Gig Review: Bic Runga Is Better Than I Have Ever Seen Her - The Songs As Good As I Remembered

No one does gig reviews anymore. So I've come out of retirement. Reviewing the music, not the audience. Reviewing the show, not the chance for a selfie.

Bic Runga: Beautiful Collision 20^th Anniversary Tour

St. James Theatre, Wellington

Sunday, July 30

I’ve seen Bic Runga perform many times – it always comes back to that first time. 1996. She was one of two opening acts for the Finn Brothers. Small venue. She had an EP to her name. We knew the song Drive and we knew she was going to be a star. She was shy, but when she sang the songs the world stood still.

Everyone there that night knew she was going to be a star. And when the full-length Drive album was released she became New Zealand’s biggest selling solo artist, and ushered in a whole new sound – with plenty of soundalike singer/songwriters. Most of them could sing, but forgot to pack the songs. That’s always been the difference. To listen to Runga live is to be reminded of her abilities as a multi-instrumentalist, and a crafter of songs. She doesn’t just write lyrics and a pretty melody to frame them. Her songs have hooks. And in the case of a tune like Get Some Sleep, essentially the opener tonight – celebrating her second album by playing it in its entirety – the hooks have hooks.

It's actually the 21^st Anniversary of Beautiful Collision, but simple truths should never get in the way of good stories. And tours need marketing. And marketing needs to make its own case for something to be. And more people will go and see Bic Runga live in 2023 if they can believe, in advance, they are celebrating something special.

Of course it was something special. It was a chance to hear Bic Runga sing, and play, and lead an incredible band. It was a chance to hear some of her very best songs. But it was all helped along by the marketing pull to get people to the room. And so be it.

Beautiful Collison went on to sell more copies than Drive, to cement Runga as one of the legends of New Zealand pop music, and to, briefly, position her on the cusp of international stardom.

The album was made over a few years, and between L.A. and Auckland. To hear it all played live now is to realise just how much it genre-hops. Elegant balladry (Honest Goodbyes) rubbing shoulders with country ditties (The Be All And End All), huge hit singles (Get Some Sleep, Something Good, Listening For The Weather) and stark, quirky, album cuts (She Left on a Monday, Gravity, the title track). Runga says as much in some of her between-song banter. What is not there though is the awkward banter that sometimes plagued a Runga performance of old. No attempt at self-effacement this time as she “comes out of retirement” (again). Just a committed artist sounding as good as she ever has, with songs resplendent and ready for one more dress-up. The band is brilliant in support. Bic’s partner Kody Neilson (The Mint Chicks) is superb behind the drums. He hears new things in songs like Beautiful Collision and Election Night, but is simultaneously faithful to the original, recorded versions. Cass Basil’s bass guitar work has been there in support of many talented Kiwi songwriters over the last decade or so (Tiny Ruins). And Jeremy Toy leaves the guitar pyrotechnics on hold (save for one foray into jazz dissonance on the live wig-out of the title track, which is glorious, and a planned showcase for the interplay of the band).

The show opens with Runga out front, gently picking at the album-intro, which is a sliver of a song (When I See You Smile) but it sets up everything. Get Some Sleep sees the band appear in behind and punching deep down into a tune that just won’t quit – even as it’s about a special kind of exhaustion. Get Some Sleep remains a marvel of modern songwriting, cleverly telling us that the chorus is to come, its repeated verses feeling like choruses in their own right.

Runga plays acoustic and electric guitar, percussion, and sometimes she stands alone at the microphone, ready to be a modern-day torch singer.

At the completion of the classic album, she plays her breakthrough hit, Drive. It’s as gorgeous as ever. Then there’s one new song. Like the music from later albums, Belle and Close Your Eyes (and 2005’s Birds – which I hope we get a 20^th Anniversary tour for; just saying) the new tune feels like classic pop songwriting, and like Runga should one day do an entire covers album of Burt Bacharach material. She’d surely clean up with that. Her sense of an arrangement for a song always wise, considered.

Bursting Through from Drive was almost the highlight of the night, sounding better than I have ever remembered it. Again, Kody’s punctuating drums are perfect – both brand new and somehow faithful.

And then there’s the tease that it’s the end of the night, and the return for the single encore, Sway. Which is played like a lone greatest hit. When in fact everything tonight has sounded deserving of that accolade.

The best I’ve seen Bic. And I must have seen her two-dozen times at least. She remains an absolute class act. We’re lucky to have her. And we were lucky to be able to hold onto the songs in this way.  Like sand in our fingers. We’ll return to the albums. And we’ll hope Runga does too.