Concert Review - Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds - Auckland - 3rd September 2016
Photos by Megan Moss
By Megan Moss
Artist: Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Date / Venue: Saturday September 3rd, 2016 - The Tuning Fork, Auckland
Kid Congo & the Pink Monkey Birds, what can I say... ahhhhh it was fucking loud & it was fucking cool!
Perhaps not the most eloquent way to start a concert review; however I feel this to be the most apt description of both band and show… this is how it was!
Kid Congo Powers and the Pink Monkey Birds consisting of Kid Congo Powers (The Gun Club, The Cramps, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds), Mark Cisneros, Ron Miler and Kiki Solis were in fine form at Auckland’s Tuning Fork on Saturday night. I’d waited patiently for this gig for a while and can say it was exactly everything I expected it to be… RAD!
The crowd were warmed up by locals The Rum Coves. Just managing to catch their last couple of songs, I liked their groove, their sound and they were a good warm-up band for the main act to come! At this point the venue was pretty empty, I was taken aback & wondering where all the funky-punky psychedelic music lovers were hiding... surely this wasn’t the turnout?
As the band was about to take the stage the venue suddenly was squashed full of mainly older faithful punk fans (looking a little more respectable these days), still sporting the glorious grin that this type of music brings to one’s soul and their spirit in full view!
The crowd pressed hard to the stage; with little fuss the band ripped into their set with (excellently named) 9 Mile Blubber Pie from their latest album La Arana Es La Vida.
The audience throughout the night were treated to songs from their 2016 album, a titbit or two from The Gun Clubs and also the Psychedelic Furs with mish-mashed up delivery of psychedelic- funk-punk-garage rock... their way!
Kid Congo Powers a completely charming and witty frontman who holds himself with an almost rare on-stage sophistication, dressed with pizazz and quirk he kept the crowd’s attention with his wormy wiggling, odd yet punchy lyrics and odd yet honest and amusing verbal gems throughout the show. This was exactly what I came to see and exactly what was dished out and I’m assuming by the smiles on everyone’s dials that I wasn’t the only one.
Mistakenly Kid Congo thought he was in Brisbane, but the crowd (& band) soon put him right. Good naturedly he exclaimed “Goodness where am I… who knows???". He then added "Well Auckland’s much nicer anyway….. all is right in the world!".
Guitarist Mark Cisneros deserves a special note of acclaim as does the whole band who delivered a solid punchy, ear shaking set, the type of music that grabs you in, rattles your brain, invokes mad visuals in your head and leaves you with a happy bung ear for a few hours. In saying that the sound was generally very good although vocals were lost in a few songs, it didn’t seem wrong.
Thumbs UP!
Thanks Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds, come back real soon!
Setlist:
1. 9 Mile Blubber Pile
2. Coyote Conundrum
3. She’s Like Heroin To Me
4. Psychic Future
5. Magic Machine
6. Ricky Ticky Tocky
7. I Found A Peanut
8. Anything To Say
9. Chicano Studies
10. La Arana
11. Under The Wires
12. I Don’t Like
13. Escapetism
14. Nasty Hat
15. Bubble Trouble
16. Bruce Juice
17. Sex Beat
18. We Love Yo
19. Five Points/Howards End