A sold out Vector Arena was brimming with the fit and feisty young people of Auckland and although very few were sober or in the case of the young ladies adequately dressed they were happy and very amped to see, hear, dance and sing along to their adopted brothers from Dunedin. From the first to the last song the crowd were singing and swaying in joyous union, the audience were so appreciative of every song and they showed it with healthy applause and loud hoots and howls. The gig in many ways was one of the best and worst I have experienced, as the incredibly positive crowd reaction was to an incredibly washed out sound coming from the stage. From what I could decipher lead man Matiu Walters singing was wonderful, expressive and soulful and all sounding very faithful to the original tunes, but it was too soft, and at times drowned out by a shuddering synth bass noise. The just audible vocals and drums was enough for the faithful crowd to know what song was playing and would jump for joy and sing with gusto, they just ignored, or were too drunkenly oblivious to care.

Ji Fraser’s guitar and Chris Mac’s bass were only just audible, and the bass parts of Marlon Gerbes’ keys seemed to dominate his sound. I moved around the floor and next to the mixing desk and it sounded equally out of place wherever I went. Were they using the wrong speaker set up, or was it the mixing (or both)? It was quite surprising and disappointing to hear it again after a similarly bad sounding performance at the 2011 NZ Music Awards.

And yet the crowd were having a fabulous time, a testament to how much Six60 songs resonate with this generation, no one here likes Six60, oh no they love em, everyone has a favourite and they were in rapture when “their” song was performed live.

The sound did improve slightly as the night went on and the light show and big screen looked great which helped sustain the vibe in the room. There was some impressive sounding musical breaks like the wonderful double “jungle rhythm” drum solo performed up front of stage. While the small solo acoustic set performed by Matiu right in the middle of the floor was a nice touch. Matiu sang and interacted sheepishly with the crowd, he felt the love and returned it with a simple hand up salute to each section of the crowd.

So with a signature send off with Don’t Forget Your Roots, the crowd walked away happy and hoarse from singing along, it is great to see how much love the music of Six60 is receiving, they have struck that perfect mix of dub step and reggae and hopefully next time they can perfect their “live” mix and replicate that popular sound a bit more faithfully.

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