It's Friday night at the Powerstation and the urge to party is so strong you can taste it. More than one tribe of Auckland is represented in the heaving crowd and most of them aren't fancy people. They're the ones who bought their tickets on the day it was announced that Home Brew would be playing in their home town for the first time in years. The show sold out that same day and the air of expectation is manic.
Home Brew is the group Tom Scott formed in Avondale in 2006 and the scene of various crimes. The band's self-titled debut album was released in 2012 and became the first local hip-hop album to top the national charts since Scribe's The Crusader, nearly a decade before. A four-LP vinyl version released in 2014 by a European label now changes hands for more than $700, and a 2023 re-release - the premise for the tour that concluded at the Powerstation at the end of October - is selling.
By the time Home Brew came out, the band was already scattering and Scott had begun on a series of other projects - most notably, Avantdale Bowling Club, whose ambitious, jazzy 2018 debut album earned Scott the Taite Music Prize, a Silver Scroll, the Album of the Year award and a degree of respectability that might once have seemed unlikely. The vivid Friday Night at the Liquor Store, from the follow-up album Trees, was a Silver Scrolls finalist this year. But it's Home Brew the people are here for tonight.
The first few songs - Alcoholic, Benefit, Yellow Snot Funk - are tales of misspent youth and a release for the raging energy in the room. It's not unlike the occasional 45-minute festival sets the band has reconvened to play over the years.
Denne historien er fra November 25 - December 1, 2023-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra November 25 - December 1, 2023-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.
