Review: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

I was gutted to miss out getting to see Hypnotic Brass Ensemble at their previous NZ appearance, at Womad in March 2010. Pretty much everyone I know who went that year came back raving about them. I also discovered that they had sold 800,000 albums. Seriously. (source: NZ Musician.)

They returned here as part of the huge lineup of The Gorillaz in December 2010, which I managed to catch. They made a great sight on the stage, but got lost in the massive sound of so many musicians. 

Their return here for some shows of their own saw them checking in at The Powerstation (and a show in Wellington) which was packed out. The band meandered onstage about 10.30pm, chatted to the crowd for a little, got themselves set up, and then let rip. 

They blasted their horns while doing some cool choreographed dance steps, it was great to watch. The sound generated by purely brass with a stonking drummer, was really quite incredible. That drummer rock-solid holding down the rhythm, damn, he was good. 

They put down the brass (apart from their tuba player holding down the basslines) and grabbed the mics, rapping for a while, "We get the party started, you get the party jumping..."  I heard after that not everyone dug the rapping but what did you expect? A bunch of young black men from Chicago, and you didn't expect some hiphop element? Get outta here. Purists, take a hike. 

Their set took in references from jazz, New Orleans funk, hiphop, juke and Chicago house. It was a funky, funky journey. 

They dropped Baliki Bon, War, and few brand new tunes which they haven't even recorded yet, they told us. They jumped and jived and worked up a sweat - several of the band took their shirts off, which the ladies in the crowd seemed to approve of. 

They did a shoutout to Taranaki, and to the Maori people. A friend of mine said "that's kinda random." I explained it's cos they went to Taranaki to play at Womad. They also taught the crowd some Chicago slang, like "aaaiiight", which means it's alright. Still don't know what they were talking about when they got onto "you got the noo noo." 

They decided to give away one of their CDs, and went to throw it out to the side of the room that screamed the loudest. They said to the crowd "make sure you catch this, cos we aint got no insurance."

They threw the CD out and it hit someone in the head. That someone was me. 

It whacked me in the face, bounced off my forehead, and the guy behind me caught it, He tapped me on the shoulder and said "You okay? That sconned you right in the face. Here, you have the CD, you deserve it after that." Lucky it was in a cardboard sleeve. 

Probably the trippiest moment of the night was when they got all the stage lights turned off, and made the crowd hold up their cellphones - "get out your lighter if you aint got a cellphone... we gonna take you to Mars..." The band then played an entire song with the stage lit only by cellphones some of which had torchlights built in. It was a freaky, ultra-modern sight. 

They finished the show, came back for an encore, and then headed over to the back to sell some merch and meet the ladies. Mean night. Danced til my feet hurt. Come back soon, please.