By Poppy Tohill

Artist:  Broods

Date / Venue:  Thursday August 21st, The Powerstation, Auckland

Auckland's Powerstation was packed to its absolute capacity last night filled with an eager audience ready to welcome BROODS in full force and style to their headlining debut, on the eve of the release of their first, also highly anticipated album, Evergreen.

Having seen them perform earlier this year, supporting Ellie Goulding, I had a slight idea of what to expect, but my expectations were blown right out the window, after they performed an even more immaculate, energetic, powerful and stunning show, despite Georgia nursing a cup of tea between each song due to a sore throat.

As the three musicians eventually took to the stage all dressed in white, the bright lights of the stage, enhanced their glowing luminescent outfits, adding to the all round passionate energy which already existed throughout the entire venue of patient fans who erupted with excitement at the sight of the band.

The stage set up itself proved that there was going to be some movement, as a big, bare space centre stage presented itself, with Caleb Nott stationed on the left side of the stage behind his array of technical equipment, and Georgia's keyboard on the far right, with the drums set up centre stage at the back.

Opening with a high energetic performance of ‘Never Gonna Change,' Georgia warmed up the crowd nicely by pulling out some dance moves and showcasing her exceptionally powerful voice. Despite being clear that her voice was a bit hoarse throughout the song, later admitting she wasn't 100%, the sheer energy and power that radiated from her certainly made me feel extremely bad for complaining about my tiny little cold, on the way to the show.

Following this exceptionally strong opening, they continued on to perform ‘Evergreen,' beforehand mentioning that the album is released tomorrow and anyone in the audience will be able to buy it here tonight, which understandably received a very excitable response from the already ecstatic audience of adoring fans.

After thanking everyone for coming out and explaining that, "due to my voice being shit, I'm going to need some help with this one. You don't have to but it would be awesome if you could," Georgia joked, before launching into the popular crowd favourite, ‘Sleep Baby Sleep,' where by it was obvious that Nott was giving it her absolute all, as a good portion of the audience tuned in to help her sing, leaving the soothing, calm chorus of the song, echoing throughout the venue long after its conclusion.

As the show continued, the energy throughout the room along with Georgia's voice seemed to grow stronger and stronger with each song, as they went on to perform the absolute crowd favourite ‘Bridges' which the entire crowd joined in to sing and dance along to.

Turning down the high energy volume, honing in on the raw emotion and power of Georgia's voice while it was at its best, the two male musicians left the stage temporarily, as Georgia proved, she could easily hold the entire audience's attention alone. Standing at her keyboard, Nott proceeded to perform the most stunning and spine shivering song from the album, titled ‘Four Walls,' which without a doubt reigned one of the entire highlights of the show, for I'm sure, a lot of the audience, me definitely included.

As the males returned back to the stage once more, Georgia introduced the next song, ‘Sober,' as her & Caleb's favourite off the album, jokingly adding, "It's all about having fun, so we love to dance around a lot to it," and dance they did.

One of the best things about live performances is when you can see an artist or band is really getting into it and loving every second of it. Well you could certainly tell that they were not lying when saying this song was their favourite. The energy throughout the entire room had soared to its maximum level once again as Caleb pulled out some dance moves from behind his desk of equipment, while Georgia whipped her hair around from every corner of the stage, clearly enjoying every second of it.

Treating the audience to a special unreleased track, ‘Deep End,' Georgia's voice was sounding close to full strength before pulling out the final two crowd favourites, ‘Pretty Thing' and ‘Coattails' ending their set on an absolute high, as the audience, and both Nott's performed, danced and sung at the top of their lungs.

Of course, not much convincing was needed for an encore, but the audience shouted, applauded and screamed at the top of their lungs anyway, until they were 100 percent certain that couldn't be it, soon being proven correct as the the trio came bounding back on the stage, looking very chuffed and grateful.

If the performances prior to their encore didn't blow you away enough, the magnificent two song performances that followed were enough to make the entire night, alone. The strength, power, energy and passion of each member within the band as they performed ‘Superstar' and ‘Mother & Father,' the closing and opening tracks from the new album, was out right outstanding, as they departed the stage, leaving the audience to absorb and soak in the most captivating and thrilling performance of the night.

Considering the level of their performance, and the fact that Georgia's voice wasn't 100 percent, if this is what they're sounding like now. all I have left to say is, watch out world- BROODS are coming and you do not want to miss them!!