Broods

By Wal Reid

Artist:  Broods

Date / Venue:  Friday February 13th, Town Hall, Auckland 

Broods have grown up. Headlining their own Evergreen show after only just a year touring as the popular alt-pop duo Broods, Nelson siblings Georgia & Caleb Nottare poised to take on the world but not before rewarding Kiwi fans by playing in their own ‘backyard', something they've been hankering to do for a long time.

Auckland's Town Hall reverberated with swollen keyboard sounds, the decibels turned up as Georgia & Caleb looking slightly Keanu-esque (circa 47 Ronin) entered side of stage, it was all on.

Never Gonna Change the first track from 'Broods' debut EP loudly trumpeted their entrance, sounding like it was being pumped out through the p.a at Eden Park (but a hell of a lot clearer) as soon as it's signature intro became apparent the sea of mobile phone screen glare lit up as concert goers ‘checked in' or ‘insta-brooded'.

Georgia fluid stage ‘groove' heralded the infuriating catchy radio hit Everytime, looking around the hall it seemed I wasn't the only one who subscribed to this thought. Finally, respite between songs she thanked the crowd for getting into the songs quipping "The first two songs are the hardest" before dumbing down the festive mood with Sleep Baby Sleep, Killing You and the hauntingly beautiful Taking You There.

The youthful duos penchant for ballads continued on new song Bedroom Door and current bandied radio hitFour Walls (It's a bit of a tear jerker I heard someone say in the audience), personally I'm not a big fan of ballads but Nott does a solid job on vocals that for me even this is palatable to listen to and one for which I am thankful for.

If you were going to round off a night of Brood- karaoke then the next crop of songs would be SingStar heaven (for some). Of course to omit their international smash hit Bridges would be a cardinal sin, Pretty Thing igniting the hordes which Georgia divulged was the first song they ever wrote remarking "I can't believe we still play it"; it was also their Valentine's Day shout out to Alice (wtf is Alice?) she then urged the crowd to "to take it up a notch" as they launched into L.A.F signalling the close of the night with encore songs the Lorde-ish Superstar and crowd fave Mother & Father. 

Nobody could accuse Broods of being a teeny-boppy band, although their youthful following may suggest their knack for writing great accessible pop tunes belies their youthful years. I thought both Nott's were on song tonight, Caleb although sparse on words always looks imposing behind the keys, both natural groovers are visibly enticing to watch while Georgia's natural rapport kept everything nicely in check, the perfect conduit bridging audience to song.

Now if anyone knows what L.A.F stands for hit me up, otherwise I'm gonna start a rumour mill... love Aotearoa forever perhaps?