Breaks Co-op and Bic Runga Live in London

Breaks Co-Op and Bic Runga
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Monday 03 July 2006

You know you’re up for a good gig when you feel you could walk away satisfied before the main act arrives on stage. Breaks Co-Op rocked!

Ok, using the word ‘rocked’ hardly makes for inspiring writing, and might seem an unusual adjective for the band that gave us the excellent but very laid back album ‘The Sound Inside’. But tonight, words like ‘growl’ and ‘groove’ rather than ‘mellow’ and ‘cool’ are the order of the day. Some top drum work too from Tom Atkinson; we were treated to the almost extinct phenomenon known as the ‘drum solo’. I had to smile later; seeing the drummer wandering about the stage mid-song with a video camera when his services were not required. Lovin’ that relaxed kiwi vibe!

Being the first time I’ve seen Bic Runga headlining, I was not sure what to expect, but from the first song - the old-time-bluesy No Crying No More - she had my attention. A lone voice and an acoustic guitar. By the time she had finished the second - the airy Something Good - I was sold! So too, I suspect, were the nearly two-thousand-strong crowd gathered at Shepherds Bush Empire on a very hot summer night in West London.

Solo voice and guitar arrangements book-ended the central portion of the set where the full band of guitar, bass, drums and keys, and Anika Moa and Anna Coddington on backing vocals, brought Runga’s new album ‘Birds’ to life. Yet while the band arrangements injected as much colour into the songs as the lightshow itself, it was the songs delivered without them that really, ahem, proved to be a highlight. As the final, vulnerable notes of Drive rang out over the Empire, there was really only one colour that left an impression on this writer:

The beautiful saturated-blue voice of the girl with the blue blue heart.