Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
/By Poppy Tohill
Artist: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis
Date / Venue: Thursday July 30th, 2015 - The Powerstation, Auckland
Fashion, talent, youth and harmonicas with a dash of shock and roll... Kitty, Daisy & Lewis certainly brought it all, as they hit the stage at Auckland's Powerstation on Thursday night.
As the lights dimmed and Hot Butter's 70s synth classic, Popcorn began to blast across the speakers, the excitement and noise level rose immensely as Daisy appeared on stage dressed in a skin tight, shinning silver onesie, greeting the audience with a big warm, "Hello Auckland! We're going to play some shock & roll for you," before kick starting things off with the tambourine shaking ‘Bitchin In The Kitchen,' from their latest record ‘Kitty Daisy & Lewis The Third.'
"How are you doing Auckland, it's been a couple of years since we've been back, but you're all looking wonderful," a cheerful Kitty took centre stage, following the same 70s dress sense as her sister and joining the onesie club for the occasion. As Kitty took the lead showcasing her strong vocal skills, Daisy managed things on keys while Lewis took the reign on drums throughout the funky ‘Feeling Of Wonder.'
Displaying their extensive amount of both instrumental and musical talent, swapping instruments between the three of them was something that happened very frequently throughout the course of the night. Not one outshone the other as they all took their turn on drums, keyboards and guitar, each also taking the reign on lead vocals at one point or another.
"This is a special place for us," Kitty then announced. "A few years ago I had my 18th birthday here and it was fucking cool and tonight it's Lewis' birthday!" she revealed, much to the audience's excitement.
With even more of an apparent reason to celebrate now, both the audience and the trio, backed by their equally as talented mother, Ingrid Weiss on electric and double-bass and their father Graeme Durham on electric and acoustic guitar, picked up the pace and energy throughout the sweet, short and incredibly catchy ‘It Ain't Your Business.' Driven by Kitty's bluesy harmonica riff and Lewis' impressive guitar lead, the two shared the role of lead vocals, merging not only their striking instrumentation and harmonious vocals impeccably.
‘Baby Bye Bye,' the lead single from ‘Kitty Daisy & Lewis The Third' was undoubtedly a crowd pleaser that got everyone dancing as Lewis took the lead while playing keys, again backed with enchanting vocals from Kitty.
The trio and audience alike seemingly didn't need any more time to warm themselves up as Kitty, who it had become apparent was somewhat the leader of the pack with her infectious joyful, passionate and bubbly persona alone making it almost impossible not to smile and enjoy yourself.
Almost matching Kitty's cheery disposition was Jamaican special guest and trumpet player Eddie ‘Tan Tan' Thorton, who added more than a delightful touch both instrumentally and personally throughout ‘Turkish Delight,' ‘Good Looking Woman,' and ‘Whenever You See Me' which Daisy humorously introduced to the audience announcing, "Don't you just hate it when you go out and random people pinch your bum. Well I fucking hate it and that's what this song is about." proving that vocally, she is just as strong as either ofher siblings.
Continuing to own the spotlight, Daisy was more than in control and with the snap of her fingers, or in this case, more so, the opening of her mouth, had the entire audience captivated and sitting in the palm of her hands as she slowed things down a notch with the stunning jazz-infused ‘Never Get Back,' and ‘NoAction,'mesmerising every single member of the audience with her more than remarkable vocals.
‘Developer's Disease,' another crowd favourite featured a touch of banjo from Kitty and drums from Daisy as Lewis took the lead on vocals and guitar once again, introducing the song in conversation about their London home town.
The winner of the ultimate, number one crowd favourite however, most definitely has to be awarded to theirCanned Heat cover finale, of ‘Going Up The Country,' one of the only songs not on their latest record that made it onto the set list for the night, with obvious good reason. Featuring more excellent bluesy harmonica riffs from Kitty, it was watching Daisy's pure level of enthusiastic energy, which included some impressive head banging during playing the drums that made the performance of this favourite that much more fun and enjoyable.
Before the three siblings had time to properly depart the stage the beckoning shouts and in-sync clapping for an encore began. As it proved obvious the appreciative crowd wasn't going to let up until they received what they wanted, it was a matter of minutes before the entire venue erupted with the excitement of the audience as Lewis closely followed by Kitty & Daisy took to the stage once more.
"Thank you so much," a truly genuine and appreciative Lewis thanked the audience, who continued screaming in exhilaration. "How about one more?" he continued to ask the crowd a few times over, before eventually giving in and launching into an elongated version of ‘Say You'll Be Mine,' which saw the birthday boy show off his extraordinary guitar skills in an impressively lengthy solo, followed by Kitty's own harmonica solo and a drum solo from Daisy, both of which were beyond breathtaking. ‘Mean Son Of A Gun'the only other track from their self titled 2008 debut album which made the set list that night, proved the perfect encore finisher.
In a true, short, sweet, shock and roll, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis fashion, they rocked and they rolled one very last time, putting absolutely everything they had left into one very memorable song, concert and experience.