Review: Lots of love in the room for Sir Dave Dobbyn in Hamilton

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.

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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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