Pacifier’s Everything Tour.
Two Lane Blacktop, Fur Patrol, and Pacifier at The Starlight Ballroom Wellington August 30th 2003
The opening band of the night, Two Lane Blacktop, certainly let the crowd become aware of their presence with roaring loud guitars, which shocked everyone standing within a 5-meter radius of the speaker stack. A small but steady following of the band had turned up in their support. The rest of the crowd, quite obviously turned up to see the other two acts of the night and simply couldn’t care less.
Two-lane blacktop certainly made their presence felt, with an energetic stage performance… mainly as a result of the lead singers strange on stage antics, and incessant rambling, and Pip the lead guitarist’s impeccable rock posturing and howling solos.
Next up were hometown favourites Fur Patrol. With a new album on the way, The Furs had a swag of new songs to unleash on the crowd. A distinct turn from Pet’s Melodic ballad style to an in-your-face rock sound certainly surprised some of the crowd, who were possibly expecting more in the vein of their hit single “Lydia”. The only song that came close was the 7” b-side “Enemy”, even that had a roaring chorus.
Changes to songs like “Get Along” and “Lil’ Heart” proved to work their charms on the crowd, as Andrew managed to break 2 bass strings during an energetic and powerful set welcoming them back to Wellington.
Last on the night’s bill, headliners Pacifier. It’s a well known fact that the hometown shows for this band are the highlights of any tour, but tonight they seemed to be playing a set designed to showcase every one of their singles… not that it’s a bad thing, it just lacked a certain something that previous hometown shows from the boys of the ‘Had have done. Although it seemed like a formula made up from selected tracks from every one of their albums, there were some pleasant surprises amongst the choices. Starting off the set was the Blue Light Disco single, “Interconnector”, certainly an excellent choice to make the crowd jump around in the frenzied manner, which they would for the rest of the 18 song strong set. “Ghost from the Past”, “Deb’s Night Out”, and the slightly romantic slow burning “Brightest Star” were surprise entries. Apparently the shows from the “Everything tour” were being recorded for a double live album due out in November, a possible reasoning for the variety of the setlist.
The stage presence of the ‘Had can certainly not be overlooked. Jon Toogood is one front man who knows how to get a crowd moving, singing, and responding to any on-stage antic…and antics are one thing he’s certainly known for. Jon dived into the crowd on multiple occasions, sometimes still with mic in hand, and singing. The most impressive however, was his dive from the ceiling high speaker stack as the band returned for their encore, that contained the rarely played classic “A Day Away” which the crowd lapped up with enthusiasm. Of course the big end song for the night, was the crowd choice of “Home Again”. Proving to every person in the Starlight Ballroom that these boys really have their hearts in Wellington.
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setlist:
Interconnector
Ghost from the past
Run
Semi Normal
Debs Night Out
TGE
Wait and See
Brighest Star
My Mind’s Sedate
Bullitproof
Everything
La La Land
Comfort Me
ENCORE:
Derail
Bitter
A Day Away
Pacifier
Home Again