Presented By: Shihad & Lonely Lands Agency

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL SHIHAD GALLERY BY ANDREW CALDWELL

Review By: Rob Harbers

Artist/Band: Shihad (SUP by Jakob)

Venue/City: Black Barn, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Date of Event: Friday 31st January 2025

Last night the rarefied air of Havelock North’s Black Barn amphitheatre rang to the sound of Shihad, performing on their final ‘Loud Forever’ tour.

A sellout crowd witnessed the band living out the famous words of Dylan Thomas, in refusing to go gently into their good night but instead raging against the dying of the light. And rage hard they did!
The Black Barn amphitheatre has seen many concerts performed throughout the years, but it’s safe to say that the hills haven’t rocked this hard before now. The honourable duty of the support slot was taken by local post-rock heroes Jakob, unfortunately I was unable to truly appreciate their performance, having arrived around halfway through and then being involved in the logistical challenge of finding a place for our party of 6 to park ourselves. But from what I was able to see, they took to the job like the consummate professionals that they are, getting the sold-out crowd well in to the groove, and probably gaining a few more fans accordingly.

Almost at the stroke of sunset, Shihad took the stage, leading off with ‘Tear Down Those Names’, their reaction to the legacy evaluations of recent years which gave seen the removal of memorials to historical figures with less than spotless records. It’s raging attack signalled the loudness that would ensue, and the following ‘Feel the Fire’ maintained the momentum, a tangible demonstration that the fire is still burning in these souls!
After such a spectacular introduction, frontman Jon Toogood told us how much “he’d been looking forward to this show, because of the beautiful views of and from the amphitheatre setting”. He went on to state that the intention was to “progressively go back through time, playing something from every album in reverse order” a tantalising prospect indeed!
After delivering this promise, the rest of the evening saw them living up to it. The ‘Old Gods’ having had their time in the sun, attention moved to the ‘FVEY’ album. The theme of unwelcome surveillance expressed in the pairing of ‘Think You’re Still Free’ and ‘FVEY’ feels at least as chillingly relevant now as it did at the time, especially given the Coalition of C***s apparent desire to cosy up to the incipient fascism of the Orange Man! The first of these songs also featured the introduction of the pyrotechnic enhancement, in the form of flame cannons, that was to make regular appearances through the night.
Moving on, the bass-heavy ‘Sleepeater’ was accompanied by quite the visual blowout, as the stage lights and the pyrotechnics combined in arresting fashion, before the musical pace calmed down a little with ‘Ignite’. Only to return in spades with the ensuing ‘One Will Hear The Other’ and ‘Beautiful Machine’, the second of which was accompanied by Jon’s “C’mon you mother fuckers, bounce!”

2005’s ‘Love is the New Hate’ was here represented by ‘Alive’ and a venomous ‘All the Young Fascists’, another title that feels just as relevant as 20 years ago. And nicely ironic too, given that on the same day, the former boss of Aotearoa’s most covertly fashy mainstream party finally lost name suppression! Justice comes, eventually…

The next few songs, representing perhaps the band’s most fertile period, being that in which both ‘The General Electric’ and ‘Pacifier’ albums emerged, received perhaps the most agreeable welcome of all, ‘Comfort Me’ seeing Jon solicit ‘Metal salutes.

 Following BDO favourite ‘Bullitproof’, the foursome from ‘The General Electric’ particularly the title track and ‘Pacifier’ have lost none of their bludgeoning power in the 25+ years since first seeing the light of day. All of them just as powerful, and given the respect deserved by both performers and audience alike.
The eponymous third album was represented by the more sedate ‘Yr Head Is A Rock’, but leaving aside a certain more well-known track off the same album-more on that to come! Heading back further in to time, the sound only became heavier, with the ‘Killjoy’ album contributing ‘You Again’ and ‘Gimme Gimme’, which had its first start interrupted by bit of aggro in front of the stage, noticed and policed by the ever-vigilant Tom Larkin, drummer and security guard par excellence.

By now, we had experienced, apparently, the longest Shihad show ever, but it wasn’t over yet, not with ‘Churn’ still to make an appearance. This it did, with ‘Factory’, before the band left the stage, having delivered on their promises. There were some in the crowd who then thought it was over, but it wasn’t yet-the band returning for an encore with the sing-along choruses of ‘Run’. Introducing the next song, Jon explained the honour they felt in being given the opportunity to record it, the band who originated it being one the lads had aspired to emulate from an early age, as an example of Aotearoa music making an international splash. That band, of course, is Split Enz, the song being nothing less than ‘I Got You’, and have us they did, the crowd following every move they made!
With events having conspired to threaten the running out of allotted stage time, a song was dropped from the planned set, and instead it was the final song that guitarist Phil Knight started grinding out the riff of, the one no Shihad show has been complete without since the late 90’s, the stone-cold classic that is ‘Home again’. This really did get the crowd on its feet, being the one that even the non-believers would be familiar with! And those who thought it was over, well it was now, a hugely satisfied audience shuffling off into the Black Barn night, glad they’d caught this final chance to see such Aotearoa legends. Shihad Forever!

SETLIST

1.      Tear Down Those Names

2.      Feel the Fire

3.      Think You’re So Free

4.      FVEY

5.      Sleepeater

6.      Ignite

7.      One Will Hear The Other

8.      Beautiful Machine

9.      Alive

10.  All The Young Fascists

11.  Comfort Me

12.  Everything

13.  Bullitproof

14.  My Minds Sedate

15.  The General Electric

16.  Pacifier

17.  Wait & See

18.  YR Head is A Rock

19.  You Again

20.  Gimme Gimme

21.  Factory

22.  Run

23.  I Got You

24.  Screwtop

25.  Home Again