Highly Suspect's long awaited return to NZ was nothing short of biblical.
NZ well and truly have their hooks in this band and was evident when they showed up to the pre party that we had organised for our listeners at Bar 291 in the Garden City.
They came in - hung out, took photos with fans and shared some pretty special moments with pretty much the entire bar. Shit like that - makes fans for life.
At 9pm they walked on stage at Wolfbrook Arena to thunderous applause from the Christchurch faithful. ‘Mister Asylum’s’ ‘Bath salts’ was the opening track, followed by ‘Claudeland’ and then they launched into a visceral attack on their new album ‘As Above, So Below’. Mexico, Summertime Voodoo & Plastic Boxes absolutely melted the crowd's faces off before they stopped to address the crowd for a few seconds to see if a phrase that I had told them was indeed going to go down well with the fans or if it was a stitch up. The phrase? ‘UP THE WAHS.’ Hearing Wolfbrook arena chanting ‘UP THE WAHS’ with Highly Suspect was something to behold.
Lydia was next up and as you could imagine - absolutely slapped and then the rest of the band retracted into the shadows and Johnny took centre stage solo to sing the slow hitting ballad 16. Half way through the song he said “This is making me sad - let’s sing something else” and then launched into a ‘Say it ain't so’ cover by Weezer. It was mega. The rest of the set was just fucking marvellous and left everyone in the 03, screaming for more.
Last time they were here they debuted a handful of songs that had never been played anywhere outside the studio or rehearsal space. Over the past year they have mastered these songs one of which is Blue Eyed Devil. Shit, this was such a treat to see performed back on the shores of the country of its debut.
Lost was next and saw bassist and all round GC Rich Meyer take lead vocals. I think I speak for HS fans everywhere when I say that Rich should sing more. His backing vocals compliment Johnny's pipes perfectly but hearing him let loose on this song was ‘shit the bed’ good.
If you were wondering if they’ll play arguably their biggest hit and their most played song on The Rock My name is Human? The answer is yes, my friend. Not only will they play it but they'll play the shit out of it. Then came the part of the show I was waiting eagerly for - Serotonia. If you know - you know.
They closed the opening set with another fast-paced shit kicker in Run for your death. They thanked the crowd and then walked off stage for a wee breather, to neck a beer and then get straight back into it for a three song encore. And holy shit it was good!
Encore.
‘Little one’
‘Champagne at our funeral’
Pink Lullabye’.
Wellington - You’re up next - and you better be flippin’ ready?
