REVIEW: Shapeshifter, Ladi6 & Sunshine Soundsystem

Live at Mangawhai Tavern on Boxing Day 2010.

The summer holiday circuit is a financial bonanza for a select few local bands. The Feelers have milked it for years, with The Exponents paving their way. Now Fat Freddy’s Drop and Shapeshifter are doing the business at places like Mangawhai, Waihi and Coroglen, all set up to accommodate bands attracting audiences in excess of a thousand.

And isn’t it great that an erstwhile drum&bass band like Shapeshifter can sell out Mangawhai two nights in a row, proving that New Zealand’s youth aren’t trapped in a rock&roll mindset that precludes spending $60 the day after Christmas to see a local non-rock band.

Listen to Shapeshifter’s opening song, Tokyo, and it’s soon apparent that this band know how to transcend easy genre pigeonholing, playing a broad spectrum of styles underscored but not dominated by drum&bass. No wonder UK label Hospital has snapped them up, with plans to release latest album The System Is A Vampire throughout the world and a remix album to follow.

Shapeshifter has perfected their sound over the past decade, circumventing the global drop in hard copy sales by developing a style that demands to be heard live. The crowd response at Mangawhai was ample proof they have a firm grasp on their craft. After spirited sets by Ladi6 and Sunshine Soundsystem, Shapeshifter led the audience through a collection of songs that elevated energy and emotion to quasi-religious levels. The happily drunk crowd lapped it up like special guests at an ancient Bacchanalia.

All the songs showcased off the new album are ideal for an outdoor festival setting; big, expansive tunes like Twin Galaxies and One that dispel any potential audience apathy by sweeping everyone off their feet and landing them on some long white cloud hovering somewhere in the haze of the laser lights. Although there’s a roof over Mangawhai Tavern’s band arena, when live favourite Electric Dream hit its stride mid-way through the night it was impossible not to be a little star struck.

Shapeshifter tunes pulse and build like the finest releases on LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking Records in the 1990s, a sound they’re surely inspired by. However, the vocals are distinctly local, embracing a keen sense of spiritual awakening from the dark recesses of the soul. Not that many of the kids stumbling, laughing, pashing and puking at Mangawhai had this uppermost in their mind. They were simply consumed by a desire to dance, sing, and in one girl’s case, pass out on the roof of a shed. Drum&bass it may be, but that’s as rock&roll as it gets.

Review by Barney. Photography by Kate.