By Teylor Moss

Artist: SJD

Date / Venue: Saturday October 10th, 2015 - Mercury Theatre, Auckland

Last night I attended the SJD concert at the Mercury Theatre. First I would like to acknowledge how amazing the Mercury Theatre is; the acoustics were fantastic and the theatre had such an amazing ambience to it, absolutely stunning! The layout has such a great flow between the stage and the audience, I felt it bought the concert a personal vibe; perfect for the SJD band.

To kick-start the night off, Shayne P Carter's set can only be described as raw soulful talent & the audience were loving it! Opening with Evolution, it was a perfect choice to start the night off. Shayne had such good banter with the crowd and they gave it right back. Shayne was a great choice for an opening act, really setting the mood getting the crowd going. Big ups!

During the intermission, it was like a party! Good music playing, not shy about the volume either, which was fantastic and got the people even more excited for SJD. Now it was time for Sean James Donnelly and his extremely talented band, with Sandy Mill on vocals and percussion, James Duncan playing lead guitar, Claire Cowan on keys, Chris O'Connor on drums and Mike Hall on bass. There was a slight sound malfunction at the beginning with Sean's microphone, but he handled it very well, keeping the crowd entertained until they were up and running again!

In no time SJD were playing their opening song I Saw The Future, a captivating & great start to their set.Helensville had to be my personal favourite song of the night, playing with staunch and ease, they nailed it & was a definite crowd pleaser. Soon it was Sandy's time to shine when they were playing their last song Jesus, bellowing out the most impressive tune with all her heart and soul truly a sight to behold, she is so very talented.

Applause erupted throughout the theatre giving SJD the recognition and love they immensely deserved! But SJD weren't finished with us yet, coming back on stage to a eager audience for their encore; they played the two crowd pleasers that had people out of their seats, Beautiful Haze and Superman You're Crying.

A Fantastic end to such an amazing night, "like smoked salmon" (If you were there; you'll get that!).