Concert Review - Arrested Development - Auckland - 28th August 2016
PHOTOS BY LEAH VICTORIA
By Leah Victoria
Artist: Arrested Development
Date / Venue: Sunday August 28th, 2016 - The Powerstation, Auckland
What started out as quiet a sleepy, subdued atmosphere on Sunday night at Auckland's Powerstation quickly turned into a pumping 90’s house party once International hip-hop, soul, funk band Arrested Development took to the stage.
In a burst of colour, energetic frontman Speech led the way jumping straight into an instrumental welcome of African Intro before taking us right back to 1992 with Give A Man A Fish from debut album 3 years, 5 months & 2 days in the life of....
It’s been over 20 years since the group came bounding onto the scene with their Grammy Award winning tracks with hopeful and meaningful lyrics married with catchy hip hop beats, and it seems that 2016 is more than ready for the revival.
While silk scarves of all colours adorned the stiff black microphone stands, band members Speech, Fareedah and Tasha Larea bought the sunshine to the stage with the national African vibes of their attire while spending the whole evening bouncing around energetically while delivering their uplifting music.
Auckland ears and spirits were treated last night to an array of old favourites from the heavy hearted lyrics of Tennesee to the inspirational hit based on a homeless man Mr Wendel and of course who can forget the one that everyone came out tonight to hear, People Everyday! As soon as Speech started the scat and encouraged the crowd to join him, heads were bopping and fists pumping, this track is a feel good one for sure.
The band seemed to be having such a great time and were happy interacting with the crowd and installing a sense of wellbeing and freedom into the venue.
With the bouncy cover of House Of Pain’s Jump Around, you would find it hard to remember just how much hip hop has evolved over the years and the crowd got completely lost in time as everyone in the house sang along to the party classic.
Rapper One Love shared the mic time with Speech each switching over from turntable to vocalist keeping a nice balance of harmonic tunes and effortlessly rapped messages.
We danced and reminisced to so many of their hits, I was totally absorbed in historic vibes as they flowed seamlessly one from the other.
I was disappointed at the turnout tonight though. It would have been nicer to see a slightly bigger crowd, however it was apparent that everyone in the room was really glad to have been included on their Greatest Hits Tour, and the 90 minute set was nothing short of a massive success!