined in the New Zealand experience (file photo).
PHOTO: Bruce Mackay / THE POST.
His band - which included Victoria Girling Butcher from Lucid 3, bassist Jo Barus and a two-man horn section of JY Lee and Guy Harrison - were in captivating form.
It was a magical set that slowly segued from quiet ballads like It Dawned on Me and the outstanding Naked Flame to anthems like Just Add Water, Language and Welcome Home.
"Get your baa-baas out," Dobbyn quipped before the encore finale Slice of Heaven.
Dobbyn made a few light hearted references to his left hand shaking a little and not doing entirely what he wanted it to - a symptom of the Parkinson's disease he was diagnosed with a few years ago. That may be so, but his guitar playing still seemed pretty much spot-on to these ears.
At times the "We love you"s from the crowd were interspersed with a few "You can do it!"s as he seemed to hesitate a little before playing - but such affirmations seemed unnecessary, and maybe a little condescending.
As many have observed, Dobbyn’s music is indelibly intertwined in the New Zealand experience - events like sitting around a bonfire on, say, Cooks Beach and belting out Slice of Heaven at the top of your voice.
Many in Sunday night's full house were singing along at the top of theirs on this night. It was a wonderfully nostalgic way to end a first rate show.
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