Concert Review -John Craigie - Hastings - 19th April 2025

Presented By The Small Hall Sessions

John Craigie Live at the Maraekakaho Hall, Hastings, New Zealand - Image Supplied

Review By: Rob Harbers

Artist/Band: John Craigie Supported by Kitty Day

Venue/City: Maraekakaho Hall, Hastings, New Zealand

Date of Event: Saturday 19th April 2025

Easter, a time when believers commemorate events involving a man with the initials JC. On Easter Saturday, the devotees of the Small Hall Sessions gathered in the sanctified surroundings of the Maraekakaho Hall, to witness the words and music of just such a man, a traveller from afar, namely John Craigie, all the way from Portland Oregon!
Serving as handmaid to this celebration, locally-based chanteuse Kitty Day entertained with a suite of beautifully delivered original songs, songs that often carried lyrical content with a depth and darkness belying the sparkle and joy of the instrumentation. Songs, in short, rewarding of close listening, very accomplished and deserving of a bigger audience. And, in their complexity, the perfect introduction to what was to follow!

Playing his first ever show in Aotearoa, John Craigie came on and took the audience in hand for a set drawing on the 15(!) albums he has to his name. Unfamiliar material to a reasonable portion of those watching, but this mattered nothing, such was the quality and depth of both the songs and the accompanying stories. Truly high-quality stuff, indeed!

Perhaps unsurprisingly in the current climate, there was a degree of political comment among the stories told (spoiler alert: not a Trumpist!), but this was leavened with tales ranging far and wide, sometimes relevant to the songs being played, other times just purely told for the enjoyment of it. One such tale described the shortest marriage ever, leading in to “the most negative song ever”, ‘Don’t Ask’. No reflection on the “marriage”, mind! In the midst of it all, he showed us his skill as a Dylan impressionist (of a niche phase of Dylan’s career), and talked of the experiences around his last assaying of karaoke.

An admission consistent with the concept that “Great artists steal” preceded ‘I wrote Mr Tambourine Man’, its words being largely derived from a conversation in a New Orleans bar with a drunk. But his essential decency shone through in the fact that were they ever to encounter each other again, he’d happily share the song’s royalties-all $20-30 of them! The struggles of life on the road reared their head in his gentle reminder of the range of merch he had on offer-surely one of the most diverse to ever grace the Small Halls table. A man’s got to eat, after all! And given Spotify’s legendarily miserly attitude to payment, even the fact that his ‘I Am California’ has achieved 29 million(!) plays only goes so far towards that necessity.

The lockdown ode ‘Laurie Rolled Me a J” recalled those fervid times, 5 years ago, the consequences of which persist to this day, unfortunately in some harmful ways (Cheeto-man back on top, anyone?). But through it all shone the humour and goodness of the man singing the songs and telling the stories, a genuinely good and kind soul indeed. Perhaps, and I’m not commenting either way, the result of the biblical education he received at his Catholic school, the essence of which he summarised as “Be nice, and fight the system”. Wherever it came from, it shows through!

The closer of the main set was “Dissect the Bird”, a commentary, with humorous bits included, on music, musicians, audiences, and the whole milieu of the performing life. After such a quality set, an encore was obligatory but limited to one song. John admitted, partly tongue-in-cheek, to a bit of awkward feelings around encores-for a hardcore fan they can never be long enough, but for the unfortunates who’ve been dragged along by someone else, they serve only to extend the torture! But the choice of song, being the aforementioned ‘I Am California’, based on its streaming success at least, had the best chance of bridging any such divides!
And with that it was over, a performance that felt far more like a chat with an old friend, with songs included, than it did a concert, as such.

The essence of the Small Hall Sessions ethos, right there.
A fabulous nights’ entertainment, filled with humour and great songs-the perfect Easter treat, no calories involved!

SETLIST
Damn My Love
Virgin Guitar
Part Wolf
Microdose
Don’t Ask
West Bound Bart
While I’m Down
I Wrote Mr. Tambourine Man
Laurie Rolled Me a J
Dissect The Bird
I Am California

You can still catch John Craigie tonight in Auckland at the Tuning Fork, April 22nd!

John Craigie Tour Poster 2025

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