The lady of the hour appears, and the band sits out the first number, Best Thing. This is a true testament to how she can control an audience, with everyone hushing naturally when she’s ready to talk and sing. Excellent stagecraft.

It takes so much work behind the scenes to make playing music look this effortless. The band assemble for the second tune, Heart To Ride, and their polish is palpable.

It's four songs in, including High & Lonely and Runaway, and I've just remembered that I should be taking notes, I’d forgotten, as I was absolutely transported into Nadia's world.

After Arrow & The Aim, Reaching Through and Track of the Time, Nadia shares the inspiration for one song as being about "a guy I met in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens, who said he knew the cure for a broken heart." She says about 5 percent of him he ended up in the song. The song is Come Home To You and it's a gradual builder, both sonically and lyrically. She begins by rejecting his advances, but eventually gives in.

The next song, Right On Time, was "written just up the road, in Port Chalmers", and is followed by the band taking a rest while Nadia Reid plays a song, written in, and titled Hanson Street. Her guitar playing on this shows off her exemplary claw hammer guitar technique, oh and her stunning voice, of course.

The band returns for a song about Levin, which isn't entirely flattering.Even when her tongue is in her cheek, Nadia Reid really is a gifted song writer.

Hanson Street, All of My Love, Ruby, Te Aro and Way It Goes are all delivered beautifully, before Nadia closes the night with arguably her biggest hit Richard.

For this she leaves both guitars on stands and just sings. One would not like to be that particular Richard... Such an acerbic song right from the first line "Richard liked the sound of his own voice". It’s not sung with fondness for hearing Richard’s voice, quite the opposite. This show was truly a masterclass in songwriting and stagecraft.

_{Photos provided by Darryl Baser
Review written by Darryl Baser}