REVIEW: Shihad Play Killjoy At The Powerstation

Shihad are a bit of an institution in New Zealand. They formed back in 1988, and evolved from their industrial thrash metal roots to become our very own heroes of rock music as god intended it. Even though they've now relocated to Melbourne (a popular choice for many Kiwi ex-pats) they'll always be one of New Zealand's best loved rock bands. I even think of 'Home Again' as an alternate version of our national anthem, so you can imagine how excited I was when I heard that Shihad were doing a tour of Australia and New Zealand playing two of their best albums, Killjoy and The General Electric in their entirety. It was like a dream come true.

Heavy Metal Ninjas were the perfect support band for tonight, with everyone already fully amped for the Shihad show, we were confronted by this shining example of late 80s power rock, reminisent of Pantera at times, but with a undeniable groove that had everyone nodding along to the beat. Made up of three members of Kora and two other worthy musical comrades, this band had all the elements of great showmanship, intricate classically inspired guitar solos, a bass heavy solid groove and a great lights show including a glowing green guitar and lights attached to all of the lead guitarists fingers. They announced 'we're an old instrumental band, so don't expect any singing'. They didn't need to, they made those guitars sing so sweetly you couldn't help doing a bit of air guitar as they showed off their impressive skills.

Tonight Shihad played Killjoy, the shorter of the two albums at 9 tracks (to The General Electric's 13). The fact that fifteen years later we're still dying to hear them played live is the sign of a truly faithful fanbase.  Having already had an amazing reception at the shows in Christchurch and their hometown of Wellington, they arrived in Auckland riding an almighty high, full of nervous energy and enthusiasm. They were pumped and ready to go, and it showed.

When the boys finally took the stage after a long wait between bands Jon Toogood started us off by counting the band in, and it was like they'd never left. The night was set to be the most epic celebration of an amazing album you could ever imagine. I mean, what's not to like, we hadn't seen Shihad play live in years and now here they were, laying the whole of Killjoy on for us, they were loving it, we were loving it, and there was so much energy in the room it left me buzzing for ages afterwards. Starting off with You Again, with it's mighty guitar riff like a call to arms for all of us diehard fans, the night went from strength to strength.

Jon ended up playing the whole night with a bleeding finger that he'd managed to cut on something (maybe a guitar string?), but he refused a plaster cause he told us it would make the pick slip out of his hand.

Following on with 'Gimme Gimme' and 'The Call', the night was a thrilling and epic display of how great this band still is. The whole thing was the most life-affirming, awe-inspiring 'fuck yeah!' start to a weekend I've ever experienced. 'Deb's Night Out' was dream-like and anthemic, then I dived back into the mosh for 'Bitter'.

Jon didn't actually throw himself into the crowd at any point tonight. A little disappointing perhaps, but then there wasn't a big enough moshpit to have sustained any crowdsurfing. Perhaps with it being an older crowd with the average age being around 30, less people wanted to throw themselves around like teenagers, but hell a few us of managed to keep it going! (I'm hoping there'll be a better mosh tomorrow night.) The last two songs on the album, 'Silvercup' and 'Get Up' sounded amazing, proving to be a much better ending than I'd imagined from listening to the album on headphones. This just goes to show how much Shihad bring to their live shows, with an awesomely executed toughness and depth that can only be fully experienced live.

I eventually worked my way into the second row to get away from the looser messy part of the mosh. I wanted to end the night in the thick of it, and was glad it started to pick up properly when they hit us with an encore  of the heavier industrial songs from the 'Churn' era. I can't actually name any of the three songs they played in the encore, as I don't know their earlier stuff as well as Killjoy and the albums following it. But I felt like I knew them, they were grunty as hell and they absolutely hit the spot. The first song in the encore may have been a Metallica cover. People were also yelling for 'De-rail', and though they didn't play that, they nailed every note nonetheless. They left us with big dumb grins on our faces, slightly shaky, a little light-headed and bathed in a sense of euphoria. What a night. Same again tomorrow - I'll be back at the Powerstation, locked in to the front row to take in The General Electric in it's entirety. I can hardly bloody wait.

Review by Dedee Wirjapranata