Live Review from 21st Anniversary Festival Day 1:
I don’t need to write a breakup song just to be successful
Never
Fake smile
You
Allergies
Danger and anger
OK LA
STARS
You need me I don’t need you – (Ed Sheeran cover)
We walk from one room to the next to see another variant of the species of Guitar Troubadour – Phoenix Broderick is on stage and the first impression is that someone has used ChatGPT to create the classic Expat Teenager Who Grew Up in Hong Kong.
Crisp plain white t-shirt, brand new denim shorts ironed by Mum, brand new cap worn backwards and when he announces he’s grown up this past decade in Discovery Bay and is hoping a gap year making music can help him avoid having to college and someday play Wembley… we can only wish him the best and hope his learning of the Bon Scott principle that it is indeed a Long Way to the Top isn’t too rough.
He is a precocious, sardonic lyricist in a song proclaiming “I Don’t Need To Write a Breakup Song To Be Successful”, with lines like “I’ll keep it short and simple just like you”. His quips are sharp but not aimed to injure; a tradition laid down for many years by fellow New Zealand born artists like Neil Finn and Martin Phillips, but his vocal style is most reminiscent of the legendary Chris Knox.
I’m sitting behind four young Hong Kong girls and get accidentally caught in his tractor beam smile and gaze as he turns it upon them; this guy does not struggle for attention. His call for people to join in his singalong for the tune Fake Smile gets many volunteers.
By now the crowd is a mix of old and hairy gweilos, chic Hong Kong rocknroll girls, black capped rock veterans and the ubiquitous cool kids hanging out down the back doing their thing. The half pint of tequila I got served 15 minutes ago appears to be elevating my experience of the music.
Broderick does another couple of songs from his debut album Let Them In (available on Spotify, he reminds us – and worth looking up to hear these songs with band arrangements) he then announces the next song he wrote was considered controversial by his school teachers and I lean forward expectantly… controversy in Disco Bay! What now?
It’s a gentle, infectiously upbeat pop song called OK LA with the chorus “You make me feel OK lah / You make me want to stay, lah”. Worse lyrical crimes have been committed in pursuit of loftier goals and the agave spirits tell me this is a catchy ear worm of a song that could just become a radio hit – I mean, what if Ed Sheeran got a hold of this?
As if to answer my internal monologue he announces his final song is a cover – Ed Sheeran’s “You Need Me I Don’t Need You”.
It was a real treat to see Phoenix Broderick at this stage of his career – before heartbreak, hangovers and income anxiety alter his cheery, incisive view of the world.
-Jarrod Watt
Live review from Playful Palooza:
Phoenix Broderick
I Don’t Need To Write A Breakup Song Just To Be Successful
Your Fake Smile
Let Them All In
Creep (Radiohead cover)
Incredible Boy
Allergies
You
As It Was (Harry Styles cover)
Stars
“Is the theme of The Underground 20th anniversary, acts that didn’t exist when The Underground started?” a cynical onlooker commented as Discovery Bay’s Phoenix Broderick and his band took to the stage. If that was true, it’s an excellent sign of things to come: Phoenix is a charismatic and magnetic performer, with a distinct skill for songwriting and enviable singing voice, and his talented band created a rich soundscape onto which evocative lyrics painted vivid pictures.
His love for Harry Styles was evident – overtly, as through his falsetto-avoiding cover of As It Was, which fit well within Phoenix’s wheelhouse – but also in the candid Your Fake Smile and Let Them All In, the latter also evoking a more folk-oriented Belle and Sebastian sound with a tight bassline laid down by bandmate Will.
Phoenix’s approach to lyricism is wry and self-aware: his jolly, piano-embellished opening track I Don’t Need To Write A Breakup Song Just To Be Successful poked fun at the pop sphere and marked him out as a fresh voice, and his radio DJ intros and patter were highly entertaining. But he gave in to something softer on the distinctly romantic You, which was perfectly punctuated by a plume of dry ice released overhead by sound guy Jack.
A rendition of Creep, however, felt unnecessary and lacking in subtlety, especially when compared to the band’s own superb originals. Incredible Boy, introduced as the contrast to Radiohead’s love-hate megahit, was about staying grounded; a paean to positive self-affirmation, which felt far more effective. Like Keisha Buckland, who was on the bill before Phoenix, the singer mulled over dating in the digital age and attempted to figure out what was going on in the heads of his peers.
Phoenix’s confidence and stage presence belies his young years, and his set livened up a chilly day at the harbourfront festival. A natural successor to more established soloists like Mr Koo, he appears fully formed as a showman and ready to make an impact of a far greater radius than Hong Kong.
-LJ
