Radio One 91FM

Imagine my excitement when the now-legendary six-piece British rock band announced that they would be playing in my hometown. My bank account immediately hollowed out as I paid for a couple of tickets to see Black Country New Road and flights to Wellywood, but it’d be worth it; not just to escape the pits of despair (library lock-ins) for a couple of days, but to see if the sextet sounds as harmonic in person as they do in the studio recordings.

How did they stack up? In short, to quote the track Socks off from BCNR’s third album, Forever Howlong (2025), “I’m having a whale of a time”. In long, the band showed off their newest material in a passionate and operatic performance, oozing with skilled instrumentals and beautiful vocal performances.

I only caught the latter half of the opening act, Ringlets, a post-punk four-piece from Tāmaki Makarau, who performed at Laneway earlier this year. I ended up being a bit sad that I arrived near the end, because the second I made it into the pit, the energy was invigorating!

From what I gathered, they were mostly playing songs from their recent album, The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies), which is punchy and jangly and features some undoubtedly scuzzy yet refined songwriting. Leith Towers’ vocals were quite harrowing and were the perfect accoutrement to bassist Arabella Poulsen’s pronounced, driving basslines in the song Heavenly Wheel. Before the gig, I wasn’t aware of the fact that they existed, nor that they were performing before BCNR, but I think I’ve got a new favorite Tāmaki band.

After the departure of lead vocalist and guitarist Isaac Woods in 2022, a few days before the release of their second album, Ants From Up There (2022), BCNR decided to only play music written after their sophomore album. Unfortunately, this meant that we didn’t hear the rising, saxophone-led overture of Intro (you may recognize this from countless TikTok edits) as I was hoping for. We did, however, get treated to a killer cover of Wings’ Band on the Run, sung by Lewis Evans and May Kershaw. Meow Nui was instantly captured by Charlie Wayne’s punchy drumming, Luke Mark’s tight guitar riffs, Georgia Ellery’s nuanced backing vocals, and Tyler Hyde’s playful and experimental basslines.

I’m more of a recent fan of BCNR, having only really gotten into them just before the release of Forever Howlong. It never really entered my mind to do that much research into the band before the tour, which, in a way, was a blessing in disguise- there were tons of surprises to be had. The main surprise- which can’t be undersold- was how incredibly multitalented each member of the band was. It’s sort of hard to pin any of BCNR’s members as being primarily one instrument or another. There was a minimum of two instruments played by one person throughout the performance, reaching a shockingly high maximum of five. It would take an entire whiteboard to plot out who changed instruments, so I’ll have to spotlight the moments that most impressed me.

For the ethereal, vocal-heavy Mary, Wayne put down the drumsticks and picked up a banjo hidden behind the mass of equipment, allowing the crowd the opportunity to immerse themselves in the vocal harmonies of Hyde, Ellery, and Kershaw. In addition to their incredible vocals, they each used a multitude of instruments. Ellery masterfully swapped back and forth between the violin and the mandolin. The standout for me was Tyler Hyde, who effortlessly made use of the bass, the acoustic guitar, and the piano. The first moment that left me speechless was when Meow Nui’s acoustics filled with the sustained grandiose sound of her bowing the bass guitar while knelt on the edge of the stage during their powerful concert-like performance of Nancy Tries to Take the Night.

The second time that took my breath away was when the entire band dropped their instruments, and seemingly manifested tenor recorders into their hands for their penultimate song: Forever Howlong- the only exception being May Kershaw, who stood up from the keys that she had been stationed at for the greater part of the night, and picked up an accordion. Until then, I had only heard recorders from my (awful) primary school class recorder lessons and had no idea that they could sound good. The band played a 5-part recorder polyphony that was raw and sublime, which lifted Kershaw’s heartfelt and sensitive singing in a subtle but powerful way.

The band performed the song Strangers, which was recently released on the charity album Help(2), by War Child Records, which aims to raise funds for children living through war. Help(2) contains songs from artists such as Big Thief, Cameron Winter, Depeche Mode, Damon Albarn, and Fontaines D.C.

The gig was full of fun vibes and energy, and it seemed like practically every alternative person in Wellington had come to town to watch the band. The crowd’s energy peaked when we all heard the start of Forever Howlong’s catchy opening track, Besties, which kicked off the new era of Black Country New Road. At one point, the entire crowd joined in arms to sing Happy Birthday (not the song off of the album, just the classic, sing-it-at-a-party Happy Birthday) to Charlie Wayne, who played along for a bit before telling us all that we were 3 months away from his actual birthday and that we clapped 6 times too many for the years. They ended the set on a high note, with their song Happy Birthday (for real this time!), which was jazzy and showcased every member of BCNR’s instrumental expertise.

Black Country New Road was an utterly immersive and joyful experience, and I thoroughly recommend seeing them the next time they come back to Aotearoa.