Concert Review - We Mavericks - Hawke's Bay - 7th November 2025

Presented By Small Hall Sessions

Tim Freedman

Review By: Rob Harbers

Artist/Band: We Mavericks

Venue/City: Ōtāne Hall, Ōtāne, Hawke’s Bay

Date of Event: 7th November 2025

Three and a half years ago the people of Te-Matau-a-Māui were introduced to We Mavericks, and vice versa, via the Small Hall Sessions. The trans-Tasman duo of Lindsay Martin (Australia) and Victoria Vigenser (New Zealand) have now joined the select group of acts to have performed a second round of appearances at the Sessions – this time with additional company in the form of players Rachel Johnston and Trent Arkleysmith, who themselves independently are the duo Two If By Sea (more on that anon). Together, this duo of duos – a duo squared, if you will – wove an enrapturing spell, one that held an Ōtāne audience firmly for a couple of hours.

Launching in with Heart of Silver, the title track of their sophomore album, the stage was set for a night of heavenly harmonies, sublime strings, and effusive exposition. The theme of this song could almost be described as a low energy heart of gold, as a point of ambition for a heart to aspire to – if you can’t make it to the point where you’d be described as having a heart of gold, you might at least make silver!

The ensuing brace, Care Free and The Bed you Made, form an unconscious pair, one around a theme of breaking free, whether it be of poor beginnings, poor choices, or the expectations of others. The latter song involved a practical arsenal of bows (the string-stroking kind, that is) as both Rachel and Trent played their impressive carbon-fibre cellos, and Lindsay took up a violin. As I said earlier, sublime strings indeed!

The thread that runs through all of these songs is one of genuine compassion, whether it be expressed in terms of having the courage not to care (Not Gonna Be), having one another’s backs (Graveyard), or the call to come out of hibernation in Lonesome Valley, where strings and bows produced beautiful sounds sufficient to bring solace to the hardest of hearts.

Following the refreshment break, we were treated to a taste of the sounds of Rachel and Trent in their Two If By Sea guise, playing their instrumental songs for a couple of numbers, a sampler that titillated the aural tastebuds with a soupçon of their other life. A great invitation to check out their repertoire.

Lindsay and Victoria then returned to the arena, continuing what Lindsay described as the joy of ‘getting to meet weird and strange people’. Bit of a harsh judgement on our Jamie, but what can you do? Hold Me, with its intense instrumentation and lyrics delivered from a dream, was a particular highlight of this half of the set. Paper Darts continued the compassionate expression, with its advice on dealing with the criticism that being alive inevitably attracts – people being people and all.

The penultimate All This Noise gave voice to the compulsion familiar to creatives, that of needing to express what is driving them – what’s inside must find its way out somehow, preferably in a somewhat healthy way. Closing out proceedings was a cover of Why We Build The Wall from the Hadestown musical, a production that sounds quite intriguing based on Victoria’s description of it.

That was our lot, this night of revelation drawing to a close. A night thankfully free of both intrusive Teutonic questions and English mansplaining, sending another sated audience back to their lives, in the Small Halls tradition. This is an experience still open to audiences in Matapiro tonight and Te Awanga tomorrow night – tickets available from smallhallsessions.co.nz.

Setlist

Heart of Silver
Care-Free
The Bed you Made
Balm of Gilead
Not Gonna Be
Graveyard
Lonesome Valley
Weight and Time
Hold Me
Paper Darts
All this Noise
Why We Build The Wall (from the musical Hadestown)

Tim Freedman 2025 PR

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